arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)
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FIRE:Zeiba of Women Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan by karadzi@racsa.co.cr Wednesday March 13, 2002 at 08:02 PM |
FIRE´s WEBCAST Marathon on International Women´s Day included an inteview with Zeiba Sorish Shamley of Women Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan. She was supposed to be at the United Nations that day, butr as she told FIRE, "I decided to stay home and write a poem, because there is too much blah, blah, blah about Afghanistan and about women in the country, but very little listening."
Is this the Dawn of Hope?
by Zieba Shorish-Shamley
Dedicated to my Afghan sisters and all other women in the world who suffer
the same plight
March 8, 2002
The people shout with joy, that Talibs' reign is past!
Is this the dawn of hope? Are we free at last?
Foreign terrorists gone? Are we no longer bound?
No more torture, murder, by those rabid hound(s)?
Am I allowed to work, provide for my needs?
My child will have food? My land will have seeds?
Can I go out to shop, without a male in tow?
Can I walk with ease not be attacked by foe?
Do I have my rights, the right of education?
Do I have a role, rebuilding my own nation?
Do I have a choice selecting my own mate?
Do I have a voice, deciding my own fate?
Will I be put for sale as sexual slave?
Will I face again those beasts in the cave(s)?
Will they make me stand half-naked in a room?
Will beasts paw my body causing pain and doom?
Will they burn again, my home and my land?
Will they kill again, hide bodies in the sand?
Will they enslave young girls and young boys?
Harvesting their organs, or use them as sex toys?
Can anyone promise, the end to these crime(s)
Can anyone promise my safety at all time?
Can anyone promise the violence is ended?
Can anyone promise my wounds will be mended?
It seems that the world has heard about my pain
New people come to scene fighting for my gain
Everywhere you look more seminars and talks
Are they true to me? Are they swarming hawks?
Will they dictate to me how this and that is done?
Will I have to answer to more bosses than one?
Am I allowed to rise, standing on my feet?
Will they decide for me from their high seat(s)?
Has my plight become a fashion and a fad?
Have privileged persons been outcasts and forbade?
Did they feel at all severe hunger's pain?
Have they ever been put in shackle or in chain?
I do not mean to sound thankless or unjust
I want there to be transparency, trust
I am apt and sound I know how to decide
I need much advice I want you on my side
I want to be in charge to handle my own life
I must have the hope I can defeat strife
If this is dawn's hope I must find my way
I must be independent I must assert my say!
*WAPHA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan independent
organization. Our goal is to promote awareness of the tragic human rights condition in Afghanistan and to advocate for social, political, economic and civil rights of the Afghan women and girls in that country. We also promote peace and peace process activities both outside and inside Afghanistan. For more information, contact Zieba at ziebaåol.com