Where are the Women
Where are the women?
Years ago I made a commitment to always ask, where are the women?
And I discovered that the question leads me to what I really want to know.
Where are the women?
As we saw the streets during the fall of Baghdad
At the organizing committees of Cairo
Congressional Committees on family planning
Women’s art in Museums around the world is 5%
Members at Augusta National Golf Club
Where all of the male Fortune 100 are welcome women = 0%
CEOs in the fortune 500 = 4% (18)
The United States Congress 17%
Afghanistan women & girls leaving education, workforce, & hiding indoors as they face the Taliban taking over in 2014
Where are the WOMEN?
The women are tending to the matters of life.
collecting water, preparing food, protecting children and the elderly
guarding the door, trying to keep her family safe or migrating to find refuge
Men are tending to the matters of death making weapons and caskets
planting fake food, spraying pesticides
raising flags and claiming ownership of the land
Women are tending to the matters of life.
Imagine the world run by women ~ the fact is you can’t
We have no idea what that would be like
We can only guess but all the indications are that
Women reassign priorities to life.
To the things that give life, Sustain life, Treasure life
I want a world where women and men and children attend the matter of life.
I want a world where everyone is well, thriving, prospering.
I want a world where women make all family planning and healthcare decisions.
I want a world with women at the helm, in parliaments,
on the front line of justice and law enforcement.
I want a world where women are empowered to lead the way to PEACE
__________________________________________________________________
I AM THAT WOMAN
This is our prayer, pray with me
This is our chant, chant with me
I am that woman (I say after each line below)
I am that woman (You say after each line below)
We are that woman. (We say after each line below)
In New York City there is a women who ran away at 14, now 20, is owned & branded by her pimp
In Nepal there is a mother whose daughter has been kidnapped into sex slavery
In China there is a woman at a sewing machine 18 hours a day making our running shoes
In Toronto there is a woman who is told to avoid rape, she should not dress like a slut.
In Georgetown there is a student, on scholarship, who cannot afford $3,000 for pack of pills
In Peru there is a woman who spends 50% of her day collecting water for her family
In New Delhi there is a baby girl left to die because she was not a boy
In Sierra Leone there is a woman whose genitals are being mutilated in the name of tradition.
In Honduras there is a lesbian living in hiding afraid for her life and freedom
In Kenya there is a girl who is not allowed to be in school because she can’t buy pads.
In Nigeria there is a 12 year old widow who was a child bride and is now homeless
In South Africa there is a woman dying of HIV-AIDS with no healthcare
In Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming there is an 8th grade girl, Marisa Spoonhunter who has been raped and killed.
In an Allegheny County Jail, PA there is a woman in childbirth in shackles and handcuffs
Today we are all these women
We are more than our one life, we are all of these women
We stand and chant and walk for all these women
Because I am that woman, you are that woman, we are that woman.
Thank You Zoe for your lovely poem. I heard it at the UN Women Peace Walk on Saturday. I work on FGM in Sierra Leone, and I have an organization that specifically deals with FGM and the complexity of the issue in Sierra Leone only. I will love to sit and discuss this with You sometime, if You may have the time. My kind request is for You to add a simple line to your poem:
In Sierra Leone there is a woman whose genitals are being mutilated in the name of tradition.
I am that woman.
We are that woman.
I hope we can speak in person.
Thank You for your powerful art!
Posted by: Nina Smart | June 04, 2012 at 12:37 PM
It is my honor to add the line you suggested. Thank you.
Posted by: Zoe Nicholson | June 05, 2012 at 07:17 PM