AyeshaToday, in a meeting
One of my colleagues
Was euphemistic of
Her non-diplomacy; initially
I was astounded, awestruck!
With the flattery
But it was no puffery.
The expression came naturally.
Not being euphemistic,
The kudos was for a fighter,
In a society where
Women are harassed
By raping gaze
As a sex toy, and
The only path to success
Lies in stooping to conquer
Or conforming to the dominant structures
Through opportunist diplomacy
To touch the meager shadow
Of empowerment they can;
And those who dare
To retaliate
Are relegated like local
Transgenders, condemned
To beg for survival …
Neither men nor women
Neither worthy of love nor respect –
How dare commit
The heresy of paraphrasing
Themselves as men!!!
How dare you compete men?
Commit the blasphemy of imagining
As their equals at workplace?…
All doors closed altogether
Towards survival
What of projects and promotions
Or decision making.
The execution is manipulated
Subtly….
Overtly …. covertly.
How dare you challenge the conventions?
Challenge, question and
Be adulated
With harassments…..
Speak out – do a march
with placards, face the tar
Of character assassination
Through the terrorism of rumours
By the dignitaries
Friends or officers
Get tagged as bitches
Or declared as rough,
Quarrelsome witches!!!!!!
While a newly joined officer
Expressed his surprise why
Men around were afraid of her
And left no stone unturned
To efface her name
Erase her existence
From any committee panel or
Access to policy making
What to speak of promotion
And the gentleman sitting next
Summed it up succinctly
How a woman is only a sex object
In the vulture gaze of the so called
Educated men alliance
Who would be reflective enough
To render equality or respect
To a woman?
To somebody, pun implied
Who is simultaneously a some and a body –
A woman and an upright human
In a fraternity of opportunists
Who oblige
And are obliged in turn
For personal gains……
If you are a woman like that
Get ready to be an outcast
As the diplomatic bowing of heads
Both by the so called pious women
Or by the exchange-value sluts
Renders ‘some’ significance
Bestowed upon in the honour
Of their conformity….
Lauding that gentleman in retrospect
I realised his honesty of expression
That scaffolded hope …..
It is the integrity not the gender
That provokes slander
Thank you gentleman!
Men like you sustain
The socio-ethical equilibrium
Challenging the phallocentric delirium.
Feminism, after all, is not a gynocentric criterion!!!
