For dancing in the streets
For being afraid of kissing
For my sister, your sister, our sisters
For changing old values
For the shame of poverty
For yearning for an ordinary life
For child labor and their crushed dreams
For this authoritarian economy
For this polluted air
For our city drying trees
For the Asiatic cheetahs’ anticipated extinction
For the innocent forbidden dogs
For the nonstop tears
For repeating this moment
For the smiling faces
For the students
For their futures
For this forced religion
For the imprisoned intellectuals
For the Afghan kids
For all these countless ‘for’s
For the meaningless slogans
For the ruins of these flimsy houses
For the peace of mind
For the sunrise after long nights
For the sleeping pills and our sleepless nights
For man, homeland, prosperity
For the girl who wished she was a boy
For Woman, Life, Freedom
For freedom.
More content from this blog
- You Can Expel Them, But You Can’t Replace Them [Migrant labour in Russia], by Insan Khismay – 26 November 2025
- A Valuable but Limited Critique on Antisemitism, by Daniel Randall – 11 March 2025
- Felix Pal, Christophe Jaffrelot & Tanika Sarkar on the RSS’s Hidden Network – 7 January 2026
- Apoorvanand Jha & Harsh Mander on the RSS’s Emergence From the Shadows After 1948 – 24 September 2025
- Where Are Iran’s Protests Going in 2026?, by Frieda Afary – 8 January 2026