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This beautiful poem pays tribute to Gauri Lankesh and to all those who refuse to stay silent even when answered with abuse and threats.
She was born with a voice like all of us are but sooner or later sell it to fear or favour either of the two
but she held on to this voice of her soul this calling a spade a spade in the dark times of abuse and troll
She owned this voice and gave it fiercer words her dissent was her arrow her armour and swords
but who likes a voice? A woman with a choice A newspaper with questions Enquiries and allegations It is not in the great culture To speak against the great Quietly accept their follies as their greatness or fate
She stood alone in the storm Holding the flag high The resistance grew stronger And the attacks more sly Bitch, whore, traitor The commonest labels To silence the dissent In ideological battles
She the brave one was still undeterred courage is often feeble never bartered even when battered
She used her words to Write their crimes As Brecht said once The dark songs for these darkest times when institutions become weaker and dissent a pantomime
A brave warrior woman who speaks her mind
was so unbearable for a dictatorship blind
when force or coercion could not stifle the outcry a bullet for the truth that had dared to defy
It is not pen against a gun or gun against a pen It is violence against us One by one
but one final day The dictator will not have the last laugh Her voice shall live on Even in her epitaph:
“Tolerating an injustice is as bad as committing one.”
Pooja Priyamvada is an author, columnist, translator, online content & Social Media consultant, and poet. An awarded bi-lingual blogger she is a trained psychological/mental health first aider, mindfulness & grief facilitator, emotional wellness trainer, reflective read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
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Dear Women’s Web Community Member,
You may have wondered at our being on the quieter side during the last couple of months. Thank you for your patience, and we wanted to come back to you with a detailed note on what’s been happening at our end of things.
When we first began Women’s Web, as a blog from one woman’s desk along with a few like-minded souls, little could we have imagined the heights that it would soar to. Over the years, Women’s Web has published over 20000 stories (almost all by women), empowered countless women with the ideas, community and resources to chase their dreams, employed hundreds of women in core and project-based roles, and in the process, emerged as the OG women’s community in India. It has also inspired many others to build communities of a similar nature, all enabling women (and other-underrepresented groups) in their own ways.
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