In Memoriam
There was a piece on the radio show “The World” today about Sitara Achakzai, a woman born in Kandahar and relocated to Canada, a refugee of the Soviet war. During her early years, she grew up in a very different Afghanistan, one more like the first few chapters of The Kite Runner than the war-torn poppy producer of today’s headlines. She was encouraged to go to school and to walk into town without a viel by her father who taught her that “Rights are not given – they must be taken.” That seems universally and historically true – in our country we have honored that truth with a revolution, a bill of rights, myriad amendments to the law of our land, treaties and movements that have culminated in new laws.
Sitara Achakzai - Afghan champion of women's rights
Sitara continued to fight for the rights of Afghan women, moving back to Afghanistan in 2004 to become a provincial councillor. She spoke up for women and spoke out against such laws as the legalization of rape within marriage.
At the risk of sounding trite (which is not my intention), I would love to hear Ms. Achakszai’s opinion on gay marriage. Unfortunately that won’t be possible, as she was gunned down in cold blood in Kandahar this month.
Personnally, I shall seek advice from wise minds that have gone before as I think about the cruelty of her death. Alfred Lord Tennyson would have seen the good fight continue in spite of the loss of “The Warrior.”
To Sleep I give my powers away;
My will is bondsman to the dark;
I sit within a helmless bark,
And with my heart I muse and say:
O heart, how fares it with thee now,
That thou should’st fail from thy desire,
Who scarcely darest to inquire,
“What is it makes me beat so low?”
Something it is which thou hast lost,
Some pleasure from thine early years.
Break, thou deep vase of chilling tears,
That grief hath shaken into frost!
Such clouds of nameless trouble cross
All night below the darken’d eyes;
With morning wakes the will, and cries,
“Thou shalt not be the fool of loss.”