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MEENA
(1956-1987) was born on February 27, 1956 in Kabul. During her school
days, students in Kabul and other Afghan cities were deeply engaged
in social activism and rising mass movements. She left the university
to devote herself as a social activist to organizing and educating
women. In pursuit of her cause for gaining the right of freedom
of expression and conducting political activities, Meena laid the
foundation of RAWA in 1977. This organization was meant to give
voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan. She started
a campaign against the Russian forces and their puppet regime in
1979 and organized numerous processions and meetings in schools,
colleges and Kabul University to mobilize public opinion.
Another great service rendered by her for the Afghan women is the
launching of a bilingual magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message)
in 1981. Through this magazine RAWA has been projecting the cause
of Afghan women boldly and effectively. Payam-e-Zan has constantly
exposed the criminal nature of fundamentalist groups. Meena also
established Watan Schools for refugee children, a hospital and handicraft
centers for refugee women in Pakistan to support Afghan women financially.
Her active social work and effective advocacy against the views
of the fundamentalists and the puppet regime provoked the wrath
of the Russians and the fundamentalist forces alike and she was
assassinated by agents of KHAD (Afghanistan branch of KGB) and their
fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4,1987.
About the recording that appears on this compilation, a member of
RAWA had this to say: “We don't know much about the history
of the tape. Meena was very much a lover of poems and recitals,
and she herself had recorded some poems (including the one I sent
you) on a tape.
This tape was discovered after her assassination, among some documents
and tapes that had belonged to her. Most likely the tape has been
recorded in Peshawar in 1985 or so.” *Note: This recording
is included due to its significance, the recording was restored
and cleaned up to the best of our capacities, but is still quite
rough.
I’ll never return
I’m the woman who has awoken
I’ve arisen and become a tempest through the ashes of my burnt
children
I’ve arisen from the rivulets of my brother’s blood
My nation’s wrath has empowered me
My ruined and burnt villages fill me with hatred against the enemy,
I’m the woman who has awoken,
I’ve found my path and will never return.
I’ve opened closed doors of ignorance
I’ve said farewell to all golden bracelets
Oh compatriot, I’m not what I was
I’m the woman who has awoken
I’ve found my path and will never return.
I’ve seen barefoot, wandering and homeless children
I’ve seen henna-handed brides with mourning clothes
I’ve seen giant walls of the prisons swallow freedom in their
ravenous stomach
I’ve been reborn amidst epics of resistance and courage
I’ve learned the song of freedom in the last breaths, in the
waves of blood and in victory
Oh compatriot, Oh brother, no longer regard me as weak and incapable
With all my strength I’m with you on the path of my land’s
liberation.
My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women
My fists are clenched with the fists of thousands compatriots
Along with you I’ve stepped up to the path of my nation,
To break all these sufferings all these fetters of slavery,
Oh compatriot, Oh brother, I’m not what I was
I’m the woman who has awoken
I’ve found my path and will never return.
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