Fatma Al Ghalia is a Sahrawi journalist, writer, and poet. She is currently serving as the president of the League of Sahrawi Journalists and Writers in Europe. She lives in the Basque Country and identifies as “a fighter for freedoms, especially women’s liberation.”
Her poem “I’ve Seen Women” was read during the pre-launch activity for the 6th International Action of the World March of Women (WMW), held on February 18th, Day of Solidarity with Sahrawi Women. The event was attended by WMW militants from several parts of the world, Sahrawi leaders, and militants with ally grassroots organizations. The struggle for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara is an anti-colonial struggle waged by feminists around the world.
With this poem, I denounce the injustices perpetrated against women at the international level and aim to promote women’s struggles and resistance through modern art and a poetry that reflects the ability to survive in face of so much adversity. Women ultimately always pay the price of a world ruled by patriarchy.
I’ve Seen Women
I’ve seen women on bodies of girls
who haven’t known their childhood.
I’ve seen women displaced carrying
children on their back, not knowing whom to resort to.
I’ve seen women emerging from nothing,
with determination and perseverance,
turning the desert
into a beautiful garden.
I’ve seen women at dawn,
kneading bread and feeding,
at nightfall waiting
for their husbands to come back from war.
I’ve seen women give birth by candlelight,
shedding tears as they see
their babies being born.
I’ve seen defenseless women screaming,
desperate, looking for peace
in the trenches.
I’ve seen women clinging to their faith,
waiting for calm, calm, calm,
that never comes, stubborn and numb,
they wait for it
quietly and hopefully.
I’ve seen women soldiers in wars with their
bloodstained hands, mercilessly
killing innocents.
I’ve seen Western women in solidarity,
in the middle of the desert asking
for nothing in return.
I’ve seen African and Latin women,
humble, with riches in their hearts
and nothing to feed mouths
still being able to educate
a generation.
I’ve seen Gipsy women dancing
to the beat of flamenco around
a fire, not asking
anything from life.
I’ve seen Australian women
with no rush, giving time a face
and space a voice.
I’ve seen Asian women rooted
in their customs, their unmistakable
semblance
side by side working
with no rest or safety.
I’ve seen pious Arab women,
praying at dawn, asking for
mercy, and no one paying them
attention.
I’ve seen Caribbean women giving
blood from their veins to give life
to death in Africa,
not waiting for
a family order.
I’ve seen a rainbow of women:
Brown, Mestiza, Black, white,
blond… taking roots
around the world.
I’ve seen so many women and haven’t seen
enough, I know we are different,
but being women is what unites us,
giving lives to life,
for all that, we should not
be different in face
of injustices
in this life.
