“To fathers who were denied fatherhood. To fathers who were picked up by men in uniforms and tortured in jails. To fathers whose children were made to disappear, for fathers who cried over dead bodies dumped in their backyards, to fathers who shouldered dead bodies of their children killed on borders, to fathers who hung themselves from the ceilings after fighting court cases for years, to fathers whose graves have disappeared, who did not even live long enough to see their newborns, to fathers who carry around a framed photograph of their missing child, to fathers who were fighting for rights on the streets, but never returned home, to fathers who saw their children being lynched in broad daylight, to fathers who await the return of innocent sons and daughters implicated in false cases, to fathers who saw the dead bodies of their children lifted from obscure drains, to fathers who await justice, to fathers who saw their house burn down, to fathers who sacrificed themselves so that we could survive, speak, live, love.”
—Sabika Abbas Naqvi