Because I Am a Woman, I Write

 Because I Am a Woman, I Write

"Why waste your time with books and screens?"
They ask with furrowed brows and sighs,
"Why not just cook, and clean, and care,
Be what tradition still implies?"

 

But listen now, I will explain,
Why ink and thought must be my light:
Because I am a woman, I write.

Long kept silent, denied my say,
I write to carve a freer way.

For dreams once caged to take their flight,
For truth to blaze, I must write.

No hand but mine shall script my fate,
No silence stitched by fear or hate.
For every battle yet in sight,
With every breath—I choose to write.

 

To voice the fire that won’t sit still,
To break the mold, to bend the will,
To tear down walls of false power, hypocrisy, and pride,
To bring lost justice to my side.

To shatter the embedded misogyny

To reclaim my dignity, I write

To challenge the myths and to shatter the hegemony

Because I am a woman, I write

 

 To challenge rules that chain and bind,

To free the body, soul, and mind,
To build a world of equal rights, 

To power my fight, to write the rights

Because I am a woman, I write.

 

Inspired by the poem Because I am I Girl I must Study by Kamla Bhasin 

 

Shalu Nigam