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Helen’s Place LLC | Author’s Corner Update: August 15, 2022, on the anniversary of the fall of Afghanistan
Poem to Afghan Women: “A Safe Zone Exists Within Your Hearts” August 23, 2021
A safe zone exists within your hearts, and this is where the protection is, the security is right now. I feel it strongly when I think of you going back under burkas, and want to say:
You won’t be hidden again – because we’ve seen your beautiful faces. And the free birds are flying around you to remind you that you will never be enslaved again.
And you will never be alone again. We watched you fight off the darkness of the Taliban after your men left the battlefield and COVID-19 ravaged the Earth.
But the birds are still flying around you, comforting you, calling to you that your cause is not lost and you must be brave, because there’s nothing more important than your staying alive. Nothing.
And the dark ages will never happen again. We see you rising up in towns and cities, marching with Afghan flags, and know that you are a great people. You will overcome the brutality of the Temporary Taliban.
The women of the world are marching with you. And everyone who has ever been mistreated, discredited or abandoned is supporting you.
And you will never disappear again. Although for a time we might see you absent from jobs, we know that you’ll be back, because your metamorphosis already happened when you became pathfinders from ancient traditions to the 21st century.
You may be slowed for a moment, but your destiny is to become the greatest scholars, athletes, and scientists Afghanistan has ever known.
And you will never be left out again. Images of birds are flying over a united nations where you live in the comforting valley of your dreams, close to a “stan” border. Here you are waiting, learning, preparing for the new day – tomorrow or a hundred years from now; for as long as it takes.
In this place you are free to leave for other parts of the world, but you choose to stay with your work to form the United Territories of Afghanistan.
And you will never leave your safe zone again – because you are strong enough to remember the place in your hearts where misery and oppression can’t get in.
From this place, I see you giving hope and courage to millions of girls. And although you may be wearing burkas for a while, you are preparing to pack them up forever and send them off to old wardrobe museums, as relics of the past.
And even if the safe zone exists only in your hearts right now, I believe that one day you’ll experience being free.
Related audio/video interview recording:
An hour long seminar about where things stand with Afghanistan women:
YouTube, Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall, March 09, 2022 “Afghan Women: Hope and Optimism?”
Other related articles you may be interested in:
An untold story about the women who stood up and fought for their freedom:
Politico, April 8, 2022, “The Untold Story of the Afghan Women who hunted the Taliban”
An in-depth article about the disaster in Afghanistan for women:
The Guardian, Lynsey Addario, August 16, 2021, “The Taliban’s Return is Catastrophic for Women”
An inspirational story about surviving against all odds:
Helen’s Place LLC, “The Story of Phiona Mutesis Great Escape”
Helen’s Place LLC is an information and educational materials company celebrating English Language Arts, Cognitive Science and the love of birds.
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