For the fourteen women, and the fourteen x fourteen millions more
…Let’s light a candle
Let’s light another candle
For old women, rejected wives, and all women
Powerless and silenced,
Whose children have forgotten the ones who gave them birth
Let’s light a candle
Let’s light another candle,
For the childless wives, violated women and all women scorned
Whose brothers have forgotten the same mothers they mourned
Let’s light a candle
Let’s light another candle
For women mutilated by parents, battered by partners,
All women killed by laws of custom,
Whose families hold sacrosanct such “cultural practice”
Let’s light a candle
Let’s light another candle
For “comfort women”, “ethnically polluted” women,
All women brutalized by rape and the sanctions of war
Whose states have abandoned them; displaced, seeking refuge
Let’s light a candle
Let’s light another candle
For girl children unmourned in death, oppressed in life
All girls unborn to life,
Whose people place no honour in girls
Let’s light a candle
Let’s light another candle
Also for warrior women working for women,
All females, all feminists, all sisters in spirit,
Let’s light a candle
Let’s light another candle.
Dr Abena Busia is a Professor of Literature, writer, teacher, poet, social justice activist and currently lectures at Rutgers Universiy, New Jersey.