For International Women’s Day
SHE struggles, hungers, cares, and loves.
SHE is the one for whom we never care.
Purity, honesty, then promises and sacrifices.
SHE is the one about whom we never wonder.
Hard work, talent, then intelligence and power.
SHE is the one about whom we never bother.
SHE helps, supports, gives tenderness. HER role.
SHE is the one for whom we never trouble.
SHE is the one who carries us while we are children,
the hands we have when we want to walk,
the guide for how to grow,
the only shoulder we have to cry on.
SHE is the mother,
the daughter,
the wife,
the sister.
Today is the day to speak of her.
SHE is the ONE we call a woman.
By Pakiza
Photo by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Dear Pakiza,
I just found out this website and randomly came to your page here. I did love your poem!! It is amazingly powerful in expression and meaning. I came to listen to your voice. I came to meet you in this space. Please, keep writing, dont abandomn it! I can see you ARE a brave woman. Afghan women are the bravest, you live so many adversities and never lose your dignity. You all are winners. No matter if you are in a country where to women the rights are so restricted, bcz you have power, beauty, treasures, talents, gifts inside your core and nobody can steal these things from you.
I do want to hear your voice! Write to me. This is my e-mail address: [email protected]. I will surelly reply!
Congratulations for your braveness!!
i am so moved by this.
i think of the woman you describe. i think of my mother, who i rely on but do not show appreciation of enough. i think of my aunt, who i lost 10 years ago. i think of my grandmothers, who simply gave and i knew nothing else of them. i think of myself. i think of my daughter.
i have read it over and over. this poem is a gift, thank you.
Dear Pakiza,
You poem speaks a universal truth to us all. Thank you.
Love, Elisabeth
I am very taken away from this poem. I think of my mother who does so much for me. I feel after this poem i should appreciate and love my mother more. After all she has done for me, and the struggles shes been through for me!!! The mom in this poem struggles for her family like mine!
Dear Pakiza,
Today in class we are talking about the middle east. My teacher really wanted us to understand what women in Afganistan are going through. After I read yopur poem, I truly understand. I am a sevetn grade girl and i just can’t imagine what it would be like to live there but i know that things will get better for you and i hope you still have hope. IO wish you the best, and enjoyed your poem alot.
With love,
Della
I feel your pain Pakiza. (By the way I like your name!) My socail studies teacher introduced me to this website in class and read your poem. It is very deep and heartfelt. My mom is always complaining about how she does everything around the house and never gets a thank you. It must be irritating if you care for people, talk to them, give them your love, and do a lot of other things and never get a thank you. You keep trucking you brave soldier you! You are the reason this website was made. Your poem speaks the universal truth to us all! Keep trucking through the exploding volcano of life and do not give up.
Thank for trucking, Carly
Dear Pakiza!
the though that you have I wish I could had them too,
I love to write and to think, but the poems that I write everyone likes them I love to write like yours writing,
Very nice and though full,