On 27th. October, 2008, a thousand spectators gathered in a stadium in Kismayu, Somalia, to watch Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, a thirteen-year old Somalian girl, being stoned to death by a group of more than fifty Islamist militiamen. Aisha was forced, fighting and screaming, into a hole in the ground were she was buried up to her neck and pelted with rocks until she died. Her crime was the reporting of rape. her death was her punishment for being female.

 

remember aisha

 

if you are somebody's daughter

read this poem

if you are somebody's son

read this poem

aisha was somebody's daughter

 

now go into your garden

touch the earth

now go into your garden

touch the rock

 

feel the earth

as it creeps up her body

feel the rock

in the hands

of those who will kill

 

now scream

 

hear aisha

as she screams her innocence

aisha was somebody's daughter

 

if you have daughters

feel the earth

as it creeps up their bodies

hear them scream

as bone splinters

as flesh severs

 

aisha was somebody's daughter

aisha was somebody's child

 

if you have sons

feel the rock in their hands

if you have sons

feel the rock in their hearts

fifty sons of somebody

to kill one girl

in a hole in the ground

screaming her innocence

screaming to live

 

remember aisha

remember aisha

remember aisha

 

Gaia Charis : 7.10.10.