I
am
woman
Imra’a
Whole
Not a fragment of your shadow
Not a rib torn out of your torso
Not a mail order
Not a house slave
Not a fairytale princess
Not a damsel in distress
Not a genie in a bottle
Not a saint
Not scattered
Not arranged
Not lacking in brain or piety
Not a fountain of propriety
I am eternity
Lived in an instant
I am constant
Randomness
I am chaos in stability
In songs you ache for me
I am your refuge and your refugee
Your barren desert and your fertile field
Your homeland
Your ‘watan’
My womb yields the fruit of life
I am your daughter
Mother
Sister
Wife
A prince of poetry wrote of me
“Alommo madrasaton…”
A mother is a school
When well prepared
You prepare a well-mannered nation
A thousand and one Arabian nights
I am inspiration
In the holy scriptures
I am temptation
I am your Eve in the Garden of Eden
My qualities revealed in the holy Quran
‘inna kaydahonna azeem’
I am your dream
Your ‘hoor alayn’
Your seduction
Your redemption
Your struggle
Your salvation
I am your strengths and weaknesses
All rolled into one
I am your lived reality
And all that you refuse to see
I am what you cannot define
Cannot confine
To a fantasy
I am human
Of flesh and blood
My virtue unquantifiable
My faults monumental
I am neither a reflection of you nor on you
Your ticket to paradise does not begin with my virtue
Your redemption does not begin with my submission
Your peace of mind does not begin with my conformity
Your honor is not defined by my chastity
Your vice is your own
Your honor is your own
Your fantasies are your own
For I can barely carry
My own burden
Alone
I am
woman
Imra’a
Whole
Written by Samah Sabawi February 18, 2013
I am neither Arab nor Muslim, but this is beautiful and speaks to all women. Thank you.
Stunning poetry from the heart. A woman who stands in get power is a force tone reckoned with.