Women & Freedom: Pakistani Poet's Ode to Mahsa Amini Is a Blow to Patriarchy

Today marks the 44th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, one of the most important events and certainly the last great revolution of the 20th century. Despite the revolution’s early gains and achievements over the last four decades, women’s freedom have been steadily curtailed and eroded in Iran. This was starkly proven last year on 16 September when a 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was brutally tortured to death over having her head improperly covered, leading to widespread ongoing mass protests against the regime in Tehran.Iran’s Protest Anthem ‘Baraye’ Wins Best Song for Social Change at 2023 GrammysSince the unfortunate death of Amini in police custody, not only have Iranian women been at the forefront of the protest movement but their daring step has found massive support among Iranians from all walks of life—from the Iranian soccer team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup to the members of Iran’s much-vaunted film fraternity.The memorable slogan of the Iranian protest movement Zan, Zindagi, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom) echoes the rallying cry of another martyr in a different part of the world, the unfortunate African-American George Floyd whose last words before being asphyxiated to death in Minnesota on 25 May 2020— ‘I Can’t Breathe’, gave rise to the powerful Black Lives Matter movement across the United States.Among Urdu poets, Kishwar Naheed (b. 1940) has the distinction of being one of the greatest living Urdu poets. Her life, writings, and activism against patriarchy and dictatorship in Pakistan as one of the pioneers of feminist Urdu poetry, are well-documented. She is probably the first Urdu poet to give voice to Mahsa Amini, the young martyr of Iran’s rekindled feminist movement, with one of her latest poems simply titled 'Mahsa Amini'.She begins her poem by noting that even in Biblical times while the Egyptian women were cutting their fingers, smitten by Joseph’s beauty, nobody dared make them captive by invoking religious injunctions:Jis vaqt zanan-e-MisrYusuf ka deedar karte hueApni ungliyan kaat rahi theenUnhen kisi ne mazhab kiZanjeer nahi pehnai thiShe then goes on to appropriate the Iranian feminist pioneering poet Forough Farrokhzad, her contemporary resistance poet Ahmad Shamlou and the just-released acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi to the cause of her heroine,Forough Farrokhzad ke mulk meinAuraten scarf aur dopatte jala rahi henEhtijaj mein baal kaat rahi henShakhsi azadi ke liye…Ahmad Shalou aur Jafar PanahiKeh rahe hain ‘Zan, Zindagi, Azadi’Before finishing her poem by reminding the custodians of morality that as per Muslim beliefs, it will be by their mothers’ names that they will be identified on the Day of Judgement; she says but even on that greatest Day of all days, these bearded grandees will be running after unveiled women rather than caring for their own salvation:Aur dunya ke tamamImam-o-shuyukh ko yad dilaunJab qabr se uthaye jayengeMaan ke naam se pukare jayengeIs din nasiheen koApni bakhshish ki fikr ho giKe is vaqt bhi auraton koHashr ke maidan meinHijab pehnane ko bhagte rahen ge.So on the 44th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution today, Kishwar Naheed’s posthumous tribute to one of its youngest martyrs Mahsa Amini, is being presented here in an original English translation, which is also a paean to Iranian women, Iranian lives and Iranian freedom.At the timeThe women of EgyptWhile beholding JosephWere cutting their fingersNo faith had placed them in fettersThe Guardians of the land of Hafez and SaadiKilling a young girl while warning herConsider it real IslamIn the land of Forough FarrokhzadWomen are burning scarfs and stolesCutting their hair in protestFor personal freedom(s)Women around the world are chanting slogansAhmad Shamlou and Jafar PanahiAre saying ‘Zan, Zindagi, Azadi’Those who have made the meadow of faith into a wildernessWould make even the trees veil themselves had they power (over them)They begin to lick their lips evenUpon seeing the waving branchesIn the corridors of beliefsTo those who imprison womenAnd all the leaders and aged menShould I remindThat when they will be raised from the graveThey will be called by the mother’s nameThat day the preachersWill be worried about their forgivenessIn that at that time tooIn the field of DoomsdayThey will be running to veil the women.’(Raza Naeem is an award-winning Pakistani researcher and translator based in Lahore, where he is also the president of the Progressive Writers Association. He tweets @raza_naeem1979. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

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Women & Freedom: Pakistani Poet's Ode to Mahsa Amini Is a Blow to Patriarchy

As Iran celebrates 44 years of revolution, urdu poetry documented how women's curtailed freedom sparked a movement.

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Topics: Urdu poetry Mahsa Amini