Yalda Hozhair Aminy, 22, is an social activist and a member of the Afghan Girls Robotic Team. She works with several international organizations, including Afghan Youths Network and the Golden Needle Association. She is an Ambassador of Allies to Refugees in Afghanistan and helped them to open their first center in Afghanistan.
مادرَ الفاظ / Mother's of Words
Author: Yalda Aminy
منو تو نسلی از اندوه ممتد
شکار پنجه ی خفاش بودیم
نگاه ام آسمانی بود و اما
منو تو همقطار باز بودیم
ببستن سنگر تعلیم ما را
منو تو مطلوب الماس بودیم
شکستن رنگ های نوجوانی
منو تو هردو یک آواز بودیم
برای نسل یک ملت چه گویم
منو تو زن شده غمساز بودیم
گهی ظلم و شکنجه گهَ خشونت
منوتو مادر قفقاز بودیم
شب تاریک ز زلف ما سحر شد
منو تو بند یک الفاظ بودیم
خشونت نام دوم جهان هست
منوتو مظلوم این ساز بودیم
کتابم را گرفتند و ندانند
منوتو مادر الفاظ بودیم
به رقص و پایکوبی در دل جهل
منو تو زاده ، آزاد بودیم
به آواز خوانی آسمان درسم
منو تو معلم هر ساز بودیم
#یلداهُژیرامینی‌ع ♥️🥀
You and I are a generation of continuous sadness
We were the prey of bat claws
My gaze was heavenly and but
You and I were on the same train with Baz
Closing the bastion of our education
You and I were the desired diamonds
Breaking the colors of adolescence
You and I were the same song
What can I say for the generation of a nation?
You and I became a woman, we were sad
Sometimes cruelty and torture, sometimes violence
You and I were Caucasian mothers
The dark night became dawn from our zalf
You and I were bound by the same words
Violence is the second name of the world
You and I were victims of this instrument
They took my book but they don't know
You and I were the mother of words
At the time of dancing and stomping in the heart of ignorance
You and I were born free
I am learning to sing the sky
You and I, the teacher, were each instrument
“They took my book but they don’t know,
You and I were the mother of words”
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and the the Global Action Week for Education.
Yalda Hozhair Aminy, 22, is an social activist and a member of the Afghan Girls Robotic Team. She works with several international organizations, including Afghan Youths Network and the Golden Needle Association. She is an Ambassador of Allies to Refugees in Afghanistan and helped them to open their first center in Afghanistan.
You Are a Woman
Author: Melanie, aka MAL
To the little girl who likes toy cars and dinosaurs,
Who likes to get dirt under her fingernails.
You are not any less of a girl.
You feel it in your bones, you feel it when you kick a soccer ball across the field:
You are a woman.
To the little girl who likes dolls and tiaras,
Whose room is drenched in pink from her bed sheets to the wall,
You are not “too girly.”
You feel it in your heart, you feel it when you tie a bow around your hair:
You are a woman.
To the young lady whose head is in the books,
The lady who is sure of her goals, whose dream is her profession,
You are not any less of a woman.
You feel it in your mind, you feel it when you look at the diploma on your wall:
You are a woman.
To the young lady who dreams of a big family,
The lady whose one wish is to fall in love, to have children,
You are not a disappointment.
You can feel it in your blood, you feel it when you hold a sleeping child:
You are a woman.
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
Melanie, also known by the pen name MAL is a seventeen-year-old Cuban-American writer and winner of the Scholastic Arts and Writing Silver National Medal in 2022. While writing her novels, she enjoys writing and sharing poetry on social media.
Education is a must
Author: Etishri Chaturvedi, She’s the First Girls Advisory Council Member
Education is a must,
None should protest.
The most powerful weapon is Education,
And without it you can't do anything in this nation.
Education is the best,
And While you Education you can't rest.
Education is our right,
And so it teaches not to fight.
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
Etishri Chaturvedi, 17, is a student from India and a member of She’s the First’s Girls Advisory Council. She believes that when women and girls support each other, incredible things happen.
(المعلم)
Author: Fatima Hammouda, STF Youth Ambassador
لولا الحياة تعطي ما تعطي
لهديت للمعلم كل صعب المنال
ان ما قدمه لنا من علم ومعرفة
كان له نورا في دنياه
واشكره واقدره واحترمه
على كل مجهوداته التي تحصى ولا تضام
الله وليه في أموره
لأنه صبر وعمل واجتهد
لكي يربي جيولا ،وينمي عقولا، ويوجه شبابا
دمت سالما يا فنان
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
Fatima Hammouda, 20, is a She’s the First Youth Ambassador from Morocco. As part of the program, she helped create and produce the Power of Poetry campaign! When she’s not studying at university, she enjoys writing poetry.
(success)
Author: Fatima Hammouda, STF Youth Ambassador
In the name of God
I start my poetry,
Presented on success,
It's a small word
Formed in Arabic dictionary From 4 words
(N, Jim, Alif,Haa)
Lines of suffering, patience, determination, and struggle,
The desire to reach it increases day After day,
Week after week.....
The dreamy and ambitious person always sees himself at the highest peaks
By overcoming every stumbling block of life,
Every failure and laziness,
And going forward is best seriousness and work.
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
Fatima Hammouda, 20, is a She’s the First Youth Ambassador from Morocco. As part of the program, she helped create and produce the Power of Poetry campaign! When she’s not studying at university, she enjoys writing poetry.
Time
Author: S.L.
A sorcery
A curse
A beginning.
Time
Second by second
Minute by minute
Each with its own mind.
Time
A treasure
A gift
A spell.
Time
Breathing, living, existing
Creating, thinking, believing
Attempting, trying, healing.
Time
Has life
Needs love
Is magic.
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
This author chose to remain anonymous and use a pseudonym.
Just Because
Author: S.L.
Just because the world is mother nature’s,
Does not mean that we can take what’s ours,
Does not mean that we are here to control,
Here for power,
Here for exploitation,
Here to be exploited.
Just because we are existing, inhaling breath after breath, exhaling, feeling,
Does not mean that we are living, contributing, competing.
Does not mean that we are taking, giving, thriving.
We grieve for those who cannot grieve themselves.
We pity those disadvantaged at unchangeable factors, faults that we established.
And yet, we seethe for those brave enough to deviate from these factors, our own faults.
Were they ever meant to be there?
Just like were we ever meant to be here?
Why must we fault those who are blended in our own faults? Our mistakes? Our existence?
We must be willing to deviate from what life expects of us and follow the guidance of our mother nature.
We must be willing to be something more than existing.
We must be willing to simply be.
We mustn’t be exploited.
We must exploit our faults.
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
This author chose to remain anonymous and publish under a pseudonym.
Girls the World Over
Author: Nova Macknik-Conde
This is for the girls.
The girls who protested,
The girls who picked up a pen,
Moving hearts, changing minds, bringing together thousands,
Using their voices to shout louder than the dissenters ever could,
To show that education is a universal right,
And that they will not stand for anything less.
This is for the women.
The women who knew their worth,
That they were powerful and intelligent,
That they deserved better,
And that they will never be lesser.
This is for the ladies.
The ladies the world over, The ladies anywhere, anywhen, and anywho,
Who stood together and changed the future.
To be a young girl in this day and age,
To look up to these icons,
To have centuries of heroines behind me,
Revealing the path ahead,
Whispering in my ear the truths they upheld so proudly.
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
Nova Macknik-Conde is 11 years old and she lives in Brooklyn, NY, U.S., with her parents, her two older brothers, and her two guinea pigs: Cannoli and Snickerdoodle. Nova enjoys writing poetry and fantasy, in addition to being passionate about mythology, philosophy, history, and STEAM. She serves as a Young Reviewer for Frontiers for Young Minds and as a Blogger for Stone Soup magazine. Nova’s writing has been recognized by The Betty Award, the EngineerGirl Writing Contest, the Inklings Book Contest, and Writopia’s Worldwide Plays Festival. Her poetry has appeared in print in Stone Soup magazine, Skipping Stones magazine, and Cricket magazine.
the picture to address
Author: Ilana Drake
news of young women being
unable to attend school in
afghanistan because of the
taliban means the world
needs to fight,
the world needs to fight
for women
because 130 million girls
lack access to education,
too large a number for
us to sit back as we
focus on what we see
as “progress”
rural girls are 2 times
as likely as urban girls
to be out of school and
period poverty means
that girls miss school
and the social determinants
of health interact with
the ability to access
an education and knowledge is power.
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and Global Action Week for Education.
Ilana Drake is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in the U.S. and is studying Public Policy. She is twenty years old and serves as a United Nations UNA-USA Global Goals Ambassador for SDG 4 (Education).