I am an Afghan mother of three,
One adorable son and two gorgeous daughters.
The youngest son is two,
The oldest is nine.
Hear my story if you dare!
Life has been unfaithful to me.
I was the beauty queen of my village,
Now my husband has run away like a baby.
Not that I am old and rusted,
But it was the life he could not bear.
I curse this rosegar
Where you can’t find a job no matter who you are.
I curse this illiteracy
Where I am treated as nothing but a weak lady.
Give me a chance people,
I can dig a hole in the mountain.
Give me a chance people,
I can build a house like a man.
Give me a chance people,
I can serve like the man you want.
Don’t look at my curves,
I am not like a fragile flower that will die in the winter.
Don’t look at my beauty,
Like the rainbow which will disappear.
I make the history today!
By selling one child,
To save the other.
What have you done than blame me?
You make an article about me:
“A mother willing to sell her daughter.”
But you never write the reason even once.
Now I challenge you people,
Come and be me – a mother – for once.
Your son is dying of heart disease,
The community rejects helping.
No other option than selling your other child.
Tell me you who write about me
What would you do if you were me?
I bet you would run away from life.
But I am a mother, doing the best I can.
By Farahnaz
Photo by Evgeni Zotov.
Very powerful, Farahnaz. Especially, to me:
“You make an article about me:
‘A mother willing to sell her daughter.’
But you never write the reason even once.”
Exactly. So often, we are quick to condemn a person – much quicker than we are to put ourselves in their shoes.
Thank you for strong poem. A strong poem for strong women!
Stacy
Wow. Your poem is heartbreakingly beautiful. Such a strong reminder to not take things as they appear on the surface — to ask for the rest of the story — and most of all a reminder not to judge others. We can’t know what we would do in their place — with their sorrow. Thank you for speaking up about this.
By your words I can tell that you are a very strong person. Your poem breaks my heart a little. The choices you have cannot be easy. Thank you for bravely telling your story.
Dear Farahnaz,
First, I would like to say how powerful and eye-opening your poem is; at first, I could not think of words to describe your poem. A recurring theme I see is that others shy away from even acknowledging your life and its struggles which pains me to read about; your words challenge your audience to endure reading your story, making it impossible to even imagine how you must be living it. Your poem strikes a very passionate tone and I’m sure that you have definitely conveyed that EVERYONE, regardless of their gender or circumstances, deserves a chance; it is preposterous that they didn’t think so in the first place!
I’m also extremely sorry that you have had to sell one of your children so that you could live. Again, I cannot bear to see that others have ostracized you for a headline, without knowing the full story. I hope that you know that there’s a whole community of people who support you in your endeavors and recognize that your womanhood and motherhood is your strength and not weakness.