My Hero

I got the poem below over email sometime ago, I thought I'd post it for those of you who may not yet have seen it. I'm not sure who it's by, but it makes me smile every time I read it.

My Hero.

My hero is the French girl who shaved her head when they said she couldn't wear the scarf.

My hero is the Palestinian girl who tells the soldier it is her duty to visit Jerusalem.

My hero is the black girl in America, passing with flying colors in a class not meant to be hers.

My hero is the Latina who rises when they dare to question her contributions to this nation.

My hero is the Afghan girl, always raising her head up high against communism and its young brother the fanatic bearded man.

My hero is the Iraqi girl, martyred when America raped her country.

My hero is the Chechen girl, holding steadfast to the rope of Allah.

My hero is the Desi, marching in Britain for an Umma she's never seen but has touched deep within the heart.

and to the Malaysian girl, brightly clad under Ramadan lights, with hands cupped, hoping God will drop her a dime of luck for her prayers.

My heroes are my grandmothers, grabbing rifles from trigger happy soldiers and waving white cloth when their sons were taken to prison.

My hero is my mother, our mothers, always fixing us a hot plate and making sure our homework is always neat, blessed by the virtue of Allah, given the patience to kiss their fallen son and forgive him,

While their daughters look on painfully in a world that throws bullets and scowls at their braided locks and dangling scarves.