Feb 25, 2026

Veil (1941)

I heard a girl's lament - yesterday she howled 
Like a prisoner and so passionate, it melted the heart

Such voice and shape no one has heard or seen before
she tore at the depths of the heart's old scab

She said: This veil has not only covered our face, 
Against us, no rights, forgotten names


Never have we had a day when we freely demanded our right
for our own fate, gone to the battlefield

From beginning to end, this black veil was wrong 
It became our obstacle, disabled us from entering the community of men

Pull it off, please tear it away, throw it into the furnace of fire
It's a pity that at the light of day, you drag yourselves down into the darkness of night

The oppression of these traitors, it left no just judgement
They put our sex under the spell of men's pleas

Why did our lot become a shroud, both in life and in judgement?
Here black, there white, it’s sewn unto our bodies 

Want to know, ask your elders, those who came before you
Who ever saw veil over Kurdistan's woman’s face

When did the veil become a symbol of the virtue of the tender body?
the heart is the arrow of the denier of God, who take no responsibility over faith

Tare it off, put it among you and surround it 
I hope to see it with my own eyes, with my wandering soul

Take it away please, throw it away, throw it into the furnace of fire
It is a pity that at the light of day, you drag yourselves down into the darkness of night

Let a circle gather round it, say farewell to it 
Let its name go with this April flood

Put it in a coffin, let it be carried over the shoulders of longing 
Put it in a grave, on top of the ‘Saywan’ hill

Forgive us, O God - to bury it is not right
Put it in a deep hole, over the hill of ‘Gawran’

Arrange a sad memorial, where each of you
come to his ceremony, with joy and smiling lips

Don't believe that this lament is "Nuri's" idea, nor his poem
It belongs to the girl with a beautiful voice, who said it with tears in her eyes

Take it away please, throw it away, throw it in the furnace of fire
It's a pity that the light of day, you drag yourselves into the darkness of night

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