The Ballad of the Hijab Matyr

The Ballad of the Hijab Matyr
(sung to Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the cold”)

It was in a district courthouse in Dresden in July
A pregnant mum gave witness as the sun shone up on high
Within a flash, the blood it gushed, the man held tight his blade
I’ve killed, he said, a terrorist and enemy of the state.

The husband caught his wife and let her hijab fall
He cast an eye at the small outcry of his toddler in the stalls
Armed guards charged in and shot at him, he fell onto his face
We thought, they after said, he was an enemy of the state.

Mustafa was the toddler and he’d seen this man before
Last Summer on the swings when he’d called his mum a whore
A scary man, with staring eyes, he’d shouted in her face
“That thing”, he’d spat “upon your head is an enemy of the state.”

And now it’s one year later, the world’s eyes are on this case
“Justice for the hijab matyr", clammers from the Middle East
For the pharmacist who lost her life
For her husband’s disfigured gait
For Mustafa whose swing was taken from him by the enemy of his state.

Nov 2009