When Ahmed Rabbani ran out of paint to satisfy his artistic yearnings during 20 years of incarceration at Guantanamo Bay, he turned to whatever came to hand — dirt, coffee grinds and spices such as turmeric from the prison canteen.
“Through painting, I would feel myself outside Guantanamo,” the 53-year-old Pakistani last week said at an exhibition of his work in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi. “Painting was everything for me there.”
Rabbani was detained by Pakistan authorities in September 2002, and handed over to the US Central Intelligence Agency for a bounty of US$5,000.
Photo: EPA
He was “sold” on the basis that he was a notorious militant known as Hassan Ghul, but Rabbani always insisted it was a case of mistaken identity.
He was also accused of recruiting his older brother Muhammed into extremist circles.
Neither were charged or faced trial during two decades of detention, and they were only released in February.
“The US had paid good money and did not want to have been taken for a ride,” Rabbani’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, wrote in the exhibition catalog.
“Something neither he nor I knew until the US Senate published its Rendition Report in 2014 was that Ghul was captured and brought to the same prison — only to be released back to Pakistan for ‘cooperating,’” he wrote. “While Ghul went back to his terrorist ways and was killed in a drone strike in 2012, Ahmed got a one-way trip to Guantanamo Bay.”
Born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where his parents worked, Rabbani moved back to Karachi as a teen and was a taxi driver at the time of his detention.
Fluent in Arabic, he specialized in guiding visitors from the Middle East — a factor which contributed to him being misidentified.
While imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, painting became an obsession for Rabbani, although years spent on hunger strike meant he was often too frail to even hold a brush.
If he ran out of materials, he would improvise.
“I would find and turn a piece of discarded or torn clothes into canvas,” he said. “Sometimes I drew from coffee, sometimes from turmeric.”
The exhibition, “The Unforgotten Moon: Liberating Art from Guantanamo Bay,” displays about two dozen pieces that Rabbani was allowed to take from prison — alongside works by local artists who have reimagined paintings that were confiscated.
“He is someone who has lost so much of his life, so to produce the images of this quality is a miracle... it’s remarkable,” exhibition curator Natasha Malik said.
“Displayed alongside Ahmed’s uncensored artwork, the artists amplify his protest and creative expression, by recreating the work that the public was never meant to see,” Malik said.
At the exhibition’s opening, Rabbani outlined grand plans for the years ahead. First up is the publication of a cookery book — he rekindled a passion for the kitchen while at Guantanamo.
“It will have his memoirs in it, but in the setting of a cookbook,” Stafford Smith said.
Then he wants to open a restaurant based on recipes he learned in prison — hopefully using funds raised from sales of his art.
Depicting his hopes and despair, his artwork is accomplished for someone who did just a smattering of art at school.
Some pieces are obvious expressions of yearnings for freedom — nature seen through narrow openings, birds flying and endless oceans.
Another shows a cage containing bright orange fish — the color of overalls Guantanamo prisoners were forced to wear.
“I spent many years in orange,” he said. “I never accepted their laws. I would always break their laws.”
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
CRACKDOWN: The Indonesian president vowed to clamp down on ‘treason and terrorism,’ while acceding to some protest demands to revoke lawmaker benefits Protests in Indonesia over rising living costs and inequality intensified overnight, prompting Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to cancel a planned trip to China, while demonstrators reportedly targeted the homes of the finance minister and several lawmakers. Rioters entered Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s residence near Jakarta early yesterday, but were repelled by armed forces personnel, Kompas reported. Items were taken from the homes of lawmaker Ahmad Sahroni and two others, according to Detik.com. The reports of looting could not be independently verified, and the finance ministry has not responded to requests for comment. The protests were sparked by outrage over
RSS