Image Courtesy:
https://www.foati.com/tag/niqabillustration
Just you walk in her shoes
You’ll be turning heads
For not the right reasons
Like
Why do they make her wear that?
That poor thing
Blindspotting
They see a caged bird
Clipped off of her wings
She only sees the world
Through the tiny slit of her screen
A poster for oppression
Depraved
Of every freedom
A soulless ghost in black
The black that goes with everything
Just not her.
Outside looking in,
Blindspotting.
Yet she’s more than the blind spots
She’s a whole woman
No one can make her do anything
You call for her liberation
Call to awaken her mind
When this all she finds
in her spiritual elation
She’s not a case of identity theft
She is not invisible
You do see her
Even more, you don’t wonder, you know
There is more to her
While you had women tightly wrapped in glass cases
She was free
Shrouded
With every shred of dignity.
Her garment means “forbidden”
A fortress
“I am not an object”
“I refuse to be enslaved
By the stares of strangers”
It’s a symbol
for sisterhood, recognition, devotion,
peace and freedom
From the inside looking out
So, don’t you let your prejudice blind you
Look at her, look at her well
She’s a woman
Self-confident, peaceful and dignified
Not a trace of oppression on her face.
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*Inspired by: A view Through the Hijab by Khaula Nakata.