In the name of Allah, you have raped my body In the name of Mohammed, you have stolen my freedom, O! Taliban, what more can you take, you have shattered my soul? My children have not eaten for days My husband was killed in the civil war And I’m trapped in a house with windows painted black. I remember when I still believed in hope I remember when I thought they would come To save us from a life of chains. I’ve heard of a thing called feminism It fights for women so they earn what men earn But in my country, women can’t even work. In my country, women have no rights Girls are not allowed an education And my little girl can’t even spell her own name. No one heard me screaming Now I’m silenced forever And millions of flames have died before me. We are murdered if we leave our homes unescorted We are covered from head to toe in suffocating garbs And we are invisible to the world. We cannot attract attention or we will be slaughtered We cannot participate in social events or sports My children cannot fly kites – real or imaginary. My teenage boy, he believes that women are the scum of the earth That’s what they taught him, that’s all he’s ever seen He will beat his wife and treat her like a slave. I wrote this poem to tell the world who doesn’t care about me That I exist even if they look the other way Just because it isn’t them doesn’t make it go away. As you leave your home to go to work, sister As you watch your little girl laugh her first laugh, father, Think of my children – my life is over, but theirs has just begun. I crossed over the Threshold of Silence And now I am forever part of the Silenced Marked by invisibility and darkness. When I crossed over, I also crossed The Threshold of Pain. Where you feel nothing. I don’t ask for your pity I don’t ask for your charity But never let this happen again. Our silence must never become an epidemic Because then we lived and died in vain And left our children a shameful legacy. My pen’s running dry, this story’s told It’s dedicated to my Afghani sisters So remember, you can never let it happen again.