Refuge of Womanhood

Why is there no wrinkle on your forehead?

Nor a question on your lips

Why did you nod and walk away?

Why have you gone to sleep?

There is a man out there who ridiculed a woman

by using words that even an illiterate would know are wrong

in a company that is higher than all

and what is sadder is that men around actually laughed at the jest

Why aren't you mad enough?

That man has no shame still, on what he had done

for the reasons known to his psyche, he insists on denying it all

Why do men think women are stupid?

Do I look stupid to you when I demand respect, 

not greater than anyone

just basic respect that you would grant a fellow man?

Do I look stupid to you when I have a frown on my forehead

and an objection on my lips

for what you have done?

Do I look stupid to you when I say that I am a human being

That I demand the social security

and voice?

What have I said that is so shocking?

Why are you mad?

Th dilemma is that, that man is a representative of our grass root level psyche

and as he sat on a t.v show blamed the woman he had previously insulted,of "taking refuge in her womanhood."

A laugh escaped my lips

What refuge?

What safety?

We live in a country where a constitutionally redundant committee has the power and audacity to propose legalization of beating women.

Say MASHA'ALLAH

We live in a country where a young teacher was killed for exercising her right to refuse to marriage with a man twice her age.

We live in a country where an honorable Senator from JUI-F had nerve and frankly, permission enough to not only verbally abuse a woman but also attempt to physically attack her as well on television

We live here among rapists and arsonists and murderers who walk freely because who cares about a few dead/abused/crippled/burnt women?

So I ask you, oh-so-honorable Khawaja Asif, what refuge of womanhood?

Is there any left?

I drowned in despair when I saw the Muslim men of Lahore protest against the only piece of legislation that treats their mothers, sister, wives and daughters like human being with rights.

 That finally after nearly 70 years of being a country, Pakistan had realized that women aren't cattle.

Being a woman

I feel like a Muslim stuck in America after 9/11

Because whatever safety and hopes of safety my juvenile self had assumed/hoped for evaporated when I heard that 14 men of a jirga who strangled, raped and murdered a woman are likely to be set free.

Where is the refuge of womanhood when 7 women in Pakistan die daily through some form of abuse?

The problem is not the the problem

the problem is why aren't we mad enough?

why is it okay?

As I sit through a nikkah ceremony of a friend and see her uncle unthinkingly cross out the paragraphs that Islam provides for woman rights, I realize one thing

We, women of Pakistan, can all have a doctorate in a million subjects

and be richer than all men alive

But we will always be kept to be treated like we are stupid

Why do you send your daughter to school when you will always think of her as a being one less than your son?

With this, I rest my case.

Mr Khawaja Asif sir, there is no refuge whatsoever in womanhood

I feel threatened mentally physically and psychologically living in the environment created by your most precious and righteous men.

Finding Jannah

I admit to have looked under my mother's feet in my childhood and finding Jannah.
It seemed dubious to me that the prized and promised gardens and fountains and palaces could be under those small feet. Then again there are millions of mothers in the world and each has two feet.
Its could be possible, I thought.

But as I grow older, I realized that my mothers laughter, when I was looking for Jannah, was not because of her ticklish soles but at my innocence.

Hazoor e Akram (P.B.U.H) said, "Badqismat hai wo shakhs jisne apni zindagi mein apnay burhay maa baap ko paya aur unki khidmat krk jannat na pas ska."

AMAR BIL MAROOF WA NAHI ANIL MUNKIR

Its a dilemma of the modern world
Its a topic that no one touches

Because deep down, we all are corrupt.
I know it
And I am sure, you know it too

The fact that I let my comrades carry on with their wrong doings is because I have sinned too.
Probably differently
Probably in secret
But I am afraid the next time I tell someone that they are wrong, my secrets will come out in the open
To haunt me

WHAT HAS MALALA DONE TO ME?

What has Malala done to me?

Nothing
To be very honest, yes, she has done nothing what so ever to harm me or as many of us believe, to Pakistan.

But since I am a cool, regular, rebel young Pakistani, I must hate her.
For what she has been portraying about my beloved country over the years
For running away like a coward
For meeting with Salman Rushdi
For her father got a job in the British Consulate
For this whole episode which by the way killed several students, was just a setup to defame Pakistan

I am a patriot and thus, I must hate her for being the "American pawn" in telling the world what a dangerous and unsafe place Pakistan is.

WHY MY HEART DOESN'T BLEED FOR PARIS

In all honesty, the attacks on Paris came as a surprise so severe that I actually went through the four stages of grief.

No, none of my family lives there
Nor do I know anyone that lives there

FROM SAHIL, WITH UNDYING LOVE

So when I said that ALL girls hated Sahil, I did not know I would be hurting the feelings of a dear friend.

                                                      Meet AMNA KHALIL

Almost a doctor

Certified tharki

Writer

Friend

Cancer (the star, not the disease. Stop being so morbid, people!)

Aashiq

Tarroo buddy

Miss OH-EM-JEE

    Sarcastic

     Stupid

         Sometimes, may look cute

 Baker

   Girrafie-fan XD

TO SAHIL, WITHOUT LOVE

Note: This is for all the women out there who have ever been ridiculed, objectified or terrorized by our social set up.

I have tried and tried hard to stay away from serious topics, blunt truths and depressing realities. But is it really the solution to the problems I face daily? What good does my ignorance and blindness do to me other than keeping me obliviously happy for a few hours? Is it true to my soul?

I cannot be a cheerful, smiling monster all the time.
why?
Because people don't let me
They come and tell me why is it okay to hate them because they deserve it.

REDEFINING ADJECTIVES: WHY OUR PERCEPTION NEEDS TO CHANGE

This is the first ever guest blog hosted by me. Yayy me!
And I feel ABSOLUTELY thrilled *and honoured* to introduce Maryam Ayub, a fellow blogger, to you guys.
Well, most of you may already know her.

Maryam is .. umm.. straight forward, I would say. And a very strong feminist.
She writes from the heart and with a wit that I cannot hope to acquire. She is like a real life Burqa Avenger.

Hypocrisy

How can I in my capacity judge your circumstances when I know nothing of what you are, what you go through, where you come from and what you go back home to?

And even if I knew, can I still judge you?

Can I at least try to understand you?

Indeed I cannot.

You live in a hell of your own.

You yearn for a heaven of your own.

You plead exoneration of sins that only you know you have comitted.

You love a unique pleasure that is yet to be known by others

You lust after a far fetched dream that even you cannot see yet.

DO YOU EVER?

It is unfair.

Very unfair.
To those who sit quietly by and wait for you to remember them.
But do you ever?

When you are happy
When you sit and look at the stars
When your heart skips a beat
Do you remember the old one's, so near and dear?

A CULTURE OF SIN

Its a city of sinners that we live in. Its a world of hypocrisy.

Here's an epidemic that has plagued our hearts, infested our souls and the infection of it is exuding out of every crevice of our being. We are filthy to the last atom of our existence. But we are pious. "More" pious than our neighbours, better humans than our fellows, a bigger persons than our companions. Its a truth that we all know in our hearts that we in fact are on the right path, however deflected from the right and however blind to the truth we maybe.We are humans, after all.