Sarah Ather Kashmiri:
So bizarre was the tale of the virgin prostitute ,
Not a single soul could give her love for she was a lover of light , a lover of balance but she was shameless they said , she had no pride .
She could walk down the street without covering her face , without being guilty of the natural guilt she was born with .
She would look straight in their eyes and smile and praise the monsoon winds that blew her hair .
She would find no shame in asking questions and baffling them with the unheard ways of living .
And she was ungrateful, ungrateful for all the moments they let her breath , ungrateful for all the moments they accepted her loud laughter in the village square .
But as ignorant as she was , she sought pleasure in vicious sins , sins as vicious as openly singing songs about men and women and love .
Some even said she was fearless , a shame to her family , a shame to the village . She laughed on the respected , well mannered men , she laughed on their complex necessities and dubious aims , she laughed on the difficult time they had hiding their true desires .
And she had no compassion , no compassion for the poor neighbors who had such trouble sleeping all night thinking she is dancing happily without a wrinkle of worry about who her owner should be .She had a heart of stone to be cruel enough to question the traditions of pride , and to praise even those who did not share the same land . Certainly , she was a traitor to see good in those who she was born to hate. She sang songs of freedom and walked with her scars wide exposed .
‘Yes, he raped me’ , she shouted, ‘and I still have the right to live and laugh ‘.
Sarah Ather Kashmiri is an architect based in New Delhi and a freelance writer.
Taken from the writer’s facebook timeline.