Self - Immolation

This one comes to you midway through the book "A Woman Among Warlords" by Malalai Joya about a young woman in the middle east fighting for freedom and speaking out against an extremist male centric brutal viewpoints of the warlords who currently control her country. 

Self – Immolation By Marla Gladstone

She set herself on fire
She walked into the flames to find freedom
In a world full of hatred, fear and death
Where killing a woman is equated with the weight of killing a small insect
When she marries her opinion holds no weight
She is seen as goods, a service, items for sale
Traded for livestock in the form of a simple business transaction
She isn’t a person.  She is property. 
I heard she set herself on fire
She walked into the flames to find freedom
How bad do things have to be for that to feel like a sweet and welcoming release
No simplicity in learning, growing, reading or writing
On her it is a viewed as a waste
Too much of a challenge on her inadequate mind
Her precious subtleties held under lock and key
Her beauty hidden away so not a soul can see

So she set herself on fire
She walked into the flames to find freedom
Her presence so potent she is forced to hid under fabric and scarves
Doing anything to escape the life in which she was born
So slowly her light gets buried deep inside for survival
No one can reach her down there
It is safe damp and dark
Full of tears pain and suffering
An unforeign feeling felt by many women all around our world
And yet there is still hope
A simple escape for even a few seconds as she hears these simple words

It’s called Self-Immolation
See I set myself on fire too
I walk into the flames to find my freedom
Not through dying but through living
Not through quitting but through giving
We are one in the same
Why would I hide when I have the ability to shine
I vote because you can’t
I raise my voice as I hold your hand
You are not alone
Only a few generations removed from these liberties we so easily take for granted now
A time when women had no rights on this very land
Not allowed to be owners for they were the property in which a man laid his stamp on her left hand
A woman married for survival - a kind of forced slavery
Doing chores, making meals, having babies everything he pleased
We’ve been living in the longest war since the beginning of time
The battle of the sexes
I refuse to be treated as “less than”
I won’t hide my beauty inside
I won’t let myself die
My goals, my dreams, my aspirations, my schemes
Are my weapons as I struggle through… by any means
Because when they damage you, they damage me
And I won’t rest until we find equality
When any young girl chooses to follow her dream
Not because she did what she was told
And not because she learned to “play her role”

So set yourself on fire
Walk into your fear to find your freedom…