Volume 26 Issue 10, 11 & 12 | Posted: December 22, 2012
Where to Run
Who are all these women here?
Their graves face the sun;
stones in the grass
where the river won’t run.
Where are their fathers?
They’re out in the fields.
Their faces are silent,
but do their heart grieve?
They have washed away
the blood from their hands.
They’ve cleaned their rifles.
In a row they all stand.
And the children
of these women
will never see the light of day.
They’ve been spilled with
the lives of their mothers
who didn’t know where to run.
Who are all these women here?
Did they beg for their lives?
Did they lay down their love
when they first met the knife?
Where to Run
Who are all these women here?
Their graves face the sun;
stones in the grass
where the river won’t run.
Where are their fathers?
They’re out in the fields.
Their faces are silent,
but do their heart grieve?
They have washed away
the blood from their hands.
They’ve cleaned their rifles.
In a row they all stand.
And the children
of these women
will never see the light of day.
They’ve been spilled with
the lives of their mothers
who didn’t know where to run.
Who are all these women here?
Did they beg for their lives?
Did they lay down their love
when they first met the knife?
In the hands of a brother,
a father, a son.
The hands of love
that could trust no one.
And all the dead sisters,
they dance in the dusk.
They dance by the stones
where the river won’t run.
And the children
of these women
will never see the light of day.
They’ve been spilled with
the lives of their mothers
who didn’t know where to run.
This song, from my upcoming novel, Armadillo Cafe, is about women living in Saudi Arabia. These women are subjected to “Honour Killings” committed by male family members for bringing dishonour to the family in a variety of ways – for refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, for being the victim of a sexual assault, for becoming pregnant as a result of that assault, for seeking out a divorce from an abusive husband, for wearing inappropriate clothing, for having a boyfriend, or for having sexual relationships before marriage.
If people of the town discovered they had engaged in any of these behaviours, the disgrace that fell upon their family was so intense that it was more than their men could bear. These women were savagely beaten or killed by their own fathers, brothers and sons.
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Genine Hanns, Victoria
