Rameez Makhdoomi:
Anosha Zereh is a renowned face of Afghanistan, a resourceful troubled country which has been constantly torn apart by foreign aggressions and civil war. Author Anosha Zereh is a social activist working with orphaned children and widowed woman in Afghanistan. She lives with her husband and two children in Berkeley California. She has recently written a masterpiece book titled ‘The Afghan Mona Lisa’, a collection of beautiful and highly diligent poems depicting the pain and misery of Afghanistan, especially its women.
In her own words – “I have investigated and listened to long hours of heartbreaking stories by Afghan women in numerous countries, conversed with old and young women, and read plentiful anecdotes of Afghan women’s narratives around the world for over ten years. Although I cannot claim what they have experienced completely, I have exerted years of love inscribing for them their narratives, their depiction of what took place in their lives, as well as their interpretation of their struggles and daily burdens. Although they are my words, nevertheless they represent their rightful voice. While it is my pen that was used to write these poems, in every poem, in every verse, it is the fighting potency of these women. And we witness through their lens the long-suffering echoed throughout the book in their own words. I am blessed to have been favored as an unassuming envoy for their voices. To me, peace is a transition of harmonization of the mind and spirit that one needs to be unearthed from within. Once this stage is developed within, the steps toward building a peaceful union, the synchronization of these two ‘mind & spirit’ in whichever form will be manifested and exhibited in to your surrounding and to the natural world. This process is keen to Internal Jihad, a great path towards peaceful beginnings with self and thus others because it will be perpetuated by the women of Afghanistan, who the mothers of the household. Spreading the infectious virus of a peaceful approach from the nucleus of the family, the mother to the greater society, is an admirable beginning for a peaceful nation and I applaud the Afghan Women who are practicing this journey towards Peace.”
While one reviews her great effort in the form of this masterpiece, it is important to quote few poems from this great book.
The Bold Afghan Eagle
In the books of the ancients
I read about an Afghan woman possessing a wealth of patience
The native land subsisted on her loyal compliance
Her sisters led the land in nonviolent alliance
The tenet of her fortitude induced the realm to flourish
There was no space for behavior that seemed silly and boorish
She seized with pride her part of the production
Supporting her man in the fields and at home short of disruption
When freedom is instinctively nurtured
There is no motive to have a person butchered
These ancient nomadic women were autonomous
The roaming free bird is very much synonymous
The habit is natively contained by age
To tailor their nonconformity will raise a well-hidden rage
Fools think a century of affliction converts their race
History is deep-rooted; you’re partying in null space
These unbound wanderers are purely uncontrolled
Their candid resistance shows in their soul
All empires have come to “civilize” these untamed people
But no one follows the past sequel
Endorse the fact—no one can domesticate the bold Afghan eagle.
Another of her poem Child Doll highlights how at tender age the girl child is destroyed as it is forced into marriage.
Child Doll
The early days of my adolescence short lived
An unwanted guest at the door arrived
Before the nurturing is carried out
An exhorted bride displayed to dive
Unfortunate was the day they found my concealed hive
Forced to swiftly ripen was my arranged prize
The derisory nuptial offerings of garments awfully oversized
Nervous to declare refusal, I was given a termination of chastise
It is the noble passageway, so I was told by the very wise
I took with me only a beloved doll to my new abode
Presented in my small hands a new guidebook
Whilst my address was permanently changed to a secret code
Oblivious, with a naive head, I was showered with a mule’s load
My doll was removed from my bed the very first night
I was informed to play the pastime game of a new bride
The old man reeking of opium broke open my purity’s rite
I screamed and roared as he robbed my every indispensable human right
Soon I was replaced as a unit of the household
As things are procured in the bazaar, purchased, and sold
When new things come in the market, it is customary to replace the old
Unassumingly accepting my ill faith as the village elders’ saga foretold
The author has also recently via this book and her mission embarked upon Internal Jihad which Anosha believes begins with Justice, a demand that mankind is true in word and deed: “justice is a divine attribute and the Quran emphasizes that we should adopt it as a moral ideal. God commands people to be just towards one another and in judging between man and man, to judge justly, for He loves those, who judge equitably.”
A History of Muslim Philosophy.
The Afghan Monalisa is really a commendable job by Anosha Zereh as she through her literary mettle has conveyed in an apt manner the pain and trauma of Afghan Women. The book is really a worth a weight of gold and would go a long way in contributing towards global literature.