R.K.Singh
I must congratulate you on the excellent last four lines of the poem. It's tribute to the woman's spirit everywhere. Great lines.

--R.K.Singh
2015-03-19

Zoya Zaidi
This is the photo URL: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140716/nation-crime/article/cbi-finds-key-proof-badaun-gangrape-case
2014-09-04

Zoya Zaidi
By the way, friends, I have deliberately not used the photograph of the two girls hanging from the tree, because it too graphic! Too Gruesome. But you can find it on the net on the URL given below the poem here, of the website.
Zoya
2014-09-03

Zoya Zaidi
No, Sagi I do not agree with you! Modernisation has nothing to do with it. In modern civilised society, this does not happen! Sadly enough people in South Asea confused modernisation with licentiousness... It is not at all like that!
As for two sets of values, it is called double-facedness... You are something else and project yourself as some one else...
This is what has to change!
The mindset has to change!
Boys from cradle have to be taught to respect girls!
Society has learn to accept women as equals!
In a society were selective abortions of female feotuses is a common and accepted practice, a practice which has skewed the female/male ratio to a shocking 92 females to every 1000 male children born (when it should be the other way round: 1005 girls to 1000 boys), it is high time men started respecting women for what they are-Human Beings...
Only then there is hope...
Zoya
2014-09-03

Zoya Zaidi
Shells, this indeed is a hugely important and disturbing trend that is taking root in our country... It has to be addressed seriously, and must be stopped with immediate effect!
In fact it was taken cognizance of by the government, after the "Nirbhaya Case" of 16th Dec. 2012. New and more stringent laws were passed. Perpetrators were all arrested and pronounced judgement of 'life imprisonment', but they appealed in the Supreme Court and are still to start serving their sentence...
The matter was further complicated by the fact that one of the accused, who was most brutal of them all, was a 'juvenile'-just 6 months short of 18 years-in the eyes of the law...
2014-09-03

Zoya Zaidi
Dear Elle, It had been brewing in my bosom for a long time...
But, I could bring myself to put it into words, it was too over whelming for me.
In fact to date I have not been able to word my feelings about the "Nirbhaya" case, as the physiotherapy student was named by the media, of the 16th December 2012...
In fact I had started writing something on the interview of the girl's friend, who was with her and was the only eye-witness to the gruesome mass-rape. But, abandoned it mid way, as I could not carry on...
But one day this poem just came out about the "BadauN Mass Rape"...
Love,
Zoya
2014-09-03

Zoya Zaidi
You are right Peter,
People, especially poets, do tend to sweep such hugely important, but ugly issues, under the carpet.
But beauty is not the only domain of a poet. A poet essentially gives words to that what ails him the most. and a sensitive poet cannot remain unaffected by what happens around him or her in society.
In fact it is a poet's duty to reflect and sensitise society to that what ails the society.
These crimes, because of the misconceptions about "Shame" and "Taboo" attached to them, since time immemorial have been 'swept under the carpet'...
But, lately, especially after a huge public outcry- when the youth spontaneously came out and crowded the streets- after the gruesome "mass rape" of a physiotherapy student in New Delhi on the 16th of December 2012 in a moving bus, people have picked up courage and have started reporting the cases of such "Humiliations" of women.
As a result an avalanche of cases has broken forth on the social scene of our country. Not a day passes when a rape or a mass rape is not reported in the news papers...
Even minor teen aged girls and little girls of three or four years of age are not spared... most of them succumb to their molestation...
This a reality, which needs to be addressed very seriously and Now!!!
Thanks for a sensitive response!
Zoya
2014-09-03

sagi
An unbalanced society which we unfortunately live in (south asia), breeds hypcrisy, sexual predators, only because the modernization has produced two divergent sets of morals, each at loggerheads with the other, one at home and one outside
2014-09-01

shells
Good to "see" you here with such an emotive, important piece. Raise it high and put it out there, thank you. Bookmarked also.
2014-09-01

Elle
I recall this and the horror it unleashed - the world has to take notice and stop this, as Peter says a poem that is worthy to brought to attention as only your compassion -thank you Zoya and I shall bookmark this

Elle x
2014-08-31

Peter Humphreys
What can I say? What can anyone say? But saying is not enough, we have to act wherever we are to stop these abominations. This is a hugely important poem, Zoya. Thank you for taking me back to a horror that the world too easily sweeps under the carpet. Peter
2014-08-31