Now they write my name in the same breath as “bandit.” But ask the parched earth: when the rain comes, is it criminal? Ask the fire: when it cleanses the rotten field, is it evil?
And when they caught me, when they stripped me and made me walk through the prison yard on my knees, I did not die. That is the part they always forget. You can break a woman’s bones. You cannot break her witness. bandit queen 1994
I learned that a woman’s body is a country with no borders. Any man can march across it. Any man can raise his flag. Now they write my name in the same breath as “bandit
So I became the flood.