Sisters
Look Up!
“Look up! Our dawning day draws its first breath!
The world grows light! Our souls begin to glow!
No ranting shaykh rules from his pulpit throne
No mosque hawks holiness it does not know
No sham, no pious fraud, no priest commands!
The turban’s knot cut to its root below!
No more conjurations! No spells! No ghosts!
Good riddance! We are done with folly’s show!
The search for truth shall drive out ignorance
Equality shall strike the despots low
Let warring ways be banished from the world
Let justice everywhere its carpet throw
May friendship ancient hatreds reconcile
May love grow from the seed of love we sow!”
--A poem of Tahirih, 1849, who gave up her life
for the emancipation of women
