H(e)aven

Posted on : August 14, 2024
Author : Arya Rajhans

---

When I am in heaven,

will you stand for me?

Stand for my friends still breathing,

stand for everything you say you believe in?

Hope was my dearest friend,

but the explosions made her leave.

Of course she wouldn’t go alone,

so along she took me.

I look up at the brightly lit sky.

How is the sun up at night?

Alone here, terror-replete,

I see the posters torn.

No fight can be put up now,

my brave face is gone.

Trice away is my fate,

so let me ask you now.

Will you let my mother know that it was not her fault?

I shouldn’t have gone out

after I heard the first one drop.

Ravaged buildings,

generations erased.

I see it all, but it’s too late.

So while I slip into an eternal sleep,

do you promise to open your eyes to this?

Many have gone,

but many your voice can save.

Maybe when I am a child again,

I will return to a home

my hiraeth did crave.

• Arya Rajhans

The poem relates to the topic of the denial of educational rights of the girls in Afghanistan. Being from the perspective of a young Afghan girl who is determined to go to school but unfortunately walks into the arms of death, the poem exudes intense emotions of regret, fear, and dejection.

 

While asking the readers to stand up for humanity, she talks about her best friend – Hope. Like all best friends, ‘Hope’ takes the little girl everywhere she goes. While ‘hope’ departs from the girl’s heart, she takes away the little girl too and together, they go to heaven.

 

The scared, young girl who is just seconds away from her bleak fate, wishes for her mother to know that she had no role to play in her child’s current situation. While she ‘slips into an eternal sleep’, the girl appeals to us to open our eyes to the grim realities of the world, and to raise our voice against oppression. In her next life, she wishes to be born as a child who can return to the hiraeth she craved. The word ‘hiraeth’ means a longing for a home, especially a home that never existed. In her case, this home would be filled with books, and she would have the freedom to do what she wants and be who she wants.

 

Considering the many battles faced by females in Afghanistan, the title of the poem indicates to the readers some wordplay on the words ‘heaven’ and ‘haven’. Since the people are not safe in their own home and in their own country, heaven alone is their safe haven.

 

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, 2021. They brought with themselves a false idea of a ‘new’ and ‘different’ Taliban. The Taliban promised that they would not become a barrier to the development of women and children but instead, would encourage their education. Even after making statements about women’s rights and how they would eventually allow girls to back to school, their promises remain absolutely unfulfilled. Recently, we crossed a 1000 day mark of Afghan girls being denied their right to education. After class 6, girls are not allowed to study. One cannot even imagine the heartbreak of a young girl when she realizes that this is the end of her academic journey. Girls with dreams of becoming a doctor, a singer, a teacher, an artist, or merely just having the freedom to live life on their terms, unfortunately have to give up on their ambitions.

 

As soon as the Taliban came to power, they imposed their own brutal interpretation of the shariah law on the citizens of Afghanistan. The display of pictures of females in books, posters, newspapers, and magazines is forbidden. The movement of women has been limited in every way possible; they are not allowed to go to parks, salons, offices, gyms, and so on. Every area of life is restricted. Only under absolutely necessary circumstances can women step out of the house, but not without the accompaniment of a male family member. Currently, there is no war, yet the citizens there are in a constant conflict with themselves – with their heart and mind; embedded guilt in them, families sell their daughters as young as 4 years old for marriage to men as old as 50. The increase in the rates of child marriages also directly affect the chances of young girls getting educated.  Afghanistan remains the only country in the world to deny the right to education to girls after class 6. As of 2024, more than a million girls have been affected due to the ban on education.

 

In 2022, I had the privilege of interviewing an Afghan journalist, who then lived in a refugee camp in Abu Dhabi. She talked about how the quality of the education system in her country had been always been bad but at least, at that time, they were allowed to make the choice to not go to school. The Taliban’s control results in a complete elimination of this choice factor. “I want to have the right to choose what I want – to go to school or not”, she said.

 

The Taliban justify their actions and decisions by saying that the ban has been placed to ‘preserve women’s honour’ and to ‘protect the interests of the country’. This has undone years of progress in Afghanistan. It becomes very difficult to see even a sliver of hope in times like this. May we find the courage to transform the girl’s hiraeth into reality, ensuring that no child ever again has to seek solace in a h(e)aven that should rightfully be found on earth.

 

• Arya Rajhans
• Intern
• Asia in Global Affairs

 

The poem is a work of fiction.The theme explored in this poem is meant for artistic expression and does not reflect the views or beliefs of the organization/website. Reader discretion is advised due to sensitive content.