{"id":33914,"date":"2021-02-10T15:35:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=79eb88e9753d363f4e551c10b0ec1ab2"},"modified":"2021-02-10T15:35:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T15:35:00","slug":"im-on-hunger-strike-in-guantanamo-i-dream-of-cooking-for-my-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/10\/im-on-hunger-strike-in-guantanamo-i-dream-of-cooking-for-my-family\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m on Hunger Strike in Guant\u00e1namo. I Dream of Cooking for My Family."},"content":{"rendered":"\"Illustration<\/a>

There are very few freedoms at Guant\u00e1namo Bay prison, where I have been held without charge or trial — referred to as Guant\u00e1namo ISN 1461 — for over 16 years. The right to starve myself is one of them, but even then, they force-feed me, to spare themselves the embarrassment of my death.<\/p>\n

Back in Pakistan, before I was kidnapped and tortured and flown halfway around the world in chains, I loved cooking. There is nothing more satisfying than preparing a hot meal for your family and sharing it with them. Here, I am allowed to cook for my fellow prisoners, but only in a microwave, and the guards could take even that away at any time. I never eat the food myself. I have been on hunger strike for seven years in protest at my indefinite detention. When everything else has been taken from you, this small measure of self-determination means a lot.<\/p>\n

\"Ahmed
This photograph shows Ahmed Rabbani in Karachi, Pakistan, before he was sold to the U.S. for a bounty in 2002. (Courtesy of Reprieve)<\/figcaption>
Courtesy of Ahmed Rabbani<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was abducted from my home on September 10, 2002, and sold to the U.S. for a bounty, with the false story that I was a terrorist called Hassan Ghul. As a result of that, I was taken to the Dark Prison in Kabul, and tortured for 540 days. I refused to say I was Hassan Ghul because I wasn\u2019t. Eventually the U.S. captured Ghul, and because he was deemed \u201ccooperative,” they let him go. He went back to his old ways, and was killed by a drone in 2012.<\/p>\n

I was rendered to Guant\u00e1namo in September 2004. I tried to obey the prison\u2019s foolish rules for a long time before I gave up. I began hunger striking in earnest in 2013 when my patience finally ran out. Twice a day, they strap me into their torture chair and force a 110-centimeter tube up my nose.<\/p>\n\n

My lawyers have now created a website<\/span><\/a> where, as I approach 3,000 days on strike, you can follow my gradual disappearance. I was 170 pounds when they first seized me, and I am now down to 80 pounds. This means that 53 percent of me has \u201cescaped\u201d from this prison. It can\u2019t go on forever of course, and I hope that I don\u2019t get shipped home in a coffin \u2014 but I have to do something to peacefully protest.<\/p>\n

This would be hard enough for anyone, but for a man like me who loves to cook and eat, it is even worse. Can you begin to imagine the torture when I make meals for my brethren here, but do not eat myself?<\/p>\n

All I have to sustain me are dreams. When I get out of here, I dream of opening a restaurant where I will cook only the most original food from our society, food that has existed for centuries. I will give you one example which perhaps you would like to try.<\/p>\n

I call it a “Rabbani” as it is my own take on an ancient tradition: I am ethnically Rohingya, but I am a Pakistani citizen and lived for many years in Saudi Arabia. The name of a similar dish among Arabs is “harisa” or \u201chareesa\u201d and it is very spicy. My wife used to make it the Pakistani way: it is called “haleem” and has lentils with less spice. My innovation was to blend the cultures, using the spice of Arabia and the lentil flavor of Pakistan.<\/p>\n