Sub-titled: "Women in Afghanistan"
© Bruce McNicol Oct 2001
Lyrics updated Feb 13 2002
(1) Women in Afghanistan were
despised by the Taliban.
Madhu, their government, waged a war on them.
Grant them asylum if they come.
(2) Women in Afghanistan had
basic human freedoms.
To drive, work, wear what they wanted. To appear in public alone.
Freedoms such as these were their tradition and culture,
Suddenly they must at all times wear the burqa, or be beaten and stoned.
(3) Women in Afghanistan were
beaten and stoned to death
By angry mobs of men, for such licentiousness as not wearing the proper attire;
For not having mesh covering in front of their eyes;
Or while driving exposing part of an arm accidentally;
Or for trying to escape such a country, with a man who was not of their family.
Why be so afraid if you’re a man? Such is the hatred of the Taliban.
Why has theirs become a God of Fear? Only the women were treated as sub-human
there.
Who rewrote the Koran of the Taliban?
(4 — Bridge) Women in Afghanistan were
forbidden to work, whatever work it was they did before.
Women in Afghanistan were restricted to home, if you could call these prisons
that under this law.
Wherever a woman was present in a home, the windows all were painted,
So no outsider could see her, or risk having his thoughts tainted.
We hear of the hypocrisy allowed behind these windows —
The tinted hair, the mini skirt, the make up, the stilettos.
Women in Afghanistan had to wear silent shoes, they could never be heard.
Those without male relatives starved to death, or went begging, anonymous
in burqas.
As they could not work they took their lives, depressed, lying motionless,
Not speaking, not eating, not anything. Wasting away, so afraid.
Or gone mad, crouching and rocking and crying in corners. In fear of their
lives.
What hatred and fear could flame the intentions of such fundamental fanaticism?
(5) Women in Afghanistan were treated just
as property, with no equality or human dignity.
These should be fundamental rights, not freedoms to be granted. So, peacefully
We now express our outrage, at the oppression, injustice, and murder
Committed against women by Madhu, And over the decades by countless warlords
too.
(6 — Bridge) If they have
some money and some relatives they flee, to join the millions of other refugees.
There is no one at the border with philanthropy. They carry no papers, it’s
too dangerous to do.
They see no queue. They see no queue.
Semi-starved they bribe their way. A stinking, sinking boat
To arrive here penniless, possessionless, de-pers’nalised, but still
with hope.
Our government then wages war on them, for the sake of media votes.
As we subscribe to a God of Love, we can’t blame our religion,
We replace Afghan sexism with our orchestrated racism.
(7) There is no queue! There
is no queue! There is no friendly embassy to go to.
Sub-humanised, they arrive. Sub-human they remain, to become just a number
not a name.
Let us help them teach their children a better way.
That is why they came here. What is it they’ve done?
They have merely exchanged prisons under the same sun.
Grant them asylum, if they come. Grant them asylum, if they come.
Grant them asylum. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!