A Letter to Palestinian Men ⋆ Eve Poetry ⋆ Poetry Feature

A Letter to Palestinian Men by Noor Alzaghal

I’m a Palestinian woman
As a child I used hate men and their fathers
For I could see how they’ve been raised to look down on women
For I could see how they were raised to feel pride in taking advantage of their wife’s vulnerable love
to put her in place

Now I look at your father
In twenty hundred being forced out of his own house in the middle of the night to clean the voice of resistance off the village walls
A year later, walking home careful of looking suspicious
Two years later, running to the mountains to hide just because everyone else is doing it
Another year goes by and he’s being searched on checkpoints
And I can see him always releasing a breath of relief once knowing you’re home.

I can see him inhaling a dosage of fear 20 times a minute.
But there are 60 minutes in an hour. And 24 hours a day. And 365 days a year.
So I do not hate you anymore
I understand
I see it now
But I don’t support it
I, instead, support you
So count on me
I’ll make you feel
I’ll make you let it all out
I’ll make you let go of that demon
I’ll let you live
Smile and cry
And I will not tell a soul
No enemy should know
Only us and the dark night sky

Noor Alzaghal

Noor Alzaghal is a 19-year-old Palestinian young woman with a burning passion for arts of all sorts. She is mainly a writer of poetry and fiction, but she also likes to dip her fingers into some photography and drama from time to time. Although unpublished, she is in the process of writing a novel as well as publishing a collection of poems hopefully soon.

At the moment, she is a full time English Language and Literature student at An-Najah National University, and she is the founder of Englitopia; A Creative Writing and Drama Group, which aims to provide a safe space for students to find and express themselves through art.

You can find her on Instagram where she shares most of her work.

Instagram: @noor_poetry

Follow Noor on Instagram

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