
Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence
The Afghan Women’s Writing Project is pleased to participate in the global Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign from Nov. 25 through Dec. 10—International Human Rights Day.
The Afghan Women’s Writing Project is pleased to participate in the global Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign from Nov. 25 through Dec. 10—International Human Rights Day.
Let us know the earth is
Everyone’s house
Say enough to the war
On December 8th, AWWP joined the Twitter #GBVTeachin to help raise awareness about gender-based violence in Afghanistan. For four hours, our social media team shared poems and essays by Afghan women writers that offered powerful condemnations of violence as well as visions of hope.
Is this the sixteenth day? Is this the day to remove violence against women?
Violence is an ordinary part of everyday life in Afghanistan. It starts at a child’s birth, when families and society begin the process of honoring children by gender.
A forty-three-year-old man was looking for a new young wife and he spoke to her brothers about Shafiqa. He already had a wife and ten children.
Called mother, sister, wife
Lips sealed
Voices stifled
Cannot speak without a man’s permission
I don’t know
How your violence came
We’re the same
In body structure
One God
Two beautiful eyes
Brave Rukhshana
She stood against slavery and forced marriage
For this, men stoned her to death and
Hurled stones at her dreams