Tales of scars

Edited by poet Sarita Jenamani, ‘Still We Sing: Voices on Violence Against Women features poems by women from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Ongoing incidents have left the world aghast. I am not referring to the Covid-19 crisis that has wreaked havoc in the Indian subcontinent. My concern is about the never ending miseries and plight of women. No sooner had they saved Malala Yousafzai, we lost Qandeel Baloch; no sooner had they rubbed ointment on Mini’s wounds, we lost Nirbhaya; and no sooner had Rihana Sheikh Dhaphali survived after being set to fire by her husband and her in-laws, Nirmala took her last breath in a sugarcane field. These are some of the fragments of women’s sufferings in today’s global village. Women are still imprisoned in the patriarchal slaughterhouse where their bodies, minds and souls are continuously chopped and scattered. For years women have had to live with the pain and sorrow inflicted by the patriarchal society.