1.Consider the symbolism of a poet phoning her poem to a friend rather than writing it down.
2. Why DO these women risk death? What is the potential gain? Do you
think it is worth it?
3. What is the relationship between writing and
marriage?
4. Is the women's writing a sign of their optimism, their hope for the future, or a sign of their acceptance of their fate to be punished and killed for their transgression?
I think the Afghan women choose to risk death for poetry because it makes them martyrs. Since so much of their lives are ruled by men, poetry gives them a sense of their independence. If they are killed for writing poetry, at least they've done something useful with their lives. Poetry gives these women a sense of fulfillment. "An unexamined life is not worth living." We've all heard that before. The Afghan women are examining their lives and the lives they wish they could lead. The love stories, the freedom, the respect - it's all something they wish for. Writing poetry doesn't have any particular gains for them except for being able to express their ideas and let their feelings out. In some way though, there's a lot of things that we do that have no potential gain to us except for personal fulfillment. We do things some things because we like them, the same way that the Afghan women do, however they have little other options. I think for them it's worth writing the poetry even if there are risks. They need something to take their minds off of how much their lives suck since they aren't allowed to do much. It's simply their way of trying to enjoy part of their lives.
ReplyDeleteThe Aghan women risk death to write poetry so they can express all the feelings and ideas they have that they aren't allowed to share in public. Their society punishes them for being vocal, discouraging them from sharing their thoughts. Some of the poems are landais that discuss feeling trapped and being forced into marriages. Most women in Afghanistan aren’t able to go to college, choose their husbands, or do the things they want. They are forced to be submissive housewives. By sharing these poems, the Afghan women are able to let go of all the things they keep bottled inside, such as their sadness, loneliness, and desire to be free. Saheera Sharif, Mirman Baheer’s founder, said, “A poem is a sword” (Griswold, 3). The women are able to fight against the people oppressing them by writing. The poems also let women know they're not alone and that there are others who feel the same way they do. I don’t think writing poems in Afghanistan is worth risking death for. Zarmina committed suicide after her brothers beat her for writing. It is important for the women to be able to share their ideas, but it is more important for them to stay alive.
ReplyDeleteI believe the Afghan women risk their lives for the same reasons any one else has risked their life to obtain a certain freedom. It is against the Afghan society for women to freely express themselves through speaking or writing. There are also a lot more restrictions placed on women in the society, but writing poetry is the one rule they can break somewhat discretely. Through writing the poetry, the women can actually express their own thoughts and share their feelings, instead of following strict rules that limit them to show their true identity. The poetry can also be used as a tool to unify the women. They can relate to each others' poems and the women can have the feeling of being understood. They can be completely honest without lying to themselves, which is what they do to fit into the Afghan cultural standard. I personally don't know if writing poetry is worth your life, but if the women feel very passionate about obtaining such freedoms, then maybe sacrifice is a necessary evil to bring about a better society.
ReplyDeleteUsually speaking of poems people think of it as a written form to read as a matter of fact, while the recording of poem in Afghanistan is irony compared to this--Afghan women will risk death if write down love poems. It is the very culture and religious climate that prohibits women from literary creating.A recording poem instead of a lasting written one suggests its volatile nature of existence in Afghanistan. Even so, hundreds of Afghan women still risk their life to write poems as an "inside movement"for women's rights. Landai, the most popular type of poems, "railed against the bondage of forced marriage with wry, anatomical humor".It provides a means for women to seek solace and to express voice,which is no doubt important and worthwhile no matter what. Those women are pursuing a way out, maybe not physically from their husbands abuses but spiritually from communication with other women. In addition, this movement is meant to stun the history in Afghanistan as it goes on,and clearly those women know their mission of fighting for human rights. They are the pioneers and whatever outcomes will leave a significant meaning for the future generation. As Zarmina said before dying, "record my voice, so that when I get killed at least you’ll have something of me", which indicates her will of being heard and telling the world what happened here in Afghanistan. It is like a distress signal calling attention from the rest of the world.It is improbable to see some substantial change in lifetime for those desperate women as the goals will have to take a long time to be realized, but every small step is a potential gain peculiar to making records for history.Those bravery women pave way to the future equality and human rights, which is a great direction to fight for.The relationship between writing and marriage is irony as well for most of the poems Afghan women write are about marriage, while marriage bans women from writing at the same time. For the last question, it is up to each individual to write in her own purpose, but not on a group's level. Though all those women have mutual goals and voluntarily unite each other and help out, internally they are distinct from one another. For example, one may treat her writing as last words, another as an expectancy for new life. No matter what goal of each woman is, the collective power will be great enough to make progresses.
ReplyDelete2. Why DO these women risk death? What is the potential gain? Do you think it is worth it?
ReplyDeleteMany people write poetry for self- expression, but this situation in Afghanistan has more reasons behind it. Poetry written by Afghan women is a type of a protest against an oppressed life that they live: “[Meena] doesn’t dare protest “directly, but reciting poetry to Amail allows her to speak out against her lot.” Writing poetry is like an escape for them, like a prayer that women’s rights would gain more power someday, “poem is like a sword” (p.3. Saheera Sharif, Mirman Baheer’s founder), it “is a more effective battle for women’s rights than shouting at political rallies”. They cannot shout at political rallies because there is nobody there who could hear them – politics are men. They would either beat those women up or assassinate them.
The potential gain of writing poetry is a collaboration of oppressed women. They are slowly, gradually uprising. To confirm that there is a problem, in this case – non-existence of women’s rights in Afghanistan, a problem has to be recognized. Women in Afghanistan recognized this problem and already gathered at Mirman Baheer’s organization. In 1950s housewives of U.S. did not know why they felt unhappy. In 1963 Betty Friedan called this issue “The Problem That Has No Name”. She wrote a book about it and sparked the feminist movement, later on helped to find the National Organization for Women. I put “she wrote a book” in italics to highlight that she as women in Afghanistan in order to bring the awareness of a problem firstly – wrote about it. Unlike as in U.S. Afghan women are far away from founding a National Women’s Organization because situation in Afghanistan is ten times more complicated than it had been in U.S. Despite that, writing poetry is worth risking their lives because it is the only option to raise awareness about violations of women’s rights. World, more specifically, international organizations, such as Amnesty International need to be informed and help them in some ways. As we can see, information from a small Mirman Baheer’s organization has already reached U.S.’s audience through an article posted in New York Times, which is it self a gain for Afghan women. They risk their lives writing poetry, but they have nothing to lose. How good can a life be if your fiancé was murdered, you have to marry one of his brothers, your own home is like a prison and your father/brothers are like inspectors of the prison?
These women risk death every day because they feel that something significant needs to be changed. For them this change is the rights of women. These people suffer every day and some even commit suicide because of it. And this is all while they do not have the ability to gain that much. The Afghan women realize that they can not make themselves equal to men and this is one of the primary steps for doing just that. It is not an easy journey and some will most likely regret revolting because of the beating they may receive. I do not think that it is my place to say whether risking their lives is worth it or not because none of the people in our culture really understand what it is like to live in the conditions these women do. To be afraid that they may be beaten to death by their own family for something they wrote. This would not be an easy environment for anyone to live and that is why Afghan women are risking their lives to change it.
ReplyDelete4.
ReplyDeleteThe Afghan women that are writing I think are writing with optimism. I do believe that they have hope for the future with what their poetry brings to their community as much as men think it is bad and will kill them for it. Even though the young woman that committed suicide and set herself on fire because her brothers were beating her up and making fun of her for what she was doing, makes it seem as though she's was accepting her fate that she was going to die, she was also just one girl that did that. I think in the article they said that others are in the position, but I honestly do believe they have hope and optimism, now that this article was published I think they believe that they have a chance to create a movement with their writing poetry, although they probably don't know how anyone is going to be able to help and support their movement of letting women write, I think they believe they think they now have a fighting chance. If this article was not published would they have hope and optimism? Probably not, no one, at least I did not know that this was going on in their country, that their husbands/brothers, or just men in general were beating the women for even speaking, reading a poem. But at least with this article they might have some satisfaction with themselves knowing that people know what is going on in their country. So maybe some of the examples in the article show that they are accepting of their fate of no change, but I think the article its self has a deeper meaning to these women, then the example they wrote.
The womens writing is definitely a sign of hope. If they had no hope that things might eventually get better, they would not bother to write these poems. They would just accept that their lives were miserable and move on. Instead, they risk their lives to write these poems. They show that the women have hope that one day things can change. Inside some of these poems, the women mock certain aspects of Afganistan, and the people who live there. However, many of them contain hope. If there was no hope, there would be no poems. They would just sulk and hate their lives. Instead, they hope.
ReplyDelete4.) I think the best answer to this question is yes, its all of these things and more. Their poetry is a hope for the future, it is a death sentence, it is optimism and pessimism; it is their lives and the world they refuse to accept. The writing is a sign that there is something wrong. The tragic works that come from these women show that there is an imbalance between what the women want, and what the men want, and it is clear through the pain all of these women convey in their poetry what side has the upper hand. This writing does an amazing job of expressing what the women want in their lives, but also what is wrong in their lives. From American occupation to marital problems, their poetry addresses everything. For women, poetry is a sign of self expression at the highest level. They live in a world where they are forced to cover up, conceal, and repress themselves. Generally, that is considered unhealthy, and this poetry helps them take the thoughts and feelings they have on the inside, and bring them to the outside where others can hear it. Even by simply writing it down for themselves, it does alleviate the incredible burden of locking up all their emotions. This poetry is a sign of the hopeful future that the middle east can take. Much of their poetry outlines a freer, more peaceful dream that recognizes its own risk and consequences. Hopefully someday what all of these women sacrifice and risk will translate into positive physical action, as opposed to hopes and dreams shared among each other that could end in bloodshed and pain.
ReplyDeleteThe prices women have to pay in Afghanistan when they write poems are their death. Women suffer through their lives; women’s lives are really imitated and men have the control over women. However women are still eager to write poems because writing poem is the only way to imply their feelings. Living in a world of limitation, women must have a lot of stress; while writing poems may not release the stress completely, the poems at least show the emotion Afghan women have. Writing a poem can be a sign of rebellion to the country’s strict and unfair rule as well; while women must know that they may face death when they write poems, women still try and eager to write more poems. By writing poems, they want to show that women have as much as or maybe more power than men do. This is the way that Afghan women pursuit freedoms and power.
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between writing and marriage is like a relationship between key and door.
ReplyDeleteMarriage is a word that makes women in Afgan unstable. In the past, women didn't realize that they have chances to choose their spouse. They received what their ancestor received naturally. However, women in Afgan now noticed that exsitence of their rights, freedom. Therefore, forced marriage in Afgan became a social disease to women. Even though women want to change the situation that they encountered, there were problems. Men's power in Afgan society is too strong to gather or share women's emotion toward their marriage. Writing is the way to express women's emotion toward world because its feacture is easy to share and keep for a long time like in an article. Otherwise, if there is a person, A person could write from others who don't know how to write. Writing is a only key to solve the social disease in Afgan.
The women who risk their life writing poetry stand for change in society and how women are treated. They want to change how women are treated and viewed in society. They write their feeling and emotions down in their poetry. The gain they are hoping to achieve is equality and to be treated right from men. Since they are treated so bad by men and society they having nothing to lose, but their. They are already risking their by writing poetry so they have everything already on the line. This makes there their purpose more meaningful, because they will could go to an extreme and make a point in society,since everything is on the line already. I personally think that the cause they are fighting should not be ignored. It's hard for women to have their voices heard in a male dominate society and through poetry they can have their voices heard. The poetry is an escape for society and the only way to achieve want they want without bringing violence from an outside source. I think it is worth it, because if there is a chance that they can achieve their goal then go for it. They have nothing else to lose.
ReplyDeleteThe women's writing is a sign of hope and optimism. If they didn't think that there would eventually be a change then they would have no reason to risk their lives. If it was a sign of accepting their fate then they wouldn't write at all. Writing means they are striving for a change and there obviously has already been a change because there are so many who are writing as well.
ReplyDelete1.) I think women phoning a friend is symbolic of them speaking out in private to people who can relate to their melancholy existence. Not writing down poems could also be a way of not taking accountability for your beliefs. Though this act could be construed as rebellion, writing down poetry that in my opinion is bitter but hopeful can prompt women to rally and fight against the injustice that their culture has bestowed upon them, otherwise, phoning a friend is just a way of feeling sorry for yourself and venting. These women are smart and opinionated, they should record what they create.
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