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# A Revolutionary woman
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/revolutionary-woman/
- Published: 2012-11-30T08:11:33.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T20:49:11.000Z
- Description: A poem by Marwa Sharafeldin. Part of a series of poems by African feminist writers for 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence.
- Author: Marwa Sharafeldin
- Tags: Africa, #Migrated, Middle East & North Africa, women's movements, Women and the Arab Spring, 16 Days, 2012, Egypt, Civil Society, 50.50 Our Africa, young feminists, Arab Region: The Dignity of Women, 16 Days: activism against gender based violence, women and power, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 14:30

- You talk to me about your austerity measures
- The need to copyright my past, present and future
- To relieve your financial crisis pressures
- I have to tighten my belt and work hard
- For somehow, I have to save the banking system
- So it can save me and my daily, hard work pleasures
- I am told that the financial architecture is designed
- So that abundance overflows
- from rich to poor,
- strong to powerless,
- man to woman,
- But all I can see in your architecture ... is bad plumbing
- Clogged pipes everywhere
- Congested with your investments
- And my assortment of hard-earned debts
- But you better watch it, for you really can’t beat me
- I’m used to tying your free trade with my free labour
- Your market economy with my care economics
- Your fiscal policy with the welfare of my tenderness...
- But not for you, for those I love...
- And in my love lies my revolution
- So don’t get too comfortable
- Because I am a revolutionary woman
- Did you know of the kind of world that I desire?
- My fickle warrior heart, and my eyes that shine like fire?
- My dancing step and my strong working hands?
- That knead our freedom together without tire
- My deep wild laughter
- At the colourful dreams to which I aspire?
- Don’t let my thunderous silence fool you
- For I shall never honour your economic ceasefire
- Don’t get too comfortable
- I’m a revolutionary woman
- I am all too aware that you need me
- Can you survive without my loving free labour?
- Without the royalty of my generous nature?
- Can your empires last *one* second if I decide to with-hold
- The abundance of my *one* dollar?
- What if all of us decide to do so?
- What happens to your profits
- If my womb decides to hibernate
- No more babies for this world
- And no more consumers for this market
- What if I ... decide again to Occupy?
- A new market, a new system, a new justice
- Never forget
- Your power comes from my acquiescence
- To my legion of beloved friends, sisters and mothers
- ‘The street is ours!’...once said an old ancient mama sage
- Its true you know, all it takes nowadays, is one facebook event page
- Let us then see you cower ... under the surge of this woman power
- So don’t get too comfortable
- I’m a revolutionary woman
- Untamed minds and boundless dreams
- Ablaze with all possibilities
- Equality justice and solidarity
- Connecting our joint bloodstreams
- I pluck the stars and scatter them around us
- Its an old protection ritual for the adventurous
- Be prepared...
- For I know the smell of revolution when its a brewin’
- Don’t get too comfortable...
- ‘Cause in front of me lies, a terrifying bunch, of revolutionary women.

*This poem was originally published in* [*Development *55**](http://www.palgrave-journals.com/development/journal/v55/n3/pdf/dev201223a.pdf?ref=opendemocracy.net)*, (September 2012).*

*Read* [*other articles*](http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence/16-days-of-activism-against-gender-violence-2012) *in the series, 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence 2012.*