Sri Craven (Associate Professor, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Portland State University)
Three Rules
Wash your hands
Cover your face
Stay home
Words in other lives
It was the eighties, and that was home
Water was not so easy
The government knows what to do
We had two hours in the morning
Lined up buckets, vessels, tallest to shortest
So you could stay clean, as god wanted
Meanwhile, women covered head to toe
Smelling of attar and spices
Walking in our midst, you never know where they look
Live and let live
But just don’t eat in their houses
And, suddenly, growing up, breasts, hair, moods
Envying the freedom of water and of purdah
No more playing outside
And except for school
Life was always indoors
Wash your hands
Cover your face
Stay home
These things come easy
Having lived there, even if I hear things have changed
But not so much that women in purdah walk freely
Or, just women.