Poet calls on people to join hands for eliminating violence

HERAT CITY (Pajhwok): A poet, who reflects the pain of his countrymen in poetry, urges people, particularly writers and poets, to work jointly for peace and elimination of violence in the society.

Afghanistan is a country that had been in war for the last four decades that claimed the lives of large number of Afghans.

Some reports indicate that about a million people have lost their lives in conflicts, while large number others have been disabled and millions have been forced to migrate to other countries.

Despite efforts for bringing peace to the country, wars continued for four decades under different excuses until four months ago when the Ashraf Ghani administration collapsed and foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan. However, explosions and target attacks which happen sometimes still take the lives of some people.

People of different communities have repeatedly raised their voice for peace in their country.

MaiwandZamani is a nineteen-year-old poet from Herat who, for many years, in addition to his social activities, has always tried to raise his voice for peace in the country through his poetry.

In an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, he said, “I cannot bear the suffering of the people and I consider poetry to be the only solution to express their suffering.”

According to reports, 19 people were killed and 22 others were wounded, all of them students and civil servants of the university, in an armed attack in Herat city on November 3.

Zamani reminds the attack in which a father lost a son who did not respond to his father’s141 missed calls. “O your father’s beloved, where are you?” was a message attributed to the father that went viral on social media.

Zamani says, “When I heard about this incident, I shouted, (O your father’s beloved, where are you), and a few lines of poems were what I could write about this incident.”

With a lump in his throat during the interview, Zamani read a few poems:

O your father’s beloved, where are you? There is no voice from you

With whom you are, there is no voice from you

My sad heart sank into sorrow

Why is there no your voice

Well, I wish you had enough free time

Zamani has also written poetry on several other deadly events.

Zamani says that now that the fire of war has been extinguished, he no longer wants to want to reach his audience with his sad poems. He wishes he would never be forced to write a sad poem again.

Now we need to talk about issues that bring smiles to our war affected people, he added.

He called on all Afghans, particularly writers and poets, to work for peace and elimination of violence in society.

mds/ma