The Mysterious Case of Aafia Siddiqui: Gothic Intertextual Analysis of Neo-Orientalist Narratives
| Author | Caron E. Gentry |
| Published date | 01 September 2016 |
| Date | 01 September 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0305829816647120 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2016, Vol. 45(1) 3 –24
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0305829816647120
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The Mysterious Case of Aafia
Siddiqui: Gothic Intertextual
Analysis of Neo-Orientalist
Narratives
Caron E. Gentry
University of St Andrews, UK
Abstract
When Aafia Siddiqui ‘disappeared’ from her upper-middle class life in Boston in 2003
due to accusations that she was involved in al Qaeda, competing narratives from the US
government, media, and her family emerged striving to convince the American public of her
guilt or innocence. These narratives were rooted in a gendered form of neo-Orientalism
that informed and structured the War on Terror. The narratives, of innocent Soccer Mom,
nefarious Lady al Qaeda, and mentally fragile Grey lady, sought to explain how a well-
educated woman could possibly be involved with a terrorist organisation. This article uses
intertextual analysis to draw parallels between Gothic literature and the Siddiqui narratives.
Gothic literature’s dependency upon gendered unease is particularly evident in the Siddiqui
narratives, which then reveal the uncertainties within the War on Terror, particularly those
related to American exceptionalism.
Keywords
intertextuality, gender, terrorism
Through an intertextual analysis of Gothic literature this article will explore the narrative
significance of Aafia Siddiqui, who is accused of plotting attacks on behalf of al Qaeda,
to illustrate the gendered neo-Orientalist structure of the fraught cultural and political
dynamics of the War on Terror. States, organisations, individuals and other international
Corresponding author:
Caron E. Gentry, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, The Arts Building,
The Scores, St Andrews KY16 9AX, UK.
Email: ceg1@st-andrews.ac.uk
647120MIL0010.1177/0305829816647120Millennium: Journal of International StudiesGentry
research-article2016
Article
4 Millennium: Journal of International Studies 45(1)
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actors are gendered hierarchically.1 Gender intersects with other hierarchical structurings,
such as neo-Orientalism. This can be witnessed within the War on Terror as a competition
between the exceptionalised masculine US and hypermasculinised radical Islam.2
Problematically, individual lives become subsumed within this gendering.3 This article
expands upon previous literature on the War on Terror that investigates how gender and
neo-Orientalism intersect4 to demonstrate how these structures impact individual lives,
specifically the life of Siddiqui.
Aafia Siddiqui was born in Pakistan and emigrated to the US in 1990 to attend univer-
sity, ultimately earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) and a PhD from Brandeis. In 2003, she and her family were seen to
have left the US for Pakistan under suspicious circumstances. Subsequently, John Ashcroft
named her as a wanted woman for her suspected involvement with al Qaeda. The narra-
tives that surround Siddiqui’s involvement in al Qaeda, created by the US government,
media, her family, and her supporters, are situated at an intersection of gender and neo-
Orientalism.5 The authors of the narratives strive to position her as an innocent ‘Soccer
Mom’,6 the nefarious ‘Lady al Qaeda’,7 or the mentally confused ‘Grey Lady of Bagram’.8
While all three are based upon the same facts, they fail to add up to a coherent timeline for
her life between the late 1990s and 2008, which means there is no clear evidence of who
Siddiqui is or what she wanted. With the exception of what she said during her trial, her
own justifications are notably absent; instead ‘she’ stands as an object used to serve the
agenda of each narrative. She has become a mystery in the midst of the War on Terror.
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