India'S Daughter

They want me to cover myself from top to bottom,

To blend while I walk,

Because I can never stand shoulder to shoulder with a man -

With a man who doesn't think of me as anything more than a source of pleasure,

With a man who thinks I am just meant for household chores,

With a man who will judge me by what clothes I wear,

With a man who thinks I am a toilet paper to wipe his ass off.

 

They want me to talk on a low pitch,

To not laugh out loud,

Because that might give out wrong hints,

To the boy staring at me since I entered,

Who hasn't touched me yet,

But his eyes have stripped me already.

 

Because if I walk with a guy I am a whore,

Wearing short pants and makeup make me a slut.

With a new adjective, I wake up every day,

Because I live in a country with a beautiful culture,

Where women hold no place,

Where my only role is to give birth to your shit,

Where getting raped is my mistake,

Where I don't have the liberty to walk down the street without being ogled.

 

That stare that makes me fidget with my jacket,

That stare that gives me a sense of fright.

The place where a girl is neither safe in womb nor outside,

The place where your clothes decide your character,

Where they teach you a lesson by molesting you,

"Shorter the pants the easier you are."

 

I am a woman,

And I want to live free,

When he is macho,

For showing off his abs,

Where he can wear whatever he wants,

Return home in the wee morning hours,

When he can date more than one girl,

And be called a stud of the class,

When he is a piece of shit and treated like a King,

I deserve much better than that,

I am well aware that I can never be his equal,

Because I am way superior to him,

I fight those glares every day,

Take those foul comments,

Act like 'I don't care',

And still rise every morning,

With a hope that things might change.