Just because we are hiding behind our veils or are covered from head to toe does NOT mean we are old-fashioned. In case you need this, one of the definitions of beauty is the HEART, okay? Neither are we intimidated nor forced upon. Just simply beautiful cloaked silhouettes, beautiful phenomenal women. :)
Wrote this for the youngwriters.co.uk (poetry prompt "Empowered")

20/10/2021

I keep thinking: it must be painful for the mighty rays of sun to be broken to bits by the sun-catcher that shines by my window. Yet, the patterns that form through the process are so overwhelmingly beautiful.
There must be some beauty in the pain that comes through bravery.

There's a saying in Urdu - my mother tongue - which goes like this:
کچھ سوچ کے شمع پہ پروانا جلا ہو گا
شاید اسی جلنے میں جینے کا مزا ہو گا

Which roughly translates to:
"The moth must've thought something before it leapt into the flames
Perhaps it was that burning where the true flavour of living lay

Honestly, I so wish the translation could do justice to how beautiful that verse is in our language. The first time I heard it, it just took my breath away.