By Gurpreet Kaur Pannu
I feel a sharp pang of sorrow
as I write this down,
we women still wrestling the
same battles since centuries
like an heirloom passed down
from generation to generation,
Human trafficking,
Rape,
Forced prostitution,
Female foeticide,
Female genital mutilation,
Female infanticide,
Sexual harassment,
Domestic abuse.
Violence,
Honour killing,
Acid attack,
Female femicide,
Abduction,
Patriarchy,
Chhaupadi (menstrual taboo),
Neck lengthening process,
Verbal abuse,
Toxic marriage,
Dowry system,
Child marriage,
Eve teasing,
Misogyny,
and your mouths talk about
the world being at its zenith.
A vulture waits for its prey to die,
this world wants to devour us alive,
resorting to physiological warfare
when they fail to wrap us
in a shroud,
How will the perpetrators pay
for such douchebaggery?
They call us sinister, enchantress,
witch & a sorcerer
Yet we couldn't magic away
the evil & it's doers that ruin us.
We couldn't save our
grandmothers, mothers & ourselves,
will we succeed in
shielding our daughters?
unless every human condemn
these acts, I envisage a
frightening prospect
of what their future
is going to be.
Every woman in the world has
been scathed from bearing
the trauma of at least one of the
above heinous crimes,
which has been separated
by a comma,
because full stop still
remains to be undiscovered.