by Fayezah Iqbal
Being woman, be bold, brave and beautiful.
Upholding all the scars, she smiles plentiful,
Impeded at every stage, never ceases her
soul yet bountiful.
Be woman, be tree, river and concrete;
Withstanding all the betrayals, bestows love in surfeit.
To be transformed, moulded and reformed indeed.
Be woman, be enormous, flowing and endowing;
Who sacrifices to live and lives for sacrificing,
Flowering underneath the shadows of tyrannies towering.
Be woman, be individual, family, and Goddess;
Assailed ever savagely, expected to be calm and modest,
Saddled with ties and traditions, to be maintained in ways as broadest.
Be woman, be origin, evil and history;
Frail mortal, encompassing in her womb the humankind ancestry,
A mother, motherland, Goddess, yet an object of lustful mystery?
Be woman, be poised, grounded and blossoming;
Bearing, burying but forgiving,
Nursing, nourishing, and flourishing.
Be woman, be angel, folly and wild;
Obliterating her existence for the joys of her child,
A chink in men's armouror the vigour of humanity so far survived?
Be woman, ever mutilated, morphed and defiled;
Subdued for the family honour, society's
grace and village's pride,
Looms over her, persistent acid burns, dowry deaths,
violationsand all the macabre combined,
Thus relentlessly battles her birth rights ever denied.
Be woman, be sure, uncanny and untethered;
Pulled down for making herself counted and revered,
Easy and direct recipient of every assault and venegeance let unfettered.
Be woman, Be Human;
Growing after thorough efforts to stiffen her soul with cruel acumen,
Giving after ages of gross deprivation,
Starting afresh, after sagas of violence and pain, with resolution.
Be woman, be human!
Fayezah Iqbal did her Masters in Spanish from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Writing being her passion, she has been writing for various blogs since the last three years.