“For what sin were you killed?” asked the omnipotent Lord. Binti-Hawa replied: O the eternal possessor of sovereignty, authority and supremacy! Curtains of flesh and bone don’t stop You from looking into our chests. Al-Aleemu (The all-knowing one), Al-Baseeru (The all seeing one) and Al-Khabeeru (The all-aware one) are thy attributes! O the omniscient Lord! You even know the concealed intentions of bosoms. None of secrets of hearts and chests are hidden from You. You know well what led to my brutal assassination. You need not any eye-witness or description to know the truth. But, since you have asked, let me reveal the butchery inflicted upon me by the king of all creations. Let these angels know the black truth about Ibni-Adam. Binti-Hawa sniveled bitterly. Her sighs and sobs were audible to all.
The wailing daughter of Hawa (Eve) continued her exclamation, “My Lord, Your cherished Caliph has subjected me to immense miseries and pains. Your vicegerent on the planet earth has grown greedy and oblivious. He has ripped up your heavenly rules and regulations. Your viceroy has altered your heavenly charter to sway his despotic whims on weaker and subordinate creatures like me. He is ambitious enough to see his authority grown to the fullest extent. He wants everyone to prostrate before him. He is the newest incarnation of Pharoah and Namrood. His tyrannical stance has ruined his inborn angelic attributes. Thy deputy has snatched my right of being a better half. He has constricted me to the slavery of procreation and homemaking.
Maniac and lunatic traits have grown him too corpulent and blind to look beyond his own interests and ambitions. Thy viceroy has become a tyrant dictator who maims my innocence like a rabid wolf. My Lord, my plight even begins prior to my conception. I have to escape the pangs of abortive pills, scissors, scalpels, forceps, retractors, operation theatres and brutal medicos, who try their best to kill me in my mother’s womb.
Unlike the ignoramuses of Arabia, thy so-called educated and brainy people don’t let me come into the world. They perish me in a jiffy through their advanced drugs and surgical procedures. I am not alone to bear this all. My mother has to go through maltreatment at the hands of my close ones, when she carries me in her belly. I am never weighed at par with my male siblings. I vividly remember the taunts, my mother is hurled upon for my birth. My dress code is always stereotyped and stigmatized. My studies are either not considered at all or are not thought to be as important as my brothers’. I am thought to be a burden on the shoulders of my parents. I am never let to enjoy the rights conferred upon me by You.
I am feeling gagged, choked and suffocated under the brazen male hegemony. Son of Adam has not only trampled my freedom under his cruel clutches, but has restricted the space for me. My existence on the planet has become a perpetual eyesore for him. I am a mere source of amusement and pleasure derivation for him. My birth is never celebrated and acclaimed in my own home. I am thought to be an ominous creature on the planet earth. I am an unwelcome guest in my own ancestral abode. Many eyebrows frown when I step into the world. Many faces go down when my name strikes their ear drums for the first time.
I am suffering terribly at the hands of lusty predators and wolves. Molestation and sexual assaults are probably carved in the palm lines of my hands. I am perhaps destined to it. Goons and road Romeo’s have limited space for me to walk freely. Abuses, catcalling and wolf-whistling is probably written in the booklet of my fate. Progeny of Adam roams boastfully to tear my chastity, modesty and purity to shreds. I am falling prey to beasts that only look for opportunities to pounce upon me. Somewhere I am being plundered in the garb of a job, sometimes my innocence is strangulated in the broad daylight, and at times, my purity is not spared even in temples and shrines.
Contrary to my innate inclination towards decency and modesty, I have been perched on nude ledges of malls and offices to entice customers of eroticism. My veil has been removed to display the intricacies of my beauty and comeliness, which were to be concealed from the eyes of vultures and vampires. My immaculacy and chastity is being sold cheaply and cowardly. I am either dragged to brothels or to open markets where people derive pleasure from my bodily attraction. I have been reduced to a mere merchandise commodity. I am forced to wear transparent and tight outfits. Exhibition of my beauty is used to please and conjure the beasts of libido.
My male siblings and parents consider me a mere liability on them. I am being deprived of my legal, social and economic rights. My ancestral property share is grabbed unlawfully by the so-called Ashraful Makhlooqat.
My plight doesn’t end even after getting hitched up in the nuptial knot. And my in-laws never accept me as their daughter. My sufferings and miseries continue to haunt me. Agreement of marriage changes my caretakers, but not my fate. I continue to get ground in the mill of affliction, barbarity and cruelty. Taboos and stereotypes of the world are made for solely me. My Lord, why did You create me from the ribs of Adam? I am looking for justice from You – You are the Jurist of all jurists!
Author is a Teacher and a Columnist. He can be reached at mushtaqhurra143@gmail.com
