Pakistani human rights and land defender Ayisha Siddiqa was set to give a speech on November 17 at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. However, when it was her turn to take the mic, she instead said, ‘I was intending to come here and share with you facts and data, and the stories of the women who have had to give birth in flood zones, of the ancestors whose graves have drowned, and I don’t think that’s what people need to hear right now.’ Siddiqa then went on to deliver a powerful poem which read in part, ‘I tell you that even our dead have drowned in their graves, and you ask me to be polite. You ask me not to blame or shame, and remember the color of my skin, the sound of my tongue, and my place in your world.’
https://unfccc-events.azureedge.net/COP27_87768/agenda