Painting, prison and two decades in Guantanamo

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mistaken for a terrorist, and detained without trial. Art became his refuge.

Pakistani taxi driver Ahmed Rabbani was arrested in 2002, labelled a terrorist and spent 21 years in US detention, including time in a CIA secret prison. Incarcerated without trial or charge, Ahmed was subject to enhanced interrogation, or what he describes as 62 different types of torture. When he was transferred to a cell in Guantanamo Bay, Ahmed would pick up paint and pastels and find solace through art – creating vistas he could only imagine.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Maryam Maruf Voiceover: Mohammed Hanif

Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.5	I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.1	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.0	relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.
0:22.4	So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,
0:28.3	and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.
0:33.6	So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:38.3	He said, you're balcadha. So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds. They would say you work for Al-Qaeda.
0:43.2	You work for Osama bin Laden.
0:45.4	He have sworn allegiance to him.
0:48.1	I kept on saying, no, I don't belong to Al-Qaeda.
0:51.9	I don't know Osama bin Laden.
0:53.9	I have never sworn allegiance to him.
0:57.0	Today, in a case of mistaken identity,
1:00.0	the taxi driver labeled a terrorist
1:02.2	and taken to a CIA secret prison.
1:05.8	I'm Mabin Azar.
1:07.4	And from the BBC World Service,
1:09.2	this is lives less ordinary. The story I'm bringing
1:12.5	you this episode is from Pakistan. It's the place my parents were born and somewhere I
1:19.9	associated with weddings and huge family gatherings as a child, always brash, never boring.
1:27.0	It's also a place that's been at the fulcrum of so much.
	...

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