Is this not beautiful?

I challenge my destiny, my time

I challenge the human eye

I will sneer at ridiculous rules and people

That is the end of it; I will fill my eyes with pure

light, and swim in a sea of unbound feeling

I have challenged tradition and my absurd position,

and I have gone beyond what age and place allow.

Written by the Egyptian feminist poet Aisha Al-Taimuriya (1840-1902), the excerpt is taken from Hilayat al-tiraz (Embroidered Ornaments), published in 1909.