Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 18:06:14 -0500
From: "Jaspal Singh" <jaspaljoth-AT-hotmail.com> (by way of radhika gajjala <radhika-AT-cyberdiva.org>)
Subject: Re: Share and heal--first few lines


You make me cringe in my skin

                 at your good intentions to rescue me

from myself and my culture

     You make me sick to my stomach

shaming  me for my arranged marriage

     I cover my dark head in my black shawl

walk out in protest

Can we talk?

         Dialogue?

Not monologic neologism

a two way flow

You and I

heal    heal   heal

my anquish    anger   wounds

i take back my pride

my joy

my love

myself for  myself

my daugher

                      my true south asian cyborg sisters

hold my pain in your hands

and share and heal

share and heal

share and heal



 >At 03:37 PM 2/24/2003 -0800, Jaspal Singh wrote:
 >
 >>This following piece was perfomed as part of the Vagina Monologue
 >>at my university; my daughter and I were present at this event. We
 >>walked out in protest. The VOX--Voices Of Planned
 >>Parenthood--organized this event as a fund raiser. As we walked
 >>out, they followed us and asked us why we were protesting and
 >>leaving. We explained to the students why we found the piece
 >>problematic and racist. As the piece was being perfomed and the
 >>lines starting with "imagine a huge dark, etc., . . . imagine . .
 >>. " I rose up with my black shawl over my head and headed out the
 >>door, saying, this is not right, my daughter shouted, "Imagine
 >>White Feminist racism." Now they still want a written explanation
 >>so the organizers could write to the author and she can edit this
 >>material. How do you think I should address it so that the
 >>monologue can also continue while it turns into a dialogue with us?
 >> Thanks.
 >>
 >>
 >>
 >>Last year Eve Ensler had the opportunity to go to Afghanistan.
 >>There, she witnessed firsthand what the outcome of misogyny would
 >>be if it were allowed to manifest itself totally. Under the
 >>Taliban, women are essentially living the lives of walking corpses.
 >>This monologue is for the brave, tender, fierce women of
 >>Afghanistan. That we may all rise up to save them.
 >>
 >>Under The Burqa
 >>imagine a huge dark piece of cloth
 >>hung over your entire body
 >>like you were a shameful statue
 >>imagine there's only a drop of light
 >>enough to know there is still daylight for others
 >>imagine it's hot, very hot
 >>imagine you are being encased in cloth,
 >>drowning in fabric, in darkness.
 >>imagine you are begging in this bedspread
 >>reaching out your hand inside the cloth
 >>which must remained covered, unpolished, unseen
 >>or they might smash it or cut it off
 >>imagine no one is putting rupees in your invisible hand
 >>because no one can see your face
 >>so you do not exist
 >>imagine you cannot find your children
 >>because they came for your husband
 >>the only man you ever loved
 >>even though it was an arranged marriage
 >>because they came and shot him
 >>you tried to defend him and they trampled you
 >>four men on your back
 >>in front of your screaming children
 >>imagine you went mad
 >>but you did not know you were mad
 >>because you hadn't seen the sun in years
 >>and you remembered your two daughters vaguely
 >>like a dream the way you remembered sky.
 >>
 >>imagine muttering as a way of talking
 >>because words did not form anymore in the darkness
 >>and you did not cry because it got too hot and wet in there.
 >>imagine bearded men that you could only decipher
 >>by their smell
 >>beating you
 >>because your socks were white
 >>imagine being flogged in the streets
 >>in front of people you could not see
 >>imagine no peripheral vision
 >>so like a wounded animal
 >>you could not defend yourself
 >>or even duck from the sideward blow! s
 >>
 >>imagine that laughter was banned
 >>throughout your country and music
 >>and the only sounds you heard
 >>were the muffled sounds of the azun*
 >>or the cries of other women flogged
 >>inside their cloth, inside their dark.
 >>
 >>imagine you had no place to live
 >>your only roof was the cloth
 >>as you wandered the streets
 >>and this tomb
 >>was getting smaller and smellier every day
 >>you were beginning to walk into things
 >>imagine suffocating
 >>while you were still breathing
 >>imagine you could no longer distinguish
 >>between living and dying
 >>so you stopped trying to kill yourself
 >>because it would be redundant
 >>
 >>imagine me inside the inside
 >>of the darkness in you
 >>i am caught there
 >>i am lost there
 >>inside the cloth
 >>which is your head
 >>inside the dark we share
 >>imagine you can see me
 >>
 >>i was beautiful once
 >>big dark eyes
 >>you would know me.
 >>
 >>
 >>(*"azun" is pronounced AH - ZOON)
 >>
 >>
 >>
 >>
 >>----------
 >>MSN 8 helps ELIMINATE E-MAIL
 >>VIRUSES. Get 2 months FREE*. --- from list
 >>postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
 >
 >Radhika Gajjala
 >
 >_______________________
 >http://www.cyberdiva.org
 >
 >


----------
Help STOP SPAM with <http://g.msn.com/8HMKENUS/2731>the new MSN 8 and get 2 
months FREE*