What goes through the mind of an Afghan woman?

The plight of Afghani women is not a dilemma new

And some might believe that it’s quite untrue

But what I ask Is how long we’ll hide behind this mask

This mask of ignorance Are we really this inhumane to show such dissonance

So let me use this opportunity

To bring this under scrutiny

What goes through the minds of these poor women

And how they live a life, we merely call fiction.

“It feels like yesterday when I sat on those chairs,

And made the decisions that seemed fair.

We were the people of our own

And now it’s been set in stone

That we are merely a man’s property,

Or more aptly, a case of charity.

They call it “modesty”

But honestly, this feels like an odyssey

That will only end

When we all are dead.

I can’t look in the eyes of my little girl anymore,

When she resorts to implore

On when she’ll get to go the school

And I stand there silent

looking like a fool.

The kids ask me about their friends

Who had to run off to a far land

How can I make them understand

That the greed of a few is the cause of their blues

At the end of the day,

I sit all alone Looking at the stars, scared to the bone.

Wondering if we’ll be ever be as free as the stars

Or just keep bleeding out from our scars.”

Now you know

How it feels to live in the shadows.

This is a cry of help

Of the women who can’t see the light at the end.

What are we doing as the society

For the women who are facing such atrocities?

This war is of our own making

And the consequences are quite awakening.

This is the time to ask the question

How low we’ll stoop to satiate our greed of power?

And to be candid, a victory without survivors

Will taste quite sour.

Nikita Salgania, Class XII,

DAV Public School, Patiala