A poem by Abid A. Kazi
WOMAN!
An embodiment of compromises and submission
If dealt properly she is always on a mission
Wondering how much strength and love she shares
We must be willing to give hundred percent in care
She carries all the pain and sufferings to bring prophets, saints and all
Her generosity is above anything yet has often faces lots of fall
She always likes to please one and all
She is mostly humble and ready to honor the call
Why we see woman as models to sell things people buy
Sometime society’s norms are traded for selling things for guys
We must not forget that we are intertwined in many ways
Mother, sister and wives and other relations everyday
It’s a shame that men has made her a piece of display
Have we lost our morality in many ways?
Man and woman are two pieces of puzzle from the day of inception
We must give woman her true dignity without causing any corruption
ABID A KAZI
I requested Sophia Chawala, who has been assistant Editor in School and is now assistant editor of college publication and writes poetry herself, to write a critique on the poem. Here is what she wrote in her e-mail;
Mr.Kazi.
Thank you for sharing your poem! What I liked about the poem bridge was its central theme and its generous, true intention. Agreed, women indeed have lots to bear: in all kinds of ways: women go through physical, mental and emotional roller coasters all the time not only due to their biological make-up, but how society has to construct them. In society, women are as Socially Constructed, as implied by your poem, humble, submissive, light-hearted, sensitive, committed. While all of these things are mostly seen as positive, ideal characteristics, they are in a negative way as well, because men are abusing these traits. You successfully captured this concept in the lines of your poem because you explicitly, clearly stated how women are treated and what their dilemma is and how some men do not understand.
What I may suggest, however, is to focus on comparing the sittuation of women with an image, that will get people thinking more about their sittuaiton and have a better picture of what it’s like and how serious it is. For exmaple, in your poem, you mentioned how ” men has made her [woman] a piece of display. ” In this case, you compared women being a commodity, a perfect, porcelain-like doll so bound to break because she is only there for show and for nothing else – nothing but a hollow shell with a thin surface. And from making this comparison, you can make a poem that is about women’s situation as said in this poem you wrote here, but you would be portraying it in a less “explicit” way and in a more “picture-like” way.
Otherwise, nice job creating an honest piece. You can go in many directions in writing about women’s situation in general or a specific one through playing with language. Happy writing!
Sophia Chawala
Women is very complex,
She is a problem not a solution,
Those who try to solve her,
Make her more complicated.
—
Best is to accept her as she is,
Just love her, don’t solve her
When men try to solve her,
They suffer as she is not a solution.
—-
She adjust as per situation,
She changes in the direction wind blow,
She is good who is good to her,
She is evil who is bad to her.
—
By nature she had to survive,
That is why she learn how to adjust,
That is why she is a terrible Boss,
That is why she is best mother.
adil
I would like to reflect on Abid Kazi’s poem ‘Woman’ and thoughtful commentary by Sophia Chawala through the vision of Jalaluddin Rumi:
Muhammad (pbh) said,
“Woman prevails over the wise and intelligent;
while the ignorants dominate over her.”
They [ignorants] lack tenderness and affection
because their animality prevails.
Love and gentleness are human qualities;
aggressiveness and lust are bestial.
WOMAN is a ray of GOD.
She is not that earthly beloved.*
You could say:
She is creative, not created.
* If you read in original Persian, this is exactly what here Kazi has said,
“. . . that man has made her a piece of display.”
There is a saying that,”God created sex and priest created marriage.”On same note God was at the height of His creativity when he created women very creatively but women is using God creativity in wrong way, she is selling herself to the highest bidder.
Look at West(even in East, in East family is doing that), women are only interested in men who are rich, successful, powerful they don’t care about those who are poor but good.
Women instead of being good and source of virtues and good upbringing of their children as she used to be in old time they are emphasizing to be good looking so they can trap rich and powerful men. That is why Divorce rate is high.
Therefore I will say Mirza Ashraf is talking about old times and ignoring the present state of women mentality.
adil
I think your comments above show hostility towards women. You are commenting on all women as a group.
How you reconcile your above comments and earlier comments of
” Love for All, Hatred for None”
i really liked your quote ” god created….priests…… ” . but the generalization and lumping all women in one category was not necessary. actually there may be an evolutionary reason for women doing what SOME women do. teaming up with a rich or powerful man, ensures the the well being of her offspring .
Thank you Mr. Fayyaz for giving me the opportunity to explain my position on Women and my philosophy of life, “Love for all hate for none.” Here is my explaination.
I may be hostile towards men not at all towards women because I have seen enough hostility of men towards women like on my sisters etc. One who has loving mother, sisters, daughters, spouse can never be hostile towards women. I and for that matter most of Pakistanies are fortunate to have mothers, sisters, daughters so loving.
Sometime I feel./believe that West is jealous of our family system specially from our women folks and it want to break our family system because it’s from our family system that we are getting so much unconditional love, as they don’t have a strong/loving family system, that is why they want to destroy our family system and our family system is great mainly because of our women that is because of our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives.
Therefore one who has such a loving mother,sisters,daughters, spouse who give unconditional love then how he can hate women. Infact I should hate men of our culture if I have to hate because they treat women like slaves and treat them badly to which my own family has been victim. If I am hostile towards women then I am hostile towards my mother, sisters, spouse, daughters whom I love dearly and will not mind giving my life for them, therefore I can simply say That I love women, its women who teach men love and kindness and other virtues and not men of our culture who only know how to boss and rule and be master over women.
I was talking about the general trend of women, just like when we are poor and powerless we curse powerful and rich but when we ourselves become rich and powerful we treat poor and powerless same way. On same note since women suffered from men from beginning of creation uptil now, and as women are getting freedom and power over men in present time as it happened never before, they are doing same things on men which men did on them. Just like Jews hate how Hitler and how Germany treated them but now that they got power over Palestenians they are doing same which Hitler did to them.
That is why I say love come before men and women as then we love all but when men and women come before love then we love some and hate others or we love men and hate women or vice versa. That is why Lao Tzu said, “ Be kind not only to the kind but also to the unkind.” that is only possible when we put love before people, that is hate sin/vice and not hater/sinner only then we love all that is what Hazrat Essa meant when he said,”Love your enemy.” and “Turn the other cheek.” and holy Prophet example of treating his enemies equally and fairly is in front of us. In short loving all and hating none is only possible when we follow truth and not rule that is when we have love as objective.
When we follow rules we love some and hate other. When we follow truth then we love all as then our objective is love. By truth love is objective that is why we can love all whereas by rule object is objective that is why we love those objects/people which rule say and hate those objects/people which rule say to hate then we see and then decide who to love and who to hate then we cannot love all.
In short truth is blind that is why truth love all whereas rule has eyes that is why it only love what is right by rule and hate what is wrong by rule that is the reason most of the wars are fought on the name of religion which is rule not truth.
Love for all hate for none,
adil
Thank you for your elaborate response. It is true that more women are in position of power and majority of them are in colleges. Men are on decline in education and other spheres also. I think it is because men are more interested in sports and entertainment and women are more focused on education. Many women are still doing dual duty of taking care of home and work. Most of the men are doing only work and even that is also on the decline as compared to women. Whatever women are achieving is because of their hard work. Men’s complacency should not be blamed on women.
Your this statement;
“On same note since women suffered from men from beginning of creation uptil now, and as women are getting freedom and power over men in present time as it happened never before, they are doing same things on men which men did on them”
I do not know what is the basis of your statement but in general women are considered better Manager and that is one of the reason for their ascendance.I do not believe a good manager can be productive and survive long unless he/she is fair to sub-ordinates. Let us not forget that it is not un-common for a lazy employee to blame the Boss for being un-fair and tough.
We need to understand that a poem is not created simply by simplistic rhyming; and it needs to be written by someone who has command of the language. Phrases such as “If dealt properly” do not make sense in English. And the lines do not scan at all.