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orichalcum at 12:18am on 17/06/2005
orichalcum at 12:18am on 17/06/2005So, the NYTimes has a lengthy article featuring an interview with one of the two girls I've mentioned before who were arrested by the FBI as "potential suicide bombers" in February and held in federal prison without recourse to lawyers or their families for six weeks. This 16-year-old girl, Tashnuba Hayder, is free to talk to the press, unlike her fellow prisoner Adama Bah, because her mother agreed to "voluntary deportation" on her behalf back to Bangladesh. She's now in Bangladesh, out of reach of the U.S. government, in an extremely poor country whose language she barely speaks and where she has not lived since she was a small child. Ironically, she faces religious discrimination there and is no longer allowed to wear her veil.
The scariest part of the article is this:
"Veering between "nice and awful," she said, up to three agents at a time pressed her about possible terrorist ties among her friends, and what they saw as suspicious tendencies in her schoolwork, like class notes about suicide. She said they even criticized the austere décor of the bedroom she shared with her 10-year-old sister.
"The F.B.I. tried to say I didn't have a life - like, I wasn't the typical teenager," Tashnuba said bitterly, fingering her long Muslim dress. "They thought I was anti-American because I didn't want to compromise, but in my high-school ethics class we had Communists, Democrats, Republicans, Gothics - all types. In all our classes, we were told, 'You speak up, you give your opinion, and you defend it.' "
Well, in her case, that meant seven weeks in prison and then deportation. I'm not saying that the initial illegal immigration of her family was a good thing. But it's notable that her dad and brother have been allowed to remain in the U.S., despite having the exact same status.
If you're a young white woman in this country and you get cold feet before your wedding and hop on a bus, you get a week of national news coverage and invited on every talk show in town. If you're a Bangladeshi Muslim girl or a Ghanian immigrant and you're thrown into prison without formal charges and in violation of multiple different parts of the Constitution, well, better hope the government can't figure out a case against you and just throws you out of the country or gives you a permanent gag order.
The scariest part of the article is this:
"Veering between "nice and awful," she said, up to three agents at a time pressed her about possible terrorist ties among her friends, and what they saw as suspicious tendencies in her schoolwork, like class notes about suicide. She said they even criticized the austere décor of the bedroom she shared with her 10-year-old sister.
"The F.B.I. tried to say I didn't have a life - like, I wasn't the typical teenager," Tashnuba said bitterly, fingering her long Muslim dress. "They thought I was anti-American because I didn't want to compromise, but in my high-school ethics class we had Communists, Democrats, Republicans, Gothics - all types. In all our classes, we were told, 'You speak up, you give your opinion, and you defend it.' "
Well, in her case, that meant seven weeks in prison and then deportation. I'm not saying that the initial illegal immigration of her family was a good thing. But it's notable that her dad and brother have been allowed to remain in the U.S., despite having the exact same status.
If you're a young white woman in this country and you get cold feet before your wedding and hop on a bus, you get a week of national news coverage and invited on every talk show in town. If you're a Bangladeshi Muslim girl or a Ghanian immigrant and you're thrown into prison without formal charges and in violation of multiple different parts of the Constitution, well, better hope the government can't figure out a case against you and just throws you out of the country or gives you a permanent gag order.
anxious
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