Poetry of pain, protest and healing

Memories of the brave women’s rights activist and anti-rape campaigner from Kolkata, Suzette Jordan; and the gruesome rape and torture of Jyoti Pandey aka Nirbhaya will be relived on Friday in Mumbai when poets Jane Bhandari, Sampurna Chatterji, Aayushi Mehta, Rochelle Potkar and Smita Sahay will read poems from the international poetry anthology Veils, Halos & Shackles. The event is to protest the ongoing spate of rapes and murders of women; and to encourage other survivors to speak out. Jordon publicly revealed her identity as a survivor of gang rape in 2013 and died of meningitis in 2015.

This first ever anthology of international poetry addressing women’s oppression and empowerment includes 249 poems by poets from Brazil to Bangladesh, from New Zealand to Nigeria. “Many contributors are survivors of rape and other crimes that affect women and girls every day; others are relatives and teachers of victims and survivors. Still others, many of who are the world’s most accomplished living poets, wrote out of empathy and concern for the fate of human beings who just happen to be women,” said poet Smita Sahay who was the central force behind the compilation of this anthology.

When asked about ingenious curation, she smiles, “Our focus has been on finding poems that tell the truth about the violence and oppression women like Suzette Jordan are subjected to in our time — poems that move individuals and that may even have the power to affect governments. Poems that ask us to protect and nurture women through intelligent laws and the transformation of cultures.”

Her fellow curator, Charles Ades Fishman, too believes that “a major anthology of women’s voices would be more lasting and have a deeper impact than individual articles and events.”

Equal Rights activist Harrish Iyer, who will moderate the readings, revealed how the idea was conceived in response to Jyoti’s vicious gang rape on December 16 2012. “These poems are testimonies that are wise, direct, and very often haunting and can work both as an outlet for feelings of hurt and abuse, as a wake-up call to society and also as a salve which helps heal and get on with life.”

These diverse poems tell us that Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, Ireland, India, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, the US, the UK, and other countries are not so dissimilar where oppression of women is concerned. Jyoti’s father Badri Singh’s words come to mind: “Jyoti has become a symbol. In death, she has lit such a torch that not only this country, but the whole world, got lit up. But at the same time, she posed a question. What is the meaning of ‘being a woman?’ How is she looked upon by society today? And I wish that whatever darkness there is in this world should be dispelled by this light.”