Welcome to “for women, for all” a Poetry Wall project.
Overview Statement:
On September 16, 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran. Her death was due to injuries sustained when morality police used corporal punishment against her. Her supposed crime was not wearing her hijab properly. Since her death, protests have sprung up across Iran and the Iranian diaspora advocating for an end to the Iranian political and religious institutions that enforce draconian laws on women’s bodies, deploy police on Iranian citizens, and cause the deaths of Mahsa and many other young activists.
The global response to the death of Mahsa Amini is an intersection of many different calls for justice: It is a call for the protection of women and LGBTQ+ people and their bodily autonomy. It is a condemnation of political and religious institutions that use violence or act against the interests of their citizens. It is an examination of the cultural practices that hold up patriarchy, racism, and other forms of colonialism.
From the United States, we see connections with many of our own domestic struggles for justice. And across the world, art becomes its own language of protest. Poetry – a beloved and celebrated art form in Iran - is an opportunity for individual reflection and an invitation for collective grieving, healing, mobilization, and solidarity. Using your words a tool for these times, where do you relate to what is going on in Iran? What have you learned from this movement, and what do you invite others to learn from it?
Guidelines for Submission:
Each participant may submit one poem
All poetry is strongly encouraged to stay true to the suggested themes of liberation, equality, and challenging patriarchy and autocracy through global solidarity
Poetry that engages violent or traumatizing content must come with the appropriate content warnings (e.g. assault, physical violence, discrimination, etc)
Any poetry that engages in hate speech on the basis of gender, sexuality, class, caste, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion will be automatically disqualified
◦ There is a distinction between challenging sources of power and fomenting hate/discrimination against communities
Poems must be a minimum of 25 words and a maximum of 300 words in length
Poems of any genre are permissible
RESOURCES FOR POETRY WALL:
Use the resources below to read poems inspired by freedom