Roseau Times-Region - Serving Roseau County for over 100 Years - The Official Roseau County Newspaper

Essay by: Jasmine Barlow

Mrs. Olsen, English 10

Roseau Community School

My students have read the book I Am Malala  by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick and then completed a variety of projects to go along with it.

I am the top of my class

I am a student at must

So why do I have to worry about

my country's trust? 

I've heard of genocides and suicides

But I never thought I'd meet my demise

in my own premise 

Where I walk to school,

worried if someone'll shoot. 

When I should be worried about

what career I'll pursue

If my passing A's will remain all A's but instead I am worried about someone with an AK. 

I can not learn to read or write

because it's haram 

And according to the Taliban I am haram. 

I am haram because I am a woman. 

I am a woman learning to read

I am a woman learning to write. 

I am learning.

I am a woman learning. 

And that is haram?

Because I am a woman learning 

That's disturbing to you? 

If that is the case you might as well shoot me for being a human. 

You preach of "westernization"

like it's a satanic evolution

As if the people in America

are not standing for a solution

While the Taliban stands there,

and puts Pakistan in prosecution

What should be haram

is the lives of innocent children

The lives of those who yearn

for a chance to learn

A chance to be someone but instead are afraid of being shot with a gun

Individuals who aren't criminals yet have been given a bad visual.

"Impractical." 

Children learning to read? 

How "problematical." 

That isn't mathematical. 

Because I am learning 

I am burning. 

I am weeping about things

I should not be seeing. 

I am reaping the souls of the innocent "foes" that you have claimed to behold

a "mindless" "haram" mold. 

And why? 

All because I am a woman.

A woman learning.