LA Progressive:

By ELAHE AMANI

This Mother’s Day weekend brought renewed reflection on the origins of the holiday as a call for peace, rooted in Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 “Mother’s Day Proclamation.” Originally conceived not as a commercial celebration, but as a political appeal, the day was intended as a time for women to unite across national boundaries in the name of peace. Howe envisioned an international sisterhood working to end war and its devastating consequences. Her proclamation urged women to rise against the violence of war and to advocate for peace within their communities and beyond. It was a call born out of the suffering she witnessed—a plea for collective action in the face of destruction. This year, the observance of Mother’s Day resonates more deeply with the silent strength of mothers who endure the weight of both unimaginable loss and steadfast resistance. Their quiet resilience, often overlooked, becomes a powerful testament to the original spirit of the day: a call not only to honor mothers, but to stand with them in the pursuit of peace.

In Palestine, where occupation has turned maternity wards into targets, women birth and bury under blockade—grief and resilience woven into every breath. In Ukraine, where the lullaby has been replaced by the drone of sirens, mothers gather remnants of childhood in shelters, cradling both fear and hope. In Sudan, where conflict fractures both homes and futures, mothers become the last thread of stability, feeding not only children but the flame of survival. And in Iran, where the cry of “Where is my child?” echoes from Evin prison to the gravesites of protesters, mothers rise as archivists of truth and guardians of memory—each tear a testimony, each name a defiant verse against forgetting. Mothers are resisting and seeking justice in its fierce manifestation as witness as warrior and as the keeper of justice! 

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