#LifeofaMuslimFeminist

After an evanescent period of epiphany and two splendid literary pieces

I find myself yet again 

Returning to the place where sun rays do not disseminate into creases

I keep wondering, day in, day out

What it means to be a woman

In a day and age

Where some cunts are pierced

While others are mutilated by matrons on the streets

Where menstruals arrive

Like a death sentence

Nine months are spent in hope and anticipation

That the fetus within 

Will be rightly "equipped"

For his patriarchal coronation

Which is sure to be a most joyous occasion

Accompanied by shrieking unanimous ululations 

Legs are spread wide open

The doctor announces “It’s a girl”

Never mind progress here

You know that at least a part of her character, if not all, will be stolen

Why do we have to choose between being Muslims and being feminists?

My back can no longer withstand the load

Of bearing titles such as a “libertine atheist”

All because I refuse to believe that this faith

This faith of MINE

Erects pedestals of righteousness

For men who only think with their erections

They keep violently imposing on me

A disillusioned faith

That is measured

By what covers my hair and the top of my waist

I want

No I NEED

More heroic religious shes

And maybe just a little less festering beards

You see, in my Utopia of broken dreams

Faith is as what is chanted by whirling Sufis

They say, “Ours is not a caravan of despair”

They say, “Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again”

I am a woman

I am a Muslim

I am a feminist

Come, walk a mile in my shoes

Then I wonder if you’ll keep fictionalizing my burdens and struggles

Which I have long ago learned to live with and accept

As my eternally damned truths.

Sarah Maple "Badass Muslimahs"