Farah Ahamed in Conversation with Shikha Sawhney Lamba
Ahamed traces the evolution of menstrual advocacy from silence to visibility, examining…
Read more →
From ULR
Issue 9 – Violence
Sweet Jasmine
Young bodies, pressed unwillingly, endure forced plucking. Virginity erased. Submission becomes an expected, heavy veil.
June 15, 2023
“India is home to the largest number of child brides in the world: 23 million child brides – a third of the global total.” UNICEF 2021
How many fourteen-year olds are offered like delicacies?
Pressed against desire they understand nothing of,
pressed against bodies that thrill themselves with the fresh
plucking, bodies that lie exhausted erasing virginity from girl.
How many are made to display themselves unwillingly
like vast open fields of golden crop,
legs rising like plateaus, elevated for the taking.
How many girls surrender because it is your duty to lie there and please,
because submission is the chaddar they must all wear along with sindoor.
📖
PART OF A COLLECTIONSweet Jasmine and 1 other poem
View Full Collection →
Shikha Lamba
Shikha S. Lamba is a jewellery designer and poet living in Hong Kong. She is also the co-editor of an online magazine, Coffee and Conversations. Shikha has contributed poetry and articles for various publications in Hong Kong, US and India over the years. Passionate about raising awareness about women’s health and mental health issues through her writing, her poems often touch on themes of feminism and social injustice.