Disgraceful Words

2007

Tell me! How do you men feel when you say such words? Do you ever mean it? What if it shows in your eyes and voice? How do you men fake it so well?  Or do you enjoy conquering us, and count us as yet another bounty?

FULL STORY

My Body Isn’t Mine

2018

I honestly don’t understand people who ask me that question.
“How could you let him?”
It’s not like when a man’s about to beat up his wife, he stops to ask her if she’d let him first.
Why is there an assumption that just because something happened, she must have agreed to it?
gender violence, marriage, social pressure, romantic relationships

FULL STORY

Hating Them and My Body

2019

I’ve always been the chubby one.
I was fatter than my siblings and friends.
When I was a child,
My family used to make fun of me.
I had to laugh and pretend it was okay.
Otherwise, they’d think I was being a drama queen.
My siblings would mock me by singing made-up songs about my body.
body image, bullying, romantic relationships

FULL STORY

I Was Disgusted

2013

When you would try to touch me,
I felt like you couldn’t see me.
You could only see the body you were about to touch.

FULL STORY

Divorce

2006

Apparently in Islam,
If a woman is not sexually satisfied,
She has the right to divorce her husband.

FULL STORY

Freedom of Choice

2014

After a certain age,
A girl no longer has the freedom to choose a suitable person to marry.

FULL STORY

Chronicles of a Scarf

2012

I start knitting.
My hands aren’t yet used to the two new needles.
I do not think of you.
I wrap the yarn around the needle to start stitching.
I applaud myself for not thinking of you until the third stitch.

FULL STORY

Let’s Go Shopping!

2012

She was never able to express herself in words,
Maybe that’s why I became her closest friend.
The day he left her, she called me laughing:
“I’m finally free, let’s go shopping!”

FULL STORY

Adalat and Bakeeza

2018

I have an alter ego named Adalaat.
Adaalat only recently started to make an appearance after years of me being poorly treated.
Adaalat gets me riled up every time him and I have a fight.
romantic relationships

FULL STORY

Becoming a Mother

2006

I learned to love him over the years,
as I watched him become a human being:
learning to talk
and becoming stubborn, bright, artistic, and funny.

FULL STORY