By Deneb Sumbal Sadeque
Dear Mum’s friends, peers and colleagues,
On this day, last year my mother, Najma Sadeque, left us so unexpectedly. Losing a parent is always hard, but losing a mother like her is impossible to describe. You feel a huge vacuum and yet feel her strong presence. Someone who didn’t just leave an example for me, but for so many others who reminiscence often. She is still missed by those who loved and revered her.
Please remember her in your prayers and thoughts on her first Barsi.
For a life extraordinary, full of determined, loving deeds.
May she rest eternally in heavenly peace.
Love
Deneb
The following poem “A Revolutionary Woman” by Marwa Sharafeldin (Egyptian activist/poetess) I had heard on our trip together in 2012 for the AWID conference in Turkey. For some reason, most of the poem imprinted itself on my memory – perhaps because it reminded so much of her and her vast circle of friends and fellow-activists.
A Revolutionary Woman by Marwa Sharafeldin
You talk to me about austerity measures?
The need to copyright my past, present and future
To relieve you financial crisis pressures
I have to tighten my belt and work hard
For somehow I have to save the banking system
So that it can save me and my baby, hard work pleasures.
I am told that the financial architectures are designed
So that abundance overflows
From rich to poor, strong to powerless, man to woman
But all I can see in your architecture,
Is bad plumbing
Clogged pipes everywhere
Congested with your investments
And my assortment of hard-earned debts
But you better watch it
For you really can’t beat me
I’m used to tying your free trade, with my free labour
You market economy, with my care economics
Your fiscal policy, with the welfare of my tenderness
But not for you – for those I love
And in my love, lies my revolution
So don’t get to comfortable,
Because I am a Revolutionary Woman
Did you know of the kind of role that I desire?
My fickle worrier heart,
And my eyes that shine like fire
My dancing step, and my strong working hands
That need our freedom together without tire
My deep wild laughter
And the colourful dreams to which I aspire
Don’t let my thunderous silence fool you
For I shall never honour
You economic ceasefire
Don’t get too comfortable
I’m a Revolutionary Woman
I’m all too aware that you need me
Can you survive with my loving free labour,
without the royalty of my generous nature?
Can your empires last one second, if I decide to withhold,
the abundance of my one dollar?
What if all of us decide to do so?
What happens to your profits,
if my womb decides to hibernate?
No more babies for this world
And no more consumers for this market
What if I decide again to occupy,
A new market, a new system, a new justice
Never forget
Your power comes from my acquiescence
To my legion of beloved friends, sisters and mothers,
The street is ours
Once set (unable to follow next few lines)
It’s true you know
All it takes now is one facebook event page
Let us then see you cower
Under the surge of this woman power
So don’t get too comfortable –
I’m a Revolutionary Woman
Untamed minds and boundless dreams
Ablaze with all possibilities
Equality, justice and solidarity
Connecting our joint blood streams
I pluck the stars and scatter them around us
It’s an old protection ritual for the adventuress
Be prepared
For I know the smell of revolution when it’s a-brewing
Don’t get too comfortable
For in front of me lies
A terrifying bunch of revolutionary women.