Zainab’s elegy

ISLAMABAD: The people in Pakistan and around the world reacted in different ways to the torturous death of Zainab.

One such person is Pakistan’s adored poet - Kishwar Naheed, a feminist whose poetry is strewn with the struggles and realities of the Pakistani girl child.

She was a tortured soul for days after the death of Zainab and finally poured her heart out in this poem, translated from the original by The News.

“Baba, today you fell over my flower covered grave and fainted…

Baba, even I had fainted when he twisted my teeny weeny fingers…

And tried to silence my screams and cover them with his filthy mouth…

I don’t know ….blood was coming out from every part of my body…

Blood was even spurting out of my mouth…

Baba, you had told that me that trees are cut with machines….

His body was also like that machine….

Which cut and tore me apart…

Baba, the place that he had dragged me to, he was not alone….

I saw in the shape of shadows several legs pass by….

Baba, those that picked me up from atop the rubbish bin…

Must have told you that my blue eyes which were so loved by my mother…had come out of their sockets….

Everything from inside my body had spilled out…

I wonder how those that picked me up manage to gathered together this body, falling to pieces…

Baba, for many days you will have visitors who want to see this circus of death…

Please, don’t be taken in by their false talk of sympathy…

Baba, I have one request ….

Inside my school bag you will find my copy in which I have written with own hand….

“I am Zainab.”, please keep this in a safe place.

History will visit you one day and want an account of Zainab..

Baba, the angels have told me that my photographs have become famous the world over…

Baba, I was Zainab..

Zainab is the flag-bearer of the entire world…

Zainab means wisdom and foresight…

Baba, don’t let this name be tarnished.”