Leave that at home

A dear sister writes:

They tell me

leave your politics at home

leave your "activism"

leave your history

leave your religion

stay "uncontroversial"

Be like us.

Don't get yourself in trouble

Think of your future

You don't know what you're up against.

I tell them

I'll leave my politics at home

if you leave your patriarchy at the door

I'll leave my "activism"

if you leave your apathy

I'll leave behind my history

if you just learn from it

I'll leave my religion

if you stop acting like a God

I'll be "uncontroversial" 

when you stop labelling your ignorance as controversy

but to be like you?

Never.

For to be like you is to live like a machine

a machine that obeys every order on command 

without question.

One that can't aspire for better or feel

out of the boundaries its expected to feel.

and one that lets other tell it

which lives are more valuable than the rest.

"I want to live, I don't want to survive"

For if I was to live

even for just one day,

a free woman

with dignity and hope,

struggle 

and

emotion

up against

the mightiest powers there may be,

rather than live a hundred years

wandering for purpose,

following orders,

keeping to borders,

satisfying any selfish desire that comes my way,

for justice,

I would.

Related articles

• Why We Need to Reconstruct the Way We Do "Dawah" in Universities
• Celebrity Crushes: Political Figures, Artists, and Advocates
• Redefining My Relationship with Allah; from Earthly to Divine
• A Fiery Letter From a Victim of a Manipulative Man
• Layers of the Heart; the Struggle of Dusting Off the Impurities
• Internalized Racism; An Invisible Dilemma