If you haven’t heard about Adnan Syed, I think it’s time you listen to his story. Adnan Syed, a teenager at the time, was found guilty for murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee and was given a sentence of life plus thirty in 2000. However, till this day, Adnan maintains his innocence.
The first time I heard about Adnan was when I stumbled upon Serial, a podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, about a year ago. Immediately, this podcast had my attention, which for me says a lot since I usually can’t commit to listening to podcasts (my mind just doesn’t stop wandering). Now, I’m not going to give away much about this case, but Sarah Koenig and the Serial team go through documents, police interrogations, listen to trial testimony records, and they even try to speak with people who might remember anything about Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee. Serial simply presents their findings and other findings during the initial investigation rather than concluding with a “he is guilty,” or “he is innocent.”
After listening to Serial, my mind would come back to this case, a teenager found guilty by the jury, but I personally didn’t think the case made sense. There was a lot of confusion around testimony’s from certain witnesses and what I thought to be a lack of strong evidence. Again, I’m not an expert, but I sure was reeled into this case. Later, I found out that there a mini-series on HBO, The Case Against Adnan Syed, which dived deeper, bringing in the people who believe him to be innocent since day 1. Obviously I had to watch the series and once that was over, I was confused even more; there was more to the case than what Serial touched on.
As soon as I was done the series, I jumped onto the Internet to see if there was anything else that focused on this case and that is when I came across Adnan’s Story by Rabia Chaudry. This book to me seemed to be the ultimate behind the scenes. Rabia Chaudry’s younger brother is Adnan’s best friend, and Rabia has been at the forefront of #freeadnan, making sure no one forgets what happened not only to Adnan Syed and his family, but also the tragedy Hae Min Lee’s family faced. One of the things I appreciated while reading this book was that although it focused on the case against Adnan and all the discrepancies, emotions, and obstacles attached to it, it also did not lose sight that Hae Min Lee’s family also suffered a great deal and deserve to find out the truth about what happened to their daughter.
Rabia Chaudry is an attorney, author, and podcast host who has constantly advocated for Adnan’s innocence. I admire the faith she has and her constant work to help support Adnan and his family, while going through her own personal struggles. Now, my opinion on this book however is that the title is a bit misleading. Adnan’s Story is more Rabia’s Story, giving you a full insight of her thoughts, opinions, efforts, and personal story during Adnan’s actual story.
If that was a bit confusing, let me try to make it a bit more clear. I personally found Adnan’s Story to be Rabia giving an almost uncensored account of everything from her side. Although Rabia adds documents, transcripts, police notes, etc., into the book for transparency, I personally found it to be a bit difficult to read at times because I felt Rabia allowed her emotions and frustration to cloud her judgement of people at times.
As I mentioned before, I admire Rabia’s faith and the efforts she has put into Adnan’s case, however what threw me off was it didn’t seem as if Rabia tried to look at things from the other person’s side, whether it was someone who didn’t agree with her or look at the things in the same way, or if it was different views that may arise from a lack of knowledge on the other person’s side. For example, many people don’t understand other cultures and religions and it becomes difficult for them to wrap their minds around certain concepts. I’ve had my own share of people questioning me (sometimes in my opinion these questions can be ridiculous) about my culture and religion, so I can relate to some of the mind boggling assumptions and questions we can get. I can’t say I understand her emotions and frustrations, only someone who has dealt with a similar situation as her could understand. Yet I thought because of the situation she was going through she would try to see where someone was coming from as opposed to presenting, in my opinion, a defensive view.
Overall, I found Adnan’s Story to provide more detail as to what was happening behind the scenes of Serial and what was happening in the aftermath of the podcast and Rabia’s, success in bringing Adnan’s case back into the spotlight. The use of letters Adnan wrote explaining the way he was handling everything, police documents, trial transcripts, and interrogation transcripts make the case more real rather than just listening to someone on a mic read said documents over a podcast.
If you decide to dive into Adnan’s Story, I recommend listening to the Serial podcast first, as Rabia explains the process and behind the scenes in the book, which would only make sense after listening to Serial.
Nish Jots Her Thoughts 