We All Are Persons: Why Gender Discrimination?

By Fabrizio Frosini and Poets Unite Worldwide

One thing that makes 'gender discrimination' such an important issue is that it is a worldwide problem – there's no discrimination on how women are treated as 'second class citizens' in almost all cultures. Every day you would come across stories about atrocities committed against women. Some of such injustices are very overt, like physical and sexual abuse; while others are more 'subtle', like telling women that they are ' goddesses' and ' princesses', and thus, they must not pursue careers in, say armed forces. Misogyny comes in many “flavors”, each of them unacceptable.
However, as a society, we tend to have a very thick skin when it comes to noticing the injustices women suffer. Unless and until it is some really horrible crime like rape and/or murder, we tend to ignore the plight of women. Thus, there is almost no outrage about “small” acts of misogyny – someone is cat calling a woman on the streets? “Honey, take it as a compliment”. Women being forced to wear (or not to wear) certain types of clothes? “My dear, that’s just a part of a culture”. Unfortunately, this attitude, which we often describe as “normal”, later on takes the shape of victim blaming, and a general form of incredulity towards the claims of women about injustices – “Well, she must have provoked him: good girls don’t get raped”.
But, I ask you, do you ever hear someone blaming the victim for other crimes? Do you ever hear a pedestrian getting blamed for being hit by a car? I mean, after all, they were walking on the streets, sort of ‘asking’ to be hit by a car (?!). Nope, it’s only with women that the victims are blamed for the crime.
At the root of this prejudice is a culture that essentially belittles and subjugate women through various "norms" that are born out of obsolete ideals, moralities, and at times even the “Law of the land”. A woman's "femininity" is determined by a patriarchal society, that bullies, torments, at times "destroy" women who do not fall into the "normal" criterion of femininity defined by them. You can look at how women who are not straight are treated in almost all cultures, as such women no longer remain a 'commodity' to be owned by men, but independent identities, with their own "desire".
Any discussion on gender discrimination is incomplete without having a few words on how religions across the globe generally are misogynistic. A point previously made in this ‘note’ about victim blaming has a lot to do with religions and religious morality. The idea that injustices against women happen only when they ‘transgress’ certain ‘boundaries’ set for them, comes heavily from religious scriptures. Even today, in the 21st century, we can easily find a consensus on the religious fundamentalists that women should be blamed and punished for crimes committed against them.
Finally, the representation of women, in media and popular culture too, is at best “problematic”. Rampant sexual objectification, and representation of the “ideal” female body (slim, perfect, flawless) have been argued to have been behind from anorexia to psychological disorders in women.
This gripping compilation of poems by 90 poets from 45 countries, worldwide, is a praiseworthy "collective tale" on gender discrimination. While many readers may well be aware of these issues, for those who might not, I hope this collection will be a starting point, from where they will educate themselves further and contribute to eradicate these injustices. Women are said to be "half of the sky", but it is high time for them to properly own their part. (Souren Mondal, India)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fabrizio Frosini
• Release date: Jun 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781311896551

Fabrizio Frosini

Born in Tuscany, Italy. Currently living close to Florence and Vinci, Leonardo's hometown. Doctor in Medicine, specialized in Neurosurgery, with an ancient passion for Poetry, he is the Author of over 2,000 poems published in 20 personal books. Frosini writes in Italian, his native language, and English. He is the founder of the International Association "Poets Unite Worldwide," with which he has published more than 50 Anthologies. Among his own books: «The Chinese Gardens - English Poems», «Prelude to the Night», «Anita Quiclotzl & Her Souls - Anita Quiclotzl e le Sue Anime» (Bilingual Ed.) - [for the others, see below].~*~In Frosini's Poetry:1. The Truth is Affirmed ; 2. Beauty is Conveyed ; 3. The Personal becomes the Universal.One of the key terms in contemporary poetry is 'POETRY OF WITNESS'. "Florence, A Walk With A View" is an excellent example of this type of poem. It exchanges the anger we experienced in the preceding poem with melancholy, but this is a haunted and desperate melancholy, not at all like the word's root meaning of sweet sorrow. Yet, in Fabrizio Frosini's poem, the city charms the visitor with its natural beauty - "the silky lights of the / Sunset" - and artistic ambiance - "the intimate warmth of nostalgia that makes / Your heart melt at the sight around".In the finest poetry, beauty is conveyed in all of it sensuous and spiritual glory. The title "Water Music" refers to one of Handel's most popular works, a masterpiece of baroque melody, rhythm and harmony. The poem, however, is not about this music.. here is a shining element of the beauty this poem conveys - "I was in my room, staring at the clear sky through the window. The moon, so pale and magical, drawing my imagination to her. In my ears Handel's music was playing softly." - There is the beauty of VITA NOVA, in this Frosini's poem: Dante's idealization of Beatrice with its artistic and moral benefits experienced by a contemporary couple. And finally the beauty of sublimation, when an otherwise sensuous experience must be transferred to the plane of the Imagination. Other Frosini's poem, like "Nocturnal Snowing", are Poems of Memory, that reveal the persistence of an experience of mutual attraction in the poet's life over many decades. There, a young woman, who is forever young and lovely in the poet's mind, becomes a touchstone of emotional value. But not all good experiences are given a future by the hand of fate. And so Frosini's poetry also explores the emotional consequences of the loss of such a promising moment... The prevailing reaction in reader after reader is that Frosini's verses relate to their emotional lives. In other words, Fabrizio Frosini's personal experience reflects their personal experience, and thus the Personal becomes the Universal...~*~Books published as sole Author:(*BE*: Bilingual Editions, English–Italian ; All books have PAPERBACK and EBOOK Editions)– «The Chinese Gardens – English Poems» – English Ed. – (published also in Italian Ed.:– «I Giardini Cinesi» – Edizione Italiana);– «KARUMI – Haiku & Tanka» – Italian Ed.;– «Allo Specchio di Me Stesso» ('In the Mirror of Myself') – Italian Ed.;– «Il Vento e il Fiume» ('The Wind and the River') – Italian Ed.;– «A Chisciotte» ('To Quixote') – Italian Ed.;– «Il Puro, l'Impuro – Kosher/Treyf» ('The pure, the Impure – Kosher / Treyf') – Italian Ed.;– «Frammenti di Memoria – Carmina et Fragmenta» ('Fragments of Memories') – Italian Ed.;– «La Città dei Vivi e dei Morti» ('The City of the Living and the Dead') – Italian Ed.;– «Nella luce confusa del crepuscolo» ('In the fuzzy light of the Twilight') – Italian Ed.;– «Limes —O La Chiave Dei Sogni» ('The Key to Dreams') – Italian Ed.;– «Echi e Rompicapi» ('Puzzles & Echoes') – Italian Ed.;– «Ballate e Altre Cadenze» ('Ballads and Other Cadences') – Italian Ed.;– «Selected Poems – Επιλεγμένα Ποιήματα – Poesie Scelte» – Greek–English–Italian (Αγγλικά, Ελληνικά, Ιταλικά – Greek translation by Dimitrios Galanis);– «Prelude to the Night – English Poems» – English Ed. (published also in Italian Ed.:– «Preludio alla Notte» – Edizione Italiana);– «A Season for Everyone – Tanka Poetry» – English Ed.;– «Evanescence of the Floating World – Haiku» – English Ed.;– «From the Book of Limbo – Dal Libro del Limbo» – *BE*;– «Anita Quiclotzl & Her Souls – Anita Quiclotzl e le Sue Anime» – *BE*.~*~Forthcoming publications:– «Mirror Games — A Tale» – English Edition (also in Italian Ed.:– «Giochi di Specchi — Un Racconto»);– «Il Sentiero della Luna» ('The Moon's Path') – Italian Edition.~*~For the Anthologies published by Fabrizio Frosini with "Poets Unite Worldwide", see Frosini's profile as a PUBLISHER, or POETS UNITE WORLDWIDE's profile.~*~Some of Frosini's poems are also published in the Anthology "Riflessi 62" (Italian Edition), edited by Pagine Srl.~*~Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/poetsuniteworldwide/Website address:https://poetsuniteworldwide.org/Blog:https://poetsuniteworldwide.wordpress.com/Twitter username:@fabriziofrosini

Book preview

by

Fabrizio Frosini

The poems of the present compilation belong in the genre Poetry of Witness, and they explore specifically the 'Gender Discrimination' issue, in its many aspects. I've chosen this topic because it is a very important issue for everybody who advocate a true gender equality.

Just look around, we can easily find examples of 'Gender Discrimination': inside families, in our societies (think about jobs: not always, but usually women earn less than men, for the same job, and they often experience some form of psychological or sexual harassment –or even violence– at workplace), also in the way women are represented by media,..; and there are "worlds, within our common world, where females are traditionally" seen as 'b'-members, compared to alpha-members —the males.

Indeed, gender discrimination affects girls and women everywhere, even in the most advanced societies. Violence against women is widespread, often inside the family, and women and girls are usually the ones that suffer the most poverty. In many countries, women are not entitled to a proper education, their political rights are restricted, and they are not entitled even to own property or inherit land. Social exclusion or restriction keep them in a state of submission to the head of family (father / husband / brother). Early marriages, (so called) 'honor killings', female genital mutilations, sexual exploitation & trafficking, domestic violence and abuse, turn the lives of hundreds of millions of girls and women into a daily nightmare.

According to a report released by 'Save the Children' in October 2016, ahead of 'International Day of the Girl' (Oct. 11th), one girl under the age of 15 is married every 7 seconds.

The report says girls as young as 10 are forced to marry much older men in a number of countries, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia,... Conflict, poverty and humanitarian crises are seen as major factors that leave girls exposed to child marriage. When a war ravages a country, the number of child brides grows, since many refugee families marry off their daughters as a way to protect them against poverty or sexual exploitation. According to UN Children's Agency (Unicef) estimates, the number of women married in childhood will grow from 700 million today to around 950 million by 2030.

As 'Save the Children' points out, early marriage can trigger a cycle of disadvantage across every part of a girl's life, a cycle "that denies girls the most basic rights to learn, develop and be children, –said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International – [they] often can't attend school, and are more likely to face domestic violence, abuse and rape."

Therefore, giving girls, through education, the knowledge, skills and resources they need, is not only good for them, but would help economic growth and reduce poverty.

My own poem in this compilation, 'Velvet words', is on 'femicide', a term introduced to describe the murder of women/girls that are gender related, as the extreme manifestation of violence against women. But reading the poems, you’ll find many situations described:

Social exclusion/restriction,

No (or limited) access to a proper education,

Early marriages,

Honor killings,

Female genital mutilations,

Sexual exploitation & trafficking,

Violence, abuse, psychological or sexual harassment, …

Some readers might think that Poetry should be the triumph of "grace and lightness", and that violence should be left to prose.. But Poetry is a manifestation of Life, as well as any other human expression. Indeed, we need such kind of 'Poetry of Witness' because all women, and particularly the 1.1 billion girls in the world, deserve our attention. We have the moral obligation, as poets, to show them not only a mere solidarity, but an active action towards equality. As human beings, especially if males (husbands/ fathers/ siblings/ sons/ friends), we have to do that daily, through our deeds.

As poets, we can do that also through our poetry.

(Fabrizio Frosini, Firenze, 2016)

Link to: Save the Children; Unicef:

~*~

Acknowledgement

90 Authors from 46 countries (*), belonging in the free Association 'Poets Unite Worldwide', have taken part in this book, and I wish to thank all of them: they answered my call with enthusiasm, sending beautiful and poignant poems —all of them are worthy of mention, but just to name a few:

Kemurl Fofanah’s 'Every Girl Deserves A Diamond'; Sarah Ali’s 'A Voice for Girls'; Manu Mangattu’s 'Monalisa'; Tia Attwood’s 'Women's Celestial Freedom Caged'; Dismas Okombo’s 'Next time in your prayers'; Sarah Louise Persson’s 'The tenderest of souls'; Alexandro Acevedo Johns’ 'Women on Earth'; ...

And a special thank goes to my closer collaborators for the present edition: Pamela Sinicrope, Kelly Kurt and Lawrence Beck, my co-editors; Galina Italyanskaya, who has created the beautiful cover, from an artwork by Marianne Larsen Reninger; and Souren Mondal, who has written the passionate presentation.

Ad maiora!

(Fabrizio Frosini)

(*) Countries of adoption are also considered:

Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroun , Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Ethiopia, France , Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone , South Africa , Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, UAE, Uganda, UK, USA, Zimbabwe..

~*~

« Tree you are,

Moss you are,

You are violets with wind above them.

A child – so high – you are,

And all this is folly to the world. »

(Ezra Pound, 'A Girl')

The Poems

Poems: 1–25

Pranam Abbi, Breaking the denial

Sayeed Abubakar, When She Was Born

Alexandro Acevedo Johns, Women on Earth

Yewande Adedokun, My Woman Mirror

Ellias Aghili Dehnavi, Abandoned Angels

Kareem Akadri, Are We Not Human as You?

Sarah Ali, A voice for girls

Williams Amao, A Loud Cry For Freedom

Naima Ansari, Woman–A Caged Nightingale

Tia Attwood, Women’s celestial freedom caged

Joy Austin, Awakened Wolves

Anna Banasiak, Tattoos

Lawrence Beck, The Mayor's Wife

Abhilasha Bhatt, A Woman

Noreen Carden, Girl

Rahul Kumar Choudhary, This world was never mine

Charles B. Cross, Galatea, the World Is Sorry

Réne Curtis, Child Bride

Neelam Dadhwal, The Least, the Last

Jaya Das, The Call Of A Girl

Sheryl Deane, Breast Milk

Asavri Dhillon, Three Letters to 'He'

Unnikrishnan Edathoot, And Silence Is What I Choose

Karen Edwards, She Weeps

M.A. Kemurl Fofanah, Every Girl Deserves A Diamond

Poems: 26–50

Fabrizio Frosini, Velvet words

Alem Hailu G/Kristos, Breaking the double yoke

Negar Gorji, Wish

François Guimatsia, The Female Wing

Dilantha Gunawardana, Malini

Simone Inez Harriman, The Significance of Wings

Nosheen Irfan, Proud to be a Woman

Afrooz Jafarinoor, Not truly at ease

Farzad Jahanbani, Poem Seller Angel

Sparsh Jain, Tonight she'd come in

Vincent Chizoba John, Dots of light before my thought

Vinaya Joseph, She

Hilal Karahan, Little, black, sheared hands..

Srijana KC Rayamajhi, Fallen wombs

Phumla Xuza Khanyile, Raped

Lal Rin Kim aka Seiji Lushai, Pin Pricked

Sofia Kioroglou, State secularism a notion of yore

Joji Varghese Kuncheria, Violence against Women

Kelly Kurt, Equal

Agatha Eliza Laposi, The Dream Weavers (Letter to those before us)

Natchai Leenders, The Young Princess Bride

Tapera Makadho, A Woman's Plea

Manu Mangattu, Monalisa

Kenneth Maswabi, She is the Chibok girl

Mikhail Mavrotheris, An old story goes

Poems: 51–75

Alix Maya, Innocent

Mallika Menon, A soul with agonies

Leloudia Migdali, The woman in black

Sarah Mkhonza, The Night is Asleep and Violence is Awake Outside

Istvan Dan Molnar Uriel, Tomorrow Never Knows

Souren Mondal, Red Pearls

Anitah Muwanguzi, The Gost

Bharati Nayak, Revati

Madhumita Bhattacharjee Nayyar, The Veil

Asim Nehal, Woman, Why thou at mercy in men's society?

Fatima Nuzhat, Being Woman

Dismas Okombo, Next Time In Your Prayers

Rekha Padinjattakathu, I am

Pragyan Pallabi, The wilted Jasmine

Anil Kumar Panda, Molested

Marcondes Pereira da Silva de Mesquita, Status quo and metaphor of a Lily

Sarah Louise Persson, The Tenderest Of Souls

Dominic Prempeh, A Voice For Feminism

Marianne Larsen Reninger, Tethers

Jan Ross, Written in my body

Mary-Lisa Russo, In My Society

Lendsy Salcedo, Death's Hour

Kirti Sharma, Not my mistake

Anzelyne Shideshe, Relevance of Femininity

Pamela Sinicrope, Stars and Stilettos

Poems: 76–89

Kim Alan Solem, If God Were a Woman

Mubeen Sadhika Syed, Mannequins without Identity

Udaya R. Tennakoon, Inside itself and outside itself

Marie-Chantale Tremblay, Fortunate Ones (Stand Up and Fight)

Savita Tyagi, Savitri

Favour Ugwumba, Because I'am a Girl

Hans Van Rostenberghe, A tear and a crack

Abrar Ajaz Wani, Rope your dreams

Niken Kusuma Wardani, Because I am a woman

Domes Wau, Girls like useless gold

Mithilesh Kumar Yadav, Son’s Mother

Monika Yadav, In the world so dreary

Asma Zenjali, Loving Women

Markus Zielinski, What about