Zakia

They held her hostage, 

Away from her father's cosy cottage. 

Forced her into a life of crimes, 

Threatened her to threaten other people's lives. 

And "For the sake of Allah,"

They kept on chanting falsely. 

Really, 

She was only, 

A victim, 

Of bad politici-sm. 

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  • Zakia - Introduction

  • The Judge was a petite woman whose expression was quite difficult to penetrate, and right below her huge desk were two Lawyers: One for me, and the other against me. It was just li...
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  • Zakia - Episode 1

  • The headlines was the same as always. The Boko Haram sect seemed to have the upper hand, and whilst the press, and the government only gave false speeches, and empty promises throu...
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  • Zakia - Episode 2

  • Time crawled by at a snail's pace. But it didn't matter how many times I paced back and forth in the dinky space I'd been caged in, or how many times I jabbed...
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  • Zakia - Episode 3

  • At the early hours of the following morning, myself and the troops of men had been assembled for Subh (the morning prayer). An extremely long prayer that'd been lead by a young...
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  • Zakia - Episode 4

  • The battlefield was somewhere faraway.  We'd driven through the thick forest for several hours already, even making a few brief stops somewhere inbetween, and ye...
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  • Zakia - Episode 5

  • In Younous' s empire, everyone had acesss to any of the rooms, except one.  The said room was directly beside the one I'd been locked in from the start, and ...
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  • Zakia - Episode 6

  • "Almuharibun! (Warriors!) March down to the training ground right away!" Kabir had yelled that breezy evening.  And there was something about the way he sa...
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  • Zakia - Episode 7

  • The Jumu'ah prayer was a necessity in Younous's Empire. And right before this prayer was observed, a tafsir (a lecture) was always passed across. Kabir was often in charge ...
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  • Zakia - Episode 8

  • We'd arrived from the battlefield early that morning, and just like always, I wouldn't stop crying.  In the so-called war, I'd killed a total of six peop...
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  • Zakia - Episode 9

  • For two hours or thereabout, silence dominated the room, a quietness so intense that I could almost perceive the rhythm of myself and Iman's heavy breath. I'd since stopped...
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  • Zakia - Episode 10

  • That breezy night, I experienced the death of my family all over again.  First, it was that of my younger sister, Halimah. That very day, our father had come to pick...
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  • Zakia - Episode 11

  • I was mercilessly flogged and dragged into the same room that harboured the Baytu-Naheem girls.  Everyone seemed shocked by what I'd dared to do to Kabir. I'...
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  • Zakia - Episode 12

  • Seconds accumulated into minutes, minutes morphed into hours, hours became even more hours, today slowly turned into tomorrow.. and yet, I remained locked up in the dark room with ...
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  • Zakia - Episode 13

  • Iman was sweating profusely, the heavy breaths he was struggling to draw in was also apparent, as his hands wouldn't stop shivering either.  It was difficult to ...
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  • Zakia - Episode 14

  • The Amir was buried at the earliest hours of the following day, next to his younger brother, and his most Loyal follower, Kabir,- A brief burial arrangement that I'd chosen to ...
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  • Zakia - Episode 15

  • For a whole week, I lived a comfortable life at the Relief Camp, despite the fact that I chose to seclude myself from everyone else. Of course, there were girls of my age there, no...
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  • Zakia - Episode 16

  • Back at the court, the reaction from the audience was just like I'd expected.  Suddenly, no one seemed to be pointing the accusing fingers at me anymore...
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  • Zakia - Episode 17

  • Before I decided to plan Mojeedu Rufai's death, I actually did tell him about my pregnancy.  "I think I'm pregnant.." I'd said to him that nigh...
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  • Zakia - Episode 18

  • The Police had arrived at the scene almost immediately after I dropped the call, and they hadn't inquired anything from me, nothing at all, before cuffing my nervous hands..&nb...
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