Wadia Samadi
Silence: the prevailing language of Afghan women.
Our grandmothers were silenced; our mothers were silenced.
It is time to break this silence.
Silence has stripped us of our hopes and dreams;
It has robbed us of the gift of speech and thought.
They know the power of our voice and fear it;
They envy our courage and hinder it.
We have loved and cared even when they did not;
We have kept our calm even in the face of abuse.
Our bodies are neither seen nor held as autonomous entities;
Rather, they are pawns controlled by patriarchal societies.
We give birth to sheroes – for the future of this country;
We give birth to men – who then dominate us and society.
Yet we are belittled and stoned, why this insanity?
It is our time to break this silence.
How we survive this unjust society, only we know.
We don’t speak. And they capitalize upon it.
Our empowerment begins with us. Speak up.
Let’s not make silence the norm.
Let’s not pass it on to our daughters.
It is time to break this silence.
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Read this piece in Persian here.