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"Unsafe Surroundings" By Darius Atefat-Peckham (With Recitation)

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"Unsafe Surroundings" By Darius Atefat-Peckham (With Recitation)

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Sing a man’s poem again. Your beard is nothing

But a bad hijab failing to hide your face.

Would a hijab hide a smoldering face?

Your Bibi dyes a bad hijab, her fingers in her hair.

Says, not too bad, the hijab. Fingers back her dying hair.

You are her only son, so you are like the moon.

You are only her grandson, so she is the moon—

The “spectacle” her father punished for singing.

Remember Father, in his spectacles. Remember her singing.

She was a songbird, combing through hair, building her nest.

You are a songbird, stealing hair to build your nest.

Your Bibi won’t sing anymore. You’ll never hear her

Sing over your apology. You’ll never hear her

Sing a man’s poem again. Your beard is nothing.

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Poetry Explication Summative (Apr 30, 2023 at 8:19 PM)

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"Your beard is nothing"(Last sentence) is the theme that is said and conveyed at the start and the end of the poem. Throughout the poem, Peckham describes how a man in Iran has a bibi (grandmother) and implies that punishing women for not wearing a proper hijab is like stealing their hair to build their own nest. This is shown in these lines: "She was a songbird, combing through hair, building her nest.

You are a songbird, stealing hair to build your nest." (lines 10-11). These lines show that by making her cover her hair fully, you are just like a bird trying to steal hair from another to make your own nest, metaphorically saying he is being selfish. The women in this poem have done no harm or anything unjust, they have simply not covered their hair properly with a hijab. They receive punishment for this as shown in the beginning: "once again urged Iran’s security and intelligence agents to make the “surroundings unsafe” for citizens with a “loose hijab.”
—Radio Farda" (line 1). This shows that even the slightest loose hijab can get the women punished and men are even telling Iran's security to make "the area unsafe" which means they want to torture the women and punish them for what they thought was wrong. It makes sense for the turtles to be begging for fairness since they receive none. Men in Iran have allowed this torture to go on for too long, and have even allowed the women in their homes to be living in unsafe surroundings while their beard is just like a "bad hijab". The bigger picture of this lesson is that we shouldn't allow women to be violated and punished for not following religious rules forced upon them. We should not inflict our beliefs on people by forcing them. Empathy is key to preventing proselytism.

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The speaker in this poem is telling us how forcing women to wear a hijab can make them distrust men as Bibi did to her father after her father punished her. Throughout the poem, the tone seems to be tolerant. The tone is inflicted in the majority of the poem from lines 1 to 11. The women in Iran are going through a lot of struggles because of the punishments for not wearing a hijab properly or even if it's a little loose. Their voices being silenced being inflicted on Bibi is shown in lines 9-11: "The “spectacle” her father punished for singing.

Remember Father, in his spectacles. Remember her singing." The songbird singing is a metaphor for her voice, being, her right to not wear a hijab if she doesn't want to, and that right is being taken away from her. The tone here is tolerant because the speaker is stating how the women have endured men making their surroundings unsafe for not wearing a hijab properly, yet they still haven't done anything about it because of how tolerant they are. The tone reflects the voices of those women who can't be heard, those women who have religion forced upon them. Those lines also have irony in them. The irony comes from how a hijab is supposed to protect a woman's beauty which is the main purpose of it, and Islam strictly says not to force religion upon others, yet some of these men in Iran force women to wear hijabs and if it's loose or "improper", they punish them. This is ironic because they say they believe in Islam yet go against what it tells them not to do. The tolerant tone lasts until line 11, then shifts to a more assertive and resentful tone as indicated by what is being described in the poem. The assertive tone can be seen in these lines: "You are a songbird, stealing hair to build your nest.

Your Bibi won’t sing anymore. You’ll never hear her" (lines 12-13). These lines show the change into a resentful tone. This becomes a resentful tone in the last two lines " You'll never hear her Sing over your apology. You’ll never hear her

Sing a man’s poem again. Your beard is nothing."

It is a resentful tone because it shows how the speaker is stating that a man's beard is nothing important if they can't prevent proselytism towards women. By saying Father will never hear her sing a man's poem again, it describes the distrust she now has in men and how she will never praise or think highly of men because she now resents them.

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Throughout the poem, many rhetorical devices are used to show the importance of the turtles. One is metaphors. This poem has metaphors incorporated throughout. One example of a metaphor is line 11: "You are a songbird, stealing hair to build your nest." The songbird is incorporated a lot in the poem as mentioned about how Bibi sings a man's poem. The metaphor here is the songbird because songbirds sing and that is a part of their personality and so is hair a part of a woman's personality. But when Bibi was forced to cover up against her own will and punished if not properly covered, then that made part of her personality forced. She became a hijabi but against her own will. So a songbird being silenced was a metaphor for a woman's personality in Iran in the poem being forced because of the unwillingness to wear a hijab. Another example of a metaphor is the word spectacle. In lines 9-10, the word spectacle is said twice: "The “spectacle” her father punished for singing.

Remember Father, in his spectacles." Spectacles have two different meanings here, the metaphorical meaning, and the literal meaning. The first time spectacle is mentioned, it has a metaphorical meaning. It means the sight. So the sight her father punished for singing. The second time spectacles are mentioned, it means, the literal meaning, glasses.

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Darius Atefat-Peckham uses repetition throughout the poem. One important example is the word "Your beard is nothing" repeated from the beginning of the poem and at the end of the poem as the last line. The last line of the poem always brings out its true meaning and what the author wants to convey to the reader. "Your beard is nothing" being the last line of the poem really brought emphasis to the fact that the author believes that the beard of a man is like an incomplete hijab and that women shouldn't be forced to do something against their will.

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Towards the end of the poem, there is a repetition of "You'll never..." as seen in these lines "You’ll never hear he

Sing over your apology. You’ll never hear her

Sing a man’s poem again."

This small repetition towards the end of the poem emphasizes the theme of the poem. In addition, this repetition is at the end when the tone of the poem gets more assertive and resentful.

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Darius Atefat-Peckham provides us with similes in this poem. Lines 7-8 show the similes using the terms like and is "You are her only son, so you are like the moon.

You are only her grandson, so she is the moon"
The moon shines even when it's dark outside because it has inner beauty. This symbolizes that Bibi is like the moon because she is like the fresh ray of moonlight when it's dark outside. This moon symbolism really emphasized how much Bibi's grandson means to her and how much Bibi means to her grandson. The author used these similes to emphasize the love they have for each other as a family, also instead of saying sun, which shines all day, they said moon because of the beauty that is only shown at night, just like the hijab, when you go to sleep at night, you take it off.