National

Victory Signs: A Poem On Women Paraded In Manipur

Moumita Alam writes a poem on the incident from May in Manipur in which two tribal women were paraded naked and groped by a mob.

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Moumita Alam writes a poem after the emergence of a video showing women being paraded naked in Manipur
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Oh, my dear Kuki
mothers,
Our bodies are the
warzones
When the men fight
over a water bottle
They curse us and
our mother first.
Fuck your mother,
motherfucker, fuck your sister-
are the most used
slangs!

We are paraded,
stripped
raped and mauled
we are the daughters
of the mother India
our bodies are their
victory trophies.

It's always like
this
The men fight over
our bodies
They set aflame
our breasts and
call us war victims.

Oh my Kuki mother
The men play war
and leave our bodies
after feasting
in the battles or
bushes.

In this male nation
they call us by
various names
to rip us apart
and parade us with
V signs.

(Moumita Alam is a poet from West Bengal. Her poetry collection, The Musings of the Dark, was published in 2020.)