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Image courtesy of the Free Umer Khalid campaign
“He’s really stubborn, isn’t he?”
It’s one thing that Umer Khalid’s mother Shabana and I bond over. Shabana is similar in age to me, and we are meeting for the first time at a Ramadan dinner in March this year. We spent our time laughing at Umer’s incessant banter; she apologizes for his constant quips at my expense – despite my being twice his age. I assure her that I enjoy our back-and-forth; having grown up with four brothers, I was raised in a cauldron of repartee.
Umer has a stubbornness, we both agreed, that is simultaneously infectious and infuriating. It draws you in, making you imagine a world that might bend to his will, no matter how immovable it might seem.
We spoke about him as if he were right next to us, as if we could reach out to touch him. But Umer has been in prison since his arrest last summer.
