Kudos to the Proud Sister

Kudos to the proud sister

“The ideas cannot be extinguished by force or violence, by cannons, or rifles”

M. Kemal Ataturk

Thank you sister Merve for the candle you lit pierced the darkness in many hearts,
sent the ray of hope where the hope was scarce.
Thank you for showing us what the indomitable human spirit is capable of,
for the dignified calm you displayed in the eye of the storm.
The sloths hanging upside down from the tree,
seeing the universe upside down, called you “vampire”.
The vampires, the predators, the scavengers and the parasites,
Gulliver's yahoos were thirsting to feast on your blood.
They smashed the olive branch you extended.
They took the pious humility that your faithful parents taught you,
as the sign of weakness, for they knew not otherwise.
They could not see that the earth was round and the sun could not be smeared
with mud
They thought they could intimidate you into submission
for the tyrants were used to submitting to tyrants.
But you proved them wrong.
You did not succumb.
You heeded your higher calling,
held your head up high and stood your ground.
You towered as they sunk.
Just when we thought they could not sink lower,
they made their toddlers shout at you
the words they could not pronounce.
But then again, maybe the babies understood “secularism”
as much as their teachers, parents, the rulers and the ringmasters.
The truth scared them to death
What if others find out, they said,
the power of dignity, virtuosity, piety?
For the racket they had was predicated upon the absence of virtue,
the abundance of ignorance, hedonism, transvestitism,
greed and callousness.
They closed their ears to the laughter of the Westerners they worshiped,
to their misery, buried their heads in the sand and wowed to defend
their empire of Sodom and Gomorrah against your hijab,
in your beloved motherland.

Thank you sister, for making your despised, disenfranchised, scorned, abused
sisters lift their head up high and say loudly and proudly “I am Merve Kavakci”.

Bekir L. Yildirim
Washington, DC