Sunday 16 March 2014

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.


2 comments:

  1. Mashaallah, beautifully written with a powerful message..

    ReplyDelete

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