Imtiaz Dharker's "A century later" celebrates (and mourns) young women who fight for their right to an education and who often meet with terrible violence from oppressive religious and political forces in response. The poem alludes to the story of Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani activist who stood up to the Taliban when they banned girls' schools in her hometown. The Taliban retaliated by attempting to kill her, but their plan backfired when she survived the attempted assassination and became a world-famous advocate for women's education. Young women like Yousafzai, the poem suggests, will not be stopped by violence, and their ideas can't be killed. Yet even as the poem honors Yousafzai's triumph, it also quietly laments the fact that she and others like her have to march to the "front lines" to win the right to an "ordinary" life as schoolgirls. This poem first appeared in Dharker's 2014 collection Over the Moon.
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The school-bell is ...
... from being fifteen.
Surrendered, surrounded, she ...
... and walks on.
The missile cuts ...
... full of poppies.
This girl has ...
... go to school.
Bullet, she says, ...
... the front line.
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
The Poem Aloud — Listen to Imtiaz Dharker reading the poem aloud (and describing how the Wilfred Owen poem "Anthem for Doomed Youth" inspired her).
A Short Biography — Learn more about Dharker via her publisher, Bloodaxe Books.
The Poem's Inspiration — Learn more about the story of Malala Yousafzai, the young activist who was one of the inspirations for this poem.
A Celebration of Dharker — Read an article about Dharker from the year that she won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
Dharker's Website — Visit Dharker's personal website to learn more about her life and work.