 |
Ö
| “They
have declared this religion sacred. They have tied you up
in knots in the name of this sacredness.” |
I am alive. I also
tell the half naked woman cooking her rice on a makeshift fire
on the footpath, keep alive. I tell the anxious woman with a heavily
made-up face sitting on the park bench, keep alive. I tell the
sad woman arrayed in her fineries in the air-conditioned mansion,
keep alive. I tell the innocent bride of the drunkard who returns
home late at night, keep alive. Keep alive, woman; woman, live.
Live abundantly.
Ö
They have written up
their religion sitting in Jerusalem, the Himalayas and the Hera
mountains. They have declared this religion sacred. They have
tied you up in knots in the name of this sacredness. They have
placed you under their feet, they are sending you to the kitchen,
they are decking you out, taking you to bed, and pushing you down
from the bed at their sweet will. They are covering you up, and
whenever they wish, disrobing you. They are kicking you and throwing
you out. They are not humans, they are men.
|
Taslima
Nasreen in 1995. (Photo courtesy ofInternational PEN.)
|
Woman, live. Breathe
in fresh air. The sky is yours, all its stars yours, these casuarina
leaves are yours; this river, this forest yours; these clouds,
these waters, these winds yours. This earth, this grass, these
flowers, the birds, the sea are all yours. They are nothing to
you, these men.
Ö
I have seen death.
I have seen fire. I have seen the snake’s fangs. I have seen
the dark. (Ö) Today I feel proud that I am a woman. Because I
am woman, I consider each drop of my blood pure. Because I am
woman I hold each pore of my body sacred. Because I am woman I
believe my nerves to be straight and honest.
If you are a woman,
overtake death and live thus. They will tell you about chastity,
they will put you on the funeral pyre; they will tell you what
womanhood is and how glorious motherhood. Once you fall into such
false lessons, such snares, they will kiss you, they will take
you for a Dance, they will build walls around you, put golden
fetters on your feet, and they will feed you as they would a pet
parrot in a cage. If you are a human, tear off the fetters and
stand free. Tear off the shackles with your two hands, the hands
are yours. Run on your two feet, the feet are yours, See life
with your two eyes, the eyes are yours. Laugh aloud, the lips,
the eyes, the face are yours. You own the whole of you. You own
yourself.
Ö
| “Beware,
woman. The men who come to you come basically with passion
unbridled and anger uncontrolled.” |
Beware, woman. The
men who come to you come basically with passion unbridled and
anger uncontrolled. But the world is yours, woman, live in this
world the way you would like to. If this world is a river, swim
over its length and breadth. If this world is a sky, fly across
it end to end. If it is your life, really your own, live it as
you will. Take over your own ownership, woman.
I have seen death.
I have encountered sin. I have been through mire. Let no other
woman have to crawl through barbed wires and be torn to bits.
Let no woman have to pass through wild forests to reach her destination.
Let no woman have to come out bloodied from a man’s cave.
I tell the woman suffering
from malnutrition, live. I tell the anemic woman, live. I tell
the woman suffering barrenness, the woman suffering birth pangs,
live. I tell the rag-picking girl, live; live, woman.
Having shaken off my
sorrows, here I stand. Here I am without compromising with vulgarity
and sickness. Woman, hold on to beauty; woman, hold on to your
dreams.
|
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