Nap Time

"In the shade of their tent, members of a Tuareg family doze through midday heat near Timbuktu in drought-stricken Mali."

From "Physical World," May 1998, National Geographic magazine
Photograph by Joanna B. Pinneo

The Phrasing Must Change

Learn about your inner self from those who know such things,

but don't repeat verbatim what they say.

Zuleikha let everything be the name of Joseph, from celery seed

to aloes wood. She loved him so much she concealed his name

in many different phrases, the inner meanings

known only to her.

When she said, The wax is softening

near the fire, she meant, My love is wanting me.

Or if she said, Look, the moon is up or The willow has new leaves

or The branches are trembling or The coriander seeds

have caught fire or The roses are opening

or The king is in a good mood today or Isn't that lucky?

Or the furniture needs dusting or

The water carrier is here or It's almost daylight or

These vegetables are perfect or The bread needs more salt

or The clouds seem to be moving against the wind

or My head hurts or My headache's better,

anything she praises, it's Joseph's touch she means,

any complaint, it's his being away.

When she's hungry, it's for him. Thirsty, his name is a sherbet.

Cold, he's a fur.

This is what the Friend can do

when one is in such love. Sensual people use the holy names

often, but they don't work for them.

The miracle Jesus did by being the name of God,

Zuleikha felt in the name of Joseph.

When one is united to the core of another, to speak of that

is to breathe the name Hu, empty of self and filled

with love. As the saying goes, The pot drips what is in it.

The saffron spice of connecting, laughter.

The onion smell of separation, crying.

Others have many things and people they love.

This is not the way of Friend and friend.

-- Jallaluddin Muhammed Rumi's Mathnawi VI: 4020-43

Version by Coleman Barks

"The Essential Rumi"

HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Windswept

Photographer: Omar Sobhani

Source: Reuters

You don't have to turn on the red light

She wrings her hands, almost as though rubbing them together will wash away the past - much like the Lady Macbeth. Her eyes dart from side to side, down-cast, avoiding any eye-contact, desperately trying to hide her shame. Her story doesn't differ much from the others. Abducted from her village when she was 12, Sameera was brought to Dhaka to work. Several futile attempts to escape and return home ensured that she was locked up for months, threatened and raped. Her frail body too young to withstand such torture was then pumped with drugs and cow steroids to fatten her up, making her look more womanly and disguising her youth.

Now 18, she is pregnant with her second child. Abortion is illegal in Bangladesh. Luckily she has so far tested negative for HIV. Her first child, Ismail, is 3 yeard old. She doesn't know who the father is and young Ismail's future is pre-determined by his mother's circumstances. He will not be registered without a father's name and is not entitled to a birth certificate. Boys like him have either become pimps or enter a life of crime. If Sameera's second baby is a girl, she is likely to follow her mother's footsteps.

"Other women who work here have come willingly", she says. Their poverty and home life often lead to desperation, and now that sex-work is legalised, women see it as an alternative to begging or even factory work. "We are told we are immoral and corrupting society, but society has forgotten us and left us with no hope." Some Islamic groups argue that the scourge of prostitution in Bangladesh is a colonial legacy that was institutionalised by the British and secularists who introduced vice to destroy family values and morality but these groups have not taken action to protect the women.

Bangladesh is a country mired in poverty, with almost 80 million people living in squalor. Women bear the greater burden of the poverty with over 70% remaining illiterate. In the majority Muslim country, young girls like Sameera have few options and there is little evidence of the government or society providing viable alternatives for sex workers.

Childhood lost