Editor’s note: These poems were written at a workshop in Jalalabad for AWWP’s participation in the 2014 Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence global campaign.
Dream
Last night I had a dream…
A dream that was all
mine…
A dream
that made me happy.
I saw girls
and boys
walking together in a group in my school;
I saw my mom treating me and my brother
equally.
I saw my sister turn down her forced marriage.
When suddenly, I heard a voice.
It was my mother shouting, Wake Up!
Wake up! Wake up!
Make the food for your brother. He has to go to school.
And I realized nothing had changed.
By Tabasom J.
Streets of Nangarhar
While I walk in the streets of Nangarhar,
I see men looking at me — they are like animals.
I can hear them talking about parts of my body.
They are making fun of me.
For them it does not matter,
even if I wear a burqa; I am still just a girl to them.
If I wear a big scarf I am just a girl.
A girl to be used by men to make them happy.
A girl who doesn’t have the right to choose.
A girl who is not allowed to laugh out loud.
A girl who is not allowed to speak of pain;
if she does, she is a bad girl.
This is what gender equality means in my society.
By Tasala
Little Girl
I hear the voice of the four-year-old who was raped
I hear her cries and shouts for help.
She didn’t even know the world;
she didn’t know there were wild men in our society.
Was it her fault?
She was not asked in her mother’s womb if she
wanted to be a boy or a girl.
I ask God
Why did these men take her happiness from her?
Now she will know only pain and society’s blame.
By Mahjabeen
Women Take Your Rights
Gender equality is very important if a country is to develop. It is important for men and women to work together to improve our society. I know it is not easy for men to give women their rights and accept them as part of the society, when men have been dominant for three decades of war. But we do have rights. Rights are not given, but they are taken. Therefore, I tell women: be strong and work for your rights. Women are responsible for taking their rights back from men and showing men that their years of dominant rule have now ended.
By Freshta
Make Your World
I am a proud woman with power
I am the maker of men
I am the one who takes care of the boys
They are nothing without me
I am a woman who is the maker of all the world
By Tamana G.
Straight. Simple. To the point. Expressive. Impressive. Marvelous courage. You can say whatever you wish as long as it comes from your heart, from honesty, from love. Your words are protected by God and no man is bigger than God. You are beautiful, let them look. You are brilliant let them be jealous. You belong to a force more powerful than trees, eyes, buildings and even animals.
What powerful voices. Thank you, ladies for having the courage to share your work. I admire you all so very much. Keep writing, keep sharing. Your stories need to be told and never forgotten. You bring life to a special kind of justice through the telling of your words. Thank you.
To Tasla:
I found the poem” Streets of Nangarhar” by Tasla to be very powerful. I can relate to this poem as I am overcoming the trauma of working in prostitution. The words that you have used in the poem describes perfectly the lack of control.
My favorite lines are :
A girl to be used by men to make them happy.
A girl who doesn’t have the right to choose.
A girl who is not allowed to laugh out loud.
A girl who is not allowed to speak of pain;
The biggest part is not being able to speak of the pain. No man, especially the men who use woman want to hear of your pain. Because its like we are not human to them, they would not care to know and they may even enjoy your pain. I am starting to have some hope but I don’t think women will ever be equal to men. We have the same capacities as them (except for physical) and that is one reason why as a woman we can be overcome by a man. Even in the work place if you are business minded and head strong you can be looked at as a “bitch” as where a man who is head strong in the work place will most likely be seen as a powerful strong business man. It is so ingrained in our culture just like racism that it is hard to imagine our society without it. I hope one day it will be different. I would like to thank you for sharing your poem and your pain. Thank you!
All 5 of these poems are amazing works that hone in on the unacceptability of gender inequality, especially considering the expressions of both suffering and power that are threaded through each poem. Tamana, I especially like your lines about the power of women as rooted in being makers of men, caretakers of boys, and creators of the whole world! In the future I hope to see a change in the social conditions that have prompted these works, but nonetheless, I look forward to reading more of your poetry.