#MeToo [Aashima Talwar]

P.S. The writer - Aashima Talwar, 27, - is a vicious, vitriolic-mouthed, non-violent vegan; often monikered ‘cunt’ - a freak street kickboxer, a beauty pageant 3rd runners-up, a failed actress, whose film never released. Now, she lives off her wedding money {$123k}, which she convinced her father to donate to her after she crushed his heart by saying ‘I’m never getting married, dad.' 

Aashima wrote this letter in Kabul sometime past midnight - in the day, she was lifting dead bodies & assisting the still alive people after a suicide bomber attack, a staple delicacy of Afghanistan.

I present to you her letter, with zero censorship:

“Ninety-seven days I’ve been in Afghanistan. On all my clothes, I’ve blood marks of people, including infants, who are now dead because of some fallacious belief that killing these random humans will make Allah ecstatic. Twice, I’ve been shot at, mistakenly, and once I’ve been smashed into a wall, deliberately. I’m scared. I’ve bruises & I’ve a torn heart. After writing this letter, I’ll sleep for 5 hours & go back to the hospital where I’m expecting to see another 5 declared dead. People die all the time here. Everyone is used to it, but it still destroys everyone even if they, mostly, withstand this mayhem poker-faced.

2 hours ago {I don’t have internet}, I got to know about the Weinstein saga & the #MeToo outpouring.

Weinstein is an abomination; he is a monster. He became a monster because we, the men & women, let him. Not once, not for a year - for decades destroying thousands.

Men are carefree cocky assholes; they’ve always been & by that I’m not saying they’re molesters. I’m saying they aren’t against women; they just don’t give a crap about women. There’s a difference. Here: If your father finds out you’ve not had food for an entire day, he’ll freak out. But your father won’t give a rat’s ass if the kid in the slums 100 meters away sleeps day after day without a meal. Your father isn’t against the poor kid; he simply doesn’t give a shit. He ain’t gonna go out of his way to put food in that unknown kid’s plate. And men, in general, won’t care no matter how much we cry about the molesting weasels. We have to fix this menace ourselves.

A lot of women are cribbing cowards. They think it’s always someone else’s fault & don’t have the balls to stand up for themselves. If the privileged as fuck Angelina Fucking Jolie took two goddamn decades to call out Weinstein, what do I even expect of the regular lasses. Oh! If one more time, I hear someone tell me how difficult it is to ‘come out,’ I will literally break my non-violence pact & punch her/him right in the face. I know it’s difficult - it’s fucking terrifying, but we {women} can’t keep living in sheer fear of mighty men. We gotta put ourselves on the line - risk acid attack, risk a beating, character assassination, career crash, shot dead. I’ve been called a slut, whore, spat at for walking around unchaperoned beyond midnight, without a hijab in the streets of Kabul. My father thinks I’m the most inconsiderate daughter who will get killed & make him a father who cremates his daughter. It will kill him too, he confessed. But, if I leave Kabul because people call me a prostitute or fearing I might get killed & leave my father with a broken heart for life, I will betray everything I stand for. And I can’t do that. 

I’m calling you out - all the women - next time a Weinstein molests you, masturbates in front of you, expose the fucker without thinking about anything - screw safety screw career screw everything - be single-minded. If no one listens to you, keep shouting till they do. I tell you what, if you don’t give up, you can’t lose. Weinstein is a monster of our creation; next time nip him in the bud, not on Twitter two decades later after he’s destroyed the souls of thousands of women, who have to live in trauma through their lives. Start with accepting the blame for not having the guts to speak up when you absolutely should have.

All the ingenious women {& men} who think the avalanche of horror stories via #MeToo will spur an unprecedented change have never slept empty stomach without a roof. 

The C of Change is incompatible with the two Cs - Cowardice & Convenience. Twitter’s hashtag movements reek of both cowardice & convenience. Warriors hiding behind the veil of the internet will make a thunderous noise, like a bomb explosion, but a deafening silence will follow instantaneously. And the world will go on as normal.

In Kabul, I sit with men - talk with them & drink tea - they tell me this is the first time they’ve sat with a young woman who isn’t related to them & isn’t covered from head to toe. Some refuse to sit near or speak with me. Some sit & talk hesitantly & overtly politely. Some have told me unequivocally I shouldn’t try to go against God & go back to my country. Some have told me - ‘After meeting you, I’ve started to think if maybe Allah doesn’t care for hijab’ Some have said ‘I don’t understand, but it’s hard not to respect what you’re doing. You’ve courage in your heart.’ Some laugh at me; some laugh with me. Some hate me; some are starting not to hate me. Some have shared food with me. Some throw their spare food in the trash than give to me. Howsoever they react, I ain’t leaving.

To initiate real change, one has to start with moving out of their Cocoon - their Comfort zone. They’ve to risk their livelihood, their bodies, their lives. Anyone who disagrees with this statement is sitting under a secure roof with enough food in their fridge. I challenge you - find me one ‘hungry homeless’ person who disagrees with me & I will bloody marry Weinstein.

I’m not asking anyone to come to Kabul. But, I’m definitely asking you to switch off the Internet & move out of your cozy house. Hit the streets, and the help someone. Try it - helping for no reason is so beautiful that it will give you the goosebumps.

Yes, a lot of you are thinking - what does helping people has to do with stopping the sexual harassment?

Everything.

When we open ourselves to someone else’s pain & commit to relieve it, we become a little better. Our hearts open up & minds expand. The people we help start to believe in goodness. Slowly, really slowly, the goodness spreads & good people don't grow up to be molesters. It will take a really long time. It may take a century, but it will happen. It will happen if we have boundless patience & are ready to go beyond sharing stories on Twitter. We may not even live to see the real change, but the universe is much bigger than us. We are the minutest dots on this boundless galaxy. We’ve to do our work without yearning for an outcome or a trophy. 

I’ve to sleep now. I’ve to ask my dreams to steel my heart to see more dead bodies & help bury them in the morning. And then go back to the hospital & share food & stories with those who are still alive.”