Martyred Meena- A Revolutionary Voice to the Voiceless

Meena Keshwar Kamal, a universally acknowledged name of an Afghan revolutionary figure who gave her life in fighting for women’s rights and emancipation for her community.

Her indomitable courage and devotion were inspired by the fighting spirit of Malalai of Maiwand, a fierce Pashtun, nationalist hero from Kandahar.

Meena was a powerful and incredibly passionate activist who used her talents to fight for Women’s Rights in Afghanistan and Internationally, in a myriad of different projects on freedom of speech and education.

During her school days, students in Kabul and other Afghan cities were deeply engaged in social-political activism and rising mass movements. She left the university to devote herself as a social activist to organizing and educating women. In pursuit of her cause for gaining the right of freedom of expression and conducting political activities, When she was just a nineteen-year-old student, in Kabul Meena founded an organization called, RAWA  in 1977. RAWA which stands for The Revolutionary Association of the Woman of Afghanistan.


RAWA is an organization that strives to “Give voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan.”

In 1981 she launched a bilingual feminist magazine called Payam-e-Zan (which means Women’s Message in English) projecting the hardship and unfortunate lives of Afghan women under the Islamist Patriarchy. This magazine, which was produced through RAWA exposed to the rampant criminal activities of the fundamentalists were damaging to basic human rights.


Meena gave 12 years of her short but brilliant life to struggle for her homeland and her people. Besides, She had a strong belief that despite the darkness of illiteracy, ignorance of fundamentalism, and corruption and decadence of sellouts imposed on our women under the name of freedom and equality, finally that half of the population will be awakened. They will cross the path towards freedom, democracy and women’s rights. ...

The poem was written by Meena

I’ll Never Return

I’m the woman who has awoken

I’ve arisen and become a tempest
among the ashes of my burnt children

I’ve arisen from the rivulets of my brother’s blood

My nation’s wrath has empowered me

My ruined and burnt villages fill me
with hatred against the enemy.

I’m the woman who has awoken,

I’ve found my path and will never return.

I’ve opened closed doors of ignorance

I’ve said farewell to all golden bracelets

Oh, Compatriot, I’m not what I was

I’m the woman who has awoken

I’ve found my path and will never return.

I’ve seen barefoot, wandering and homeless children

I’ve seen henna-handed brides with mourning clothes

I've seen giant walls of the prisons swallow
freedom in their ravenous stomach.

I’ve been reborn amidst epics of resistance and courage

I’ve learned the song of freedom in the last breaths,
in the waves of blood and in victory

Oh Compatriot, Oh brother, no longer regard me as weak and incapable

With all my strength I’m with you on the path of my land’s liberation.

My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women

My fists are clenched with the fists of thousands of compatriots

Along with you, I’ve stepped up to the path of my nation,

To break all these sufferings all these fetters of slavery,

Oh compatriot, Oh brother, I’m not what I was

I’m the woman who has awoken

I’ve found my path and will never return.