Azizah Azizi Poem by Nassy Fesharaki

Azizah Azizi

I met them in Takhkhar
One had come from Le-Monde
Another, Human-Rights
She wondered my looking at her nose.

I’d recalled
“They’re savage and backward.”
The first word on Afghans
“Nose-Pierced their women, ”
Same for lads, Indians with pierce on ears, ”

Wide screen came to sight
With John Wayne and Western
“The savage Indians, ”
That was why I smiled
Single girl looked puzzled:
“What is wrong? ”
I felt guilt and stopped
“Pardon me”
But she gazed
“It’s funny and too long…”
I answered with goose-pumps.
Pale skin, blue-eyed, she was blonde
I sighted; empathy in my heart

The two words of title are two names
First one first
The owner a doctor; young lady and great,
Pupil and teacher was to me when I taught
Ahmad Shah had approved and Nadir supervised
(North’s leader, an Afghan)
Difficult, for me yet, it was fun


Azizah and westerns world apart



“It's smile of wonder nothing else, ” I told them.
But inside I shouted, lion’s shout
Kept silent and stayed

Later on in Le Monde
There was an article
(Words of Girls)
Unaware Journalist
And readers unaware
And I laugh with my sighs.

'Open eyes and walk past
Cross rivers and mountains
Pass through the skin and the bones'

History, my gone-days
Nadir died and his boss, Ahmad Shah
But the Takhkhar has remained
Still known: “Nomadic”

“Stupid! Stupid! ” I said then
(When I heard of pierce,)

When I heard her today
The same girl on “Q”
I shouted:
“Stupid! Stupid! ”

She is blind as she was.

Open eyes, penetrate in culture
Why not look in mirror?
Remember your pierce
(In the nose as fashion
Your parents rejected.
Our lads look Indians.)

Let them be who they are.
Open heart, welcome them.
That is all. I am done.

Piece of meat is her tongue.
Her brain ice-block
She’s talking of virgins
Nasty words on Afghans
And Jian, CBC’s,
Raised here; sees our way.


She brought food and left,
I talk of Azizah in Takhkhar, the Afghan.

“It is shame for me to sit with men, ”

I looked up and her eyes:
“It’s culture, even for a doctor, ”

I felt sad, I felt pain, I felt knife in my back, in my heart.

Stone-like I stood; mountain’s rock I sat ate.

Studied, analyzed all the sides, their long past until now.

I compared East with West.
Piercing, and vaccine and tablets vitamins,
Some of past is fashion in US and Europe


“Which is right? Which is wrong? ” I questioned, sought the cause.
I delved deep, deep in facts, deep in thoughts.

“Do we do good and right?
Be patient and have look.”
I said then and now do.

I believe in sharing.
I oppose imposing.

“Think again. Study the peoples.”

Red color maybe nice
Red roses can be fine
But none is forever

They have things and have ways
Be ear; open eyes
They have lived much longer
(God knows when…)

Respect them.
Coexist
From them
We must learn
We must learn
We must learn