Because I am a Woman by Nellah Mtanenhlabathi Toiwa

Because I am a woman

My rights have been violated

My joy has been snatched from me

I have lost my pride,

I have been treated like garbage

I have  been negatively portrayed

I have been abused and regarded a nonentity.

Yet without the tribe of Eve, none of you will be breathing!

I have been undermined and repressed

I have lost my freedom of speech because of what I am

I am voiceless and not heard because of my sex

Who will support  me when everything I say is deemed odoriferous?

I might never escape from this prison!

I shall never be heard since all my cries fall on deaf ears!

I despise myself for the sour life I live.

My virginity, my pride, has been stolen

By the so called stupendous beings

Whose creed is to enjoy  at the expense of the "inferior".

I have lost everything I believe in and become vulnerable

For how long should I suffer for being what I am?

Why am I discriminated against in the society?

When did I cease being human?

Why are cocks given a paramount position in the society and not the hens?

Should he lead and I follow?

Why am I taken advantage of?

Am I not part of this universe?

Why am I not given my rightful privileges

Since we all are equal in the eyes of the creator?

Why is my life full of soporific and sombre moments?

Think of the unbearable pain I go through;

The labour pain I endure to give life

To the same person who is impudent to me.

I have lived life a thrall

I have had to die so many times and still die again

...because I am a woman.