The Sea Gazelle

The Sea Gazelle

By Bänoo Zan

                           For Ahoo Daryaei¹

My body—my voice—

Time is out of joint
in this sea of forced hijabs

I wear a hoodie sweater to campus
To force me to wear a hijab
the Sharia militiamen rip it to shreds

I show you whose body this is—I roar—
Now that my torso is exposed—
I get out of my pants, too—

I announce independence—
walk down the street—tall as cypress—
My body is not my shame—

My arrest is a bloody scream
Plainclothes men beat me up—
bang my head against a car
and throw me inside—
The tires leave a trail of red

I am detained in a “psychiatric” ward
The only people with visitation rights  
are the Brigadier General of the Disciplinary Force²
Intelligence agents,

and pretend doctors who administer drugs
to drive me to insanity, confession,
and the insanity of confession

Waves besiege my protest
Pain pierces me as rape

I am restrained after attempts to escape—

I am a tempest in
a sea of subjugated resolves—

No ceasefire—between tyranny and freedom—

My body—is my weapon—

I am leaping out of waves

---

---

Bänoo Zan is a poet, translator, essayist, and poetry curator, with over 300 published pieces and three books including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Canada’s most diverse and brave poetry open mic series (inception 2012). It is a brave space that bridges the gap between communities of poets from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions (or lack thereof), ages, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, poetic styles, voices, and visions. Bänoo, along with Cy Strom, is the co-editor of the anthology: Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution. 

Photo credit: Photoholgic on Unsplash.

---

A note from Writers Resist
Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.

---

1. Ahoo Daryaei, nicknamed “the science-research girl,” is a PhD student in French Literature at the Islamic Azad (Free) University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. On November 2, 2024, security forces tore her clothes to teach her that she should dress modestly. She then stripped to her underwear and was arrested by plainclothes forces and detained and held against her will at a “psychiatric” hospital. “The sea gazelle” is a translation of her name: “ahoo” is gazelle and “darya” is the sea in Persian. ↩︎
2. FARAJA, acronym for the Disciplinary Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran ↩︎