Our Work
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Poem: Beyond Her Strength
About the poem
During the June 2026 Learning Network webinar, The Tort of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Canada: The Supreme Court’s Landmark Ruling in Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia, Kuldeep Ahluwalia closed the session by reading her poem, Beyond Her Strength.
Kuldeep Ahluwalia wrote Beyond Her Strength in 2014 and first shared it publicly at a Women’s Day event in Mississauga in 2015. We are deeply grateful to Kuldeep Ahluwalia for sharing her work and recognize the courage and perseverance she demonstrated throughout the legal process that led to this historic decision.
Beyond Her Strength
In the midst of worldly perceptions,
Do not judge me, do not draft me,
Do not define me, do not criticize me,
Do not explore me, do not ignore me,
Do not reject me, do not analyse me
Do not stop me.
Honour me,
for my motherhood where I remake lives,
fertilize your soul
give you the wealth of life,
in my suffering is your recovery.
My divine sense of romance-
Is the flavour of your completeness
I am an exquisite picture of power,
An endless sea of contribution
Liberated in my thoughts
My actions adjust simply
For-
I am symbol of emotional literacy
I am blessed enough-
With the warmth of my heart
With the grace and modesty
With the solitude of my soul
With the value of my being
With the sweetness of my submission.
Sometimes,
Like summer raindrops
Or like clean and bright snowy beds,
Sometimes shedding like fall leaves,
Then
Brightening up with the colourful spreads.
In my feminine rhythm of life-
I deserve to be respected
Worthy to be cherished, Because-
I am a woman
I am a pretty woman
I am God’s lovable one
I embrace myself
I celebrate myself.
Do not judge me, do not draft me,
Do not define me, do not criticize me,
Do not explore me, do not ignore me,
Do not reject me, do not analyse me
Do not stop me.
Honour me,
for my motherhood where I remake lives,
fertilize your soul
give you the wealth of life,
in my suffering is your recovery.
My divine sense of romance-
Is the flavour of your completeness
I am an exquisite picture of power,
An endless sea of contribution
Liberated in my thoughts
My actions adjust simply
For-
I am symbol of emotional literacy
I am blessed enough-
With the warmth of my heart
With the grace and modesty
With the solitude of my soul
With the value of my being
With the sweetness of my submission.
Sometimes,
Like summer raindrops
Or like clean and bright snowy beds,
Sometimes shedding like fall leaves,
Then
Brightening up with the colourful spreads.
In my feminine rhythm of life-
I deserve to be respected
Worthy to be cherished, Because-
I am a woman
I am a pretty woman
I am God’s lovable one
I embrace myself
I celebrate myself.
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All our resources are open-access and can be shared (e.g., linked, downloaded and sent) or cited with credit. If you would like to adapt and/or edit, translate, or embed/upload our content on your website/training materials (e.g., Webinar video), please email us at gbvln@uwo.ca so that we can work together to do so.
