Throughout March Odd Eyes Theatre co-founder and drama tutor Nick Claridge led a series of workshops with international participants to mark International Women’s Day.
Three women, Sonia, Naz and Sehriban, performed the piece on Sunday 12 March in front of their friends and visitors at Akwaaba, a social centre for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in East London.
Sonya, whose first language is Farsi, has been studying English for the past year. A keen writer in her original language, she wrote and delivered in English the script that follows.
We are not stones
We are not stones
We are humans, girls, women
mothers, daughters.
We walked and walked.
We passed many difficult ways.
We were punished, we died.
The stones do not change us. We change the stone.
We weren’t to be alive, be happy, be free.
All people are free when born
but we are separated by religion,
apartheid, laws, borders.
It’s not right to oppress us.
The not stones do not change us. We change the stone.
by Sonia Shamlo