Nadia Anjuman’s poem, murdered by her husband, went viral with the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

“I am locked in this corner / Full of melancholy and sorrow … / My wings are closed and I cannot fly / I am an Afghan woman and I must lament”, wrote the poet Nadia Anjuman | before being murdered 15 years ago by her husband. With the Taliban returning to power and as the world expresses concern for what the lives of women will be like under the new regime, their worms have gone viral again.

In his book Smoky flower, Also known as Dark red flower, Anjuman interviewed the patriarchal brutality and forms of oppression of women in Afghanistan. Resilience and courage, clandestine education, forced marriage and brutal feminicide at the age of 25, her life is for many a symbol of the difficult conditions facing women in this Asian country.

Some sewing lessons where they talked about literature

Nadia was born in 1980 in Herat and was the sixth child in a large family. I was in high school when the Taliban they took power in 1996 and established a terror regime. They banned games, music, photography and television. Women have been denied the right to work, study and even go out without being accompanied by a male family member. Women accused of adultery were whipped and stoned.

In this context of repression, Anjuman participated in a literary circle disguised as sewing class -one of the rare activities allowed to young women -which was called the needlework school of the golden needle, where he discovered the works of forbidden authors such as Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Honoré de Balzac. If they were captured by the Taliban, they could be sentenced to death.

Like many Afghan girls, his parents wanted him to marry at 14 or 15. She stubbornly succeeded in delaying the marriage, although she was eventually forced to marry Farid Ahmad Majid Mia, a literature graduate, professor of philology and clerk at the Faculty of Literature at Herat University.

After the American invasion and the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Anjuman began studying Dari literature at Herat University and published his first book, Gol-e dudi (“smoked flower”) and has achieved popularity in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

Shortly after the book’s publication, in 2005, she was beaten to death by her husband. According to BBC, the young poet and journalist suffered a severe cut to the head. Police later said her husband confessed to beating her, but denied murdering her and claimed he committed suicide.

Journalist and writer Christina Lamb, author of a book on Herat Sewing Circles said that “her friends have said that his relatives were furious, because they believed that a woman who published poetry about love and beauty dishonored the family”.

Complete poem of Anjuman

i don’t want to open my mouth

i don’t want to open my mouth

What could I sing?

To me that life hates,

it gives me so much to sing as to keep quiet.

Should I speak of sweetness

When do I feel so much bitterness?

Ay, the oppressor’s feast

he covered my mouth.

With no one by my side in life

To whom am I going to devote my affection?

It gives me so much to say, to laugh,

to die, to exist.

Me and my forced loneliness

with my pain and sadness.

i was born for nothing

my mouth must be sealed.

Spring has come, sweetheart,

the auspicious moment of the celebration.

But what can I do if a wing

I have now trapped?

I can’t fly like this.

I’ve been silent for a long time

but I never forgot the melody

i can’t stop whispering

The songs that flow from my heart

they remind me that one day

i will break the cage

By flying I will get out of this loneliness

and I will sing with melancholy.

I am not a brittle poplar

shaken by the wind.

i am an afghan woman

So understand my constant complaint.

I’m in a cage in this corner

full of melancholy and sorrow …

My wings are closed and I can’t fly …

I am an Afghan woman and I have to scream.

Women’s protests in Kabul

This Tuesday, some groups of women demonstrated in the streets of Kabul and demanded their rights and rights. During these 20 years, many they were able to go to university, they held positions of responsibility, especially in politics, journalism and even in the justice and security forces.

Women march to protect their rights in Kabul. (Photo: Reuters).

“I started the day looking at the deserted streets of Kabul in horror,” she wrote. Fawzia Koofi, human rights activist and former Deputy Speaker of the Afghan Parliament. “History is repeating itself so quickly,” he said.

First woman to serve as mayor of a city in Afghanistan, Zarifa GhafariShe said she “waited” for the Taliban to “come and get people like her and kill her.” This was stated in an interview with UK media new from the outskirts of Kabul.

Sahraa Karimi, one of the most famous Afghan directors, confirmed on Twitter that she had managed to escape Kabul and that she was to safety. Last Friday, Karimi posted a message asking for help. “Please don’t be silent. They are coming to kill us, ”he said.

“Like many women, I fear for my Afghan sisters”: Pakistani women’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai He also expressed his concerns on Tuesday to The New York Times after the takeover of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In a column in the American daily, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate draws a parallel between the future of Afghan women and her own situation, after surviving a 2012 Taliban attack in Pakistan.

“I can’t help but be grateful for my life today. After graduating from college last year and building my own career, I can’t imagine losing it all, coming back to a life dictated by gunmen“, writing.

“Afghan girls and young women are again in a situation I have found myself in, desperate because they will never be allowed to return to a classroom or carry a book,” added Malala.

The request of the European Union, the United States and Argentina

The European Union, the United States and 18 other countries, including Argentina, said they were “deeply concerned” about the situation of women in Afghanistan and urged the Taliban to avoid “discrimination and abuse” and guarantee their rights.

The international community is “Ready to participate (to the women of the country) so that their voices are heard “they added.

“Like many women, I fear for my Afghan sisters”: Pakistani women’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai expressed her concern in the New York Times on Tuesday after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.