Since USSR broke into pieces, the US in particular and the West in general, have developed special venom against the Muslim world. With each passing year since 911, their approach is getting more and more relentless towards Islam. In places like Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, this venom has manifested itself in humiliation, even persecution, of women at the hands of the new imperialists. The latest heart-rending example of this sort of brutality is Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Dr. Siddiqui, a neuroscientist from Karachi, was kept in chains and shackles for five years in Bagram jail. Had it not been for the efforts of one Moazam Baig, Dr. Aafia's plight would never have been told to the world. As a result of the campaign launched by a conscientious western journalist Ivon Riddley, Dr. Aafia was saved from the barbarity of US marines who abused her physically, sexually and spiritually during her years of captivity. She has now been produced in some kangaroo court with the comic charges of having attacked a US official after having snatched his gun. -MUHAMMAD SALEEM SHAHID MEO, Lahore, via e-mail, August 9.