Criminals
When I hear the word “criminal” a young man with a roughened face wearing shabby black clothes, and a shifty gaze comes to mind. He seems impulsive, desperate and dangerous. A frightening image.
If you were to look at the pictures of men “wanted” by the police, that’s probably what you would see. Rough, young men with shifty eyes. But those pictures are a tiny piece from a million piece puzzle. They are the faces of those who rob, those who murder or those who kidnap little girls. Well, the police record seems faulty to me. There are too many missing pieces. Too many missing faces.
The faces of the criminals I know. The faces of criminals I’ve sat to dinner with. The faces of criminals who’ve hugged me as I enter their home. Those whose childhood stories have made me laugh, late into the night. The faces that share my blood and the slant of my chin.
What about our faces?
Our smooth faces with radiant smiles and an unwavering gaze.
Our faces are not on any “wanted” list, even though we’ve made eleven year old girls scrub our floors. We are the white collared middle class even though we’ve hit our teen aged maids like we would never our own child. We are educated, respectable citizens, even though we beat up our wives in front of our children. We are upstanding, law abiding, tax filing members of society, even though we molested a six year old when we were fourteen.
When we head for the government office, we have our bribes ready. When we throw out our garbage, we do not care whether it poisons the river or seeps into our motherland. When we see a pretty Gilgiti girl child, we click her picture and upload it to social media; a feast for depraved eyes. When we buy a motorcycle or a car, we teach our thirteen year old son to risk his life trying to drive it around. We will never let our servants off of work. Even on the day that his father dies.
But we will never be branded criminals.
After all, we have beautiful faces, glowing with the purity of our hearts.
Originally written (by me) on March 19th, 2021.
