Afghanistan: The Raped Girl February 21, 2015 By Alicia Ostriker Heart Journal Online (September 30, 2014) Alicia Ostriker's poem touches the consequences of rape in a world of patriarchy and violence. Because the mullah raped her, she cannot be allowed to live Her brothers will kill her, it is a question of honor She is ten years of age and does not yet menstruate But bleeds like a stream in the hospital The doctor finds the girl’s mother holding her hand Both weeping, the mother saying My daughter, may dust and soil protect you now We will make you a bed of dust and soil We will send you to the cemetery where you will be safe The brothers have spoken to the police who command The women’s shelter where she now is staying To release her to them They have promised not to harm her But everyone understands Lying is not a sin when one’s honor is at stake Even the mother understands this Even the child understands Only Dr. Sarwari, director of the shelter, is furious She shouts at the police like a grey old crow And the journalist who is doing his job Getting the story May climb inside the bottle tonight And I who read the story Will summon my mother, wherever she is In the next world, perhaps in the paradise She didn’t believe Existed, she for whom honor was not A concept, she from whom I learned Liberty and fury, Her weapons in this world. italicized lines are quoted from the New York Times, July 19, 2014. This poem first appeared in HEArt Journal Online (September 2014) and is printed here with the permission of the author. Alicia Ostriker was born in 1937 in New York City. Twice a finalist for the National Book Award, Ostriker has published fifteen volumes of poetry, including The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems 1979-2011, for which she received the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, and The Book of Seventy (2009), which received the Jewish National Book Award. Other books of poetry include No Heaven (2005); The Volcano Sequence (2002); Little Space (1998), The Crack in Everything (1996), and The Imaginary Lover (1986), winner of the William Carlos Williams Award. Her most recent book of poems is The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog. -------------------------------------------------------------------- VIEW ONLINE: http://dev.portside.org/2015-02-21/afghanistan-raped-girl SUBSCRIBE: http://portside.org/subscribe VISIT PORTSIDE.ORG: http://portside.org TWITTER: https://twitter.com/portsideorg FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/Portside.PortsideLabor -------------------------------------------------------------------- Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. Submit via email: [log in to unmask] Submit via web: http://portside.org/submittous3 Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive ######################################################################## To unsubscribe, click the following link: &*TICKET_URL(portsidetest,SIGNOFF);