Meena: The first Afghan woman martyr who laid down her life for women&#39;s rights

Meena: The first Afghan woman martyr who laid down her life for women's rights

Shamsul Islam, formerly with Delhi University, remembers Meena, the first Afghan woman who laid down life for rights of Afghan women:

***

The great Afghan woman martyr, Meena (1956-1987), founded the Revolutionary Association Of The Women Of Afghanistan (RAWA) in 1977. She was assassinated by the hired goons of KHAD (Afghanistan branch of KGB) and their fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4, 1987.
RAWA resolutely fought for the rights of the Afghan women against the Islamists and the Russians occupation (1980-87) of their country offering heroic sacrifices. RAWA kept on the fight for the rights of the Afghan women during the first Taliban rule (1996-2001), the USA led occupation of the country (2001-2021) and continues the resistance during the current 2nd rule of the Taliban.
In the following is reproduced a part of Meena’s poem which she wrote few months before her martyrdom.

I’ll Never Return

I'm the woman who has awoken
I've arisen and become a tempest through the ashes of my burnt children
I've arisen from the rivulets of my brother's blood
My nation's wrath has empowered me
My ruined and burnt villages fill me with hatred against the enemy
Oh compatriot, no longer regard me weak and incapable,
My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women
My fists are clenched with fists of thousands compatriots
To break all these sufferings all these fetters of slavery.
I'm the woman who has awoken,
I've found my path and will never return

Comments

The making of a self-made woman: How eighty sheep changed everything for Kalawati Ninama

By Vikas Meshram* About forty-two kilometres from Rajasthan's Banswara district, in the tribal heartland of Ghatol block, lies the small village of Ubapana. This is where Kalawati Ninama, her husband Dhulji, and their four children make their home. Their days unfold much like those of their neighbours—bustling mornings, long hours of farm labour through the afternoon, and evenings spent tending livestock. For this family, farming and livestock were once simply a means of putting food on the table. Today, they have become the sturdy foundation of something far greater: genuine self-sufficiency.

India has spent billions on skilling. Where are the jobs?

By Vikas Gupta India loves the photograph of a certificate ceremony. A minister on a stage. A banner bearing the word “skill.” Young people holding folders that promise a future. It is a reassuring image because it tells us the problem has a manageable answer: train the young, make them job-ready, and work will follow.

BAPS, the Eiffel Tower and the curious silence on secularism

By Rajiv Shah I was a little surprised to see how some of those whom I respect for taking a firm stand on patriarchal issues reacted to the manner in which they responded to the recent incident in Paris, in which women employees of the Eiffel Tower were asked to remain "invisible" on September 5 when 100 BAPS sadhus visited one of the world's top tourist destinations.

Counterview

Search This Blog