September 11 attacks

The September 11 attacks, the coordinated suicide hijackings carried out by Al Qaeda against the United States on 11 September 2001, crash planes into the World Trade Centre towers and shatter the lives of several thousand Americans. In Mafia Queens of Mumbai, this global catastrophe functions not merely as background noise but as a decisive turning point that alters the trajectory of the book's central fugitive couple, Abu Salem and Monica Bedi, and casts a long shadow over the transnational criminal networks the book chronicles. The attacks mark a moment when the world's most powerful nation turns inward with fear and suspicion, and when two of the book's most prominent figures—already fleeing Indian justice—find their carefully constructed refuge collapse around them.

The Attacks and Their Immediate Aftermath

The narrative places the attacks on 11 September 2001, when suicide attackers from Al Qaeda crashed planes into the iconic World Trade Centre towers, killing several thousand Americans. The event triggers a surge of anti-terror and anti-Islam sentiment across the United States, with almost every Muslim in the country fearing for his or her life. Salem and Bedi, who had escaped from Dubai to the United States just days after Indian police learned of Bedi's association with Salem, find themselves among the anxious south Asian Muslims witnessing this traumatic phase unfold. The attacks transform the United States from a presumed safe haven into what Bedi describes as the most unsafe place to be, as a growing feeling of anger and hatred develops among American citizens, evident in incessant attacks on south Asians and a spate of arrests by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Impact on Abu Salem and Monica Bedi

For Salem, the weeks following 9/11 bring a profound psychological unraveling. He becomes anxious and insecure, never at peace, and worries constantly that the FBI will knock at his door and take him away. Bedi observes that behind all his bravado, there is a very timid being, and she watches him spend hours on the phone and the internet, plotting his next step. The couple's precarious existence is further destabilized by an Interpol notice slapped against them, which only increases Salem's worries. The attacks effectively end their brief illusion of normalcy in the United States, where Salem had possessed a non-immigrant work visa stating he was employed as a maintenance manager for a marine engineering company, and where he and his first wife Samira Jumani had amassed properties worth several crore, a two-screen theatre, a gas station, and a healthy bank balance. The post-9/11 climate makes such a life untenable, forcing the couple to confront the fragility of their fugitive existence.

Broader Context of Transnational Crime

The September 11 attacks resonate with the book's larger portrait of a global underworld that operates across borders, connecting Mumbai to Dubai, Nepal, and the United States. The book's earlier chapters detail how figures like Haji Mastan built fortunes through smuggling gold, silver ingots, and electronic goods from Aden, Dubai, and Hong Kong, while later narratives describe arms consignments channeled through Birganj and Raxaul, hubs for cross-border smuggling of arms, electronic goods, drugs, and fake currency. The attacks, by intensifying global surveillance and anti-terror measures, implicitly threaten these illicit flows, even as the book's women criminals—from drug peddlers like Mahalaxmi Papamani to brothel madams like Gangubai Kathiawadi—continue to operate within their local domains. The event thus marks a historical rupture that tightens the noose around international fugitives while leaving the book's more localized criminal economies, such as Papamani's heroin pudi business in Sion-Koliwada, relatively untouched.

Thematic Significance

The September 11 attacks underscore the book's central tension between individual agency and overwhelming historical forces. Just as the book's author, S. Hussain Zaidi, insists that the women criminals were not blank slates written upon by dangerous male mafia members, the attacks demonstrate how even the most determined fugitives can be swept up by events far beyond their control. Bedi's narrative, in particular, reveals how a personal relationship—her love for Salem—becomes entangled with global politics, as the couple's fate is sealed not only by Indian law enforcement but by the geopolitical fallout of 9/11. The attacks also highlight the precariousness of the immigrant experience, as south Asian Muslims in the United States suddenly find themselves targets of suspicion and hostility, a theme that echoes the book's broader exploration of marginalized communities navigating hostile state and social structures. In this sense, the September 11 attacks serve as a stark reminder that the underworld the book depicts is not separate from world history but deeply embedded within it, subject to the same convulsions that reshape nations and lives.