Life
Khan's father, Agha Abdul Khan, owned a pharmaceutical firm. Khan graduated from the medical school at Aga Khan University in Karachi in 1995.
When Dr. Aafia Siddiqui met his mother in Pakistan, his parents agreed on an arranged marriage for him and met with Siddiqui's parents to discuss the details. It was decided that since Siddiqui had been accepted into Brandeis University in Boston, Khan could move to Lexington, Massachusetts, with her and begin studies at Harvard University. Since Siddiqui was back in the United States, the couple, who had never seen each other, performed their nikah over the telephone in 1995. He has also said that Siddiqui wanted him to move to Afghanistan, and work as a medic for the mujahideen. They have three children: Ahmed (b. 1996), Maryam (b. 1998), and Suleman (b. 2002). The two older children are American citizens.
After approximately a year in Lexington, the couple moved to Back Bay Manor, in Mission Hill to be closer to Khan's hospital. In 1999, while living in Boston, Siddiqui and her husband founded the nonprofit Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching. They moved again in July 2001, this time to Malden. Their lease was taken over by Saudi nationals Abdullah Al Reshood and Hatem Al Dhahri, who had just received a $20,000 transfer from the Saudi government, ostensibly to pay for medical treatment for al-Reshood's wife.
Siddiqui's family claim that Khan was an abusive husband, and her colleagues at university reported that she often came in with bruises on her face. Khan admits that on one occasion, he threw a baby bottle at her face, splitting her lip, requiring stitches in the hospital.
According to Khan, after the September 11 attacks Siddiqui insisted on leaving the U.S., saying that it was unsafe for them and their children to remain because the U.S. government was abducting Muslim children. She had previously spoken of wanting to immigrate to Afghanistan or Bosnia. Khan balked, fearful he would lose his salary bonus at the hospital, and agreed she could go ahead and he would follow shortly. However, others dispute that the move was his idea, and suggest that Khan had been "more fundamentalist in his religious beliefs than her", and she wanted to remain in the United States while he had insisted on raising their children in an Islamic country.
Read more about this topic: Amjad Mohammed Khan
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)