Ethar Ahmed ElTinay is a 28 year old Sudanese who started poetry since the age of 10. She wrote this poem on why Hijab is necessary.
A meaning wraps
Around my cover..
In the size of this world as whole,
Between the body and my cloak
There lies a thousand miles..
There lies a solemn meaning
Only born from most ancient times:
“Our Freedom to choose” ..
To protect myself
From those wicked stares, and pitfalls..
To leave between those thoughts
And me,
Unfolding sheets of infinite lands..
So that the frivolous sight which wanders
in search of vain nourishment returns,
exhausted in shame from that labyrinth..
and all it uncovers are its mirages..
That is my right, to choose a path
To bring a message unto this world ..
To craft over this scared gem,
A hefty cover and its stole ..
To make it known that I hold a mind
Which chants a dream of lonesome people..
A mind entrusted with protection
To a heart that carries a collosal nation,
One which hides in the sheath of darkness..
And I call to those who are oblivious
To the worthiness of my religion:
Watch how you lose sight
of this image before you,
and is blinded
from the figure ..
When your mind enlightens a conscience
born to follow what’s naturally righteous ..
And know that chastity is but a scale
One which people mount upon ..
And that when modesty is confiscated,
You’ve witnessed the first whispers of the devil ..
And think..
If you were to ask Adam and Eve
Of the story of the first seduction..
Or then ask your mind in solitude
On what is produced by heat of passion..
And answer this in nothing less
Then your bare and overt truth:
If your eye sight when it wanders
Unleashes torment to those meager hearts,
Why not then hold it back from straying
So far away in this clouded darkness..?
So know that you are of mere two options:
Hold off the whims of those belittled
And soar in rising high over spirits ..
Or bow to dispute of one’s desires
And fall so deep in sorrow
to the lowest of doom’s places..
So take note of what shall be said, dear friend
Be conscious to these subsequent words:
Allow the heart to keep transcending
Over the way of the belittled souls,
and lift itself unto grandest of heights..
Allow your mind to be at ease,
Working on its every breath
For the attainment of nothing less
Than begetting those mighty goals:
Pleasing thy Lord, constructing the earth
Extending thought and civilizations ..
This advice has been revealed
Through the books of all religions ..
To hoard your sight
and save your soul,
brings bliss at present..
bestows salvation..
and grants an eternal taste of heaven..
By Ethar El Tinay
