WUNRN
ALL MOTHERS NEED DIGNITY,
RECOGNITION, & HUMAN RIGHTS - MAKE EVERY DAY, "MOTHER'S DAY"
This image of a Native American Indian mother and child by Edward S. Curtis from the late nineteenth century shows the beautiful intensity, simplicity and power of motherhood. Image: Library of Congress/USgov
Elahe Amani – WNN SOAPBOX
(WNN) Long Beach, California, UNITED STATES,
Jewelry sales are now depressed as flower bouquets and miniature azaleas in our neighborhood pharmacy are now on sale.
Mother’s Day chocolates and figs have, by now, already put few ounces on the hips of mothers who will now not need reservations for brunch. The covers on magazines are now not suggesting the most suitable electronic gadgets for mothers.
The real estate agent on our side of town will not leave a writing pad now with a note saying “Happy Mother’s Day!” with a long stem rose for me at our front door. While the market has already forgotten about Mother’s Day 2013, the traffic of restaurants, nursing homes and cemeteries are back to their normal state.
In spite of this one day furor, women activists never cease reminding the
public that the true meaning of Mother’s Day in the
It seems as all these gifts are trying to compensate for the lack of any collective U.S. action to empower mothers with maternity leave, equal pay, medical insurance, dignity and rights.
“Americans will spend more than $20 billion on Mother’s Day and send sappy cards,” says Leslie Bennetts, author of “The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?“
“This country would rather give lip service to respecting motherhood than actually enact the substantive supports mothers need,” added Bennetts.
But many feminist activist groups are keeping it up by demanding what
mothers need the most. Because of this they’re holding on to the the spirit and
history of Mother’s Day in
Here’s “A Mother’s Day Proclamation” calling all women to engage in peace-building and political resistance, written by social activist, slavery abolishonist and feminist Julia Ward Howe in 1870:
Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and
patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
As a mother myself, who was born and raised in Iran; and as a women who has seen war and revolution ‘up-close’, I am a feminist who believes another world with justice, equality and peace is possible.
I reflected on the pain and agony of mothers who have lost their sons and
daughters to war, violence, torture and execution. This year on Mother’s
Day I was thinking of the thousands of American mothers whose sons and
daughters went to
I was thinking of the mothers of Iranian prisoners of conscious; the
mothers in
While our modern Mother’s Day in the U.S. has been depleted of it’s peaceful charge, in Iran Mother’s Day never had any content related to ‘peace’ and has always been associated with the people who hold power in the country over religion and belief. During the days of the late Shah of Iran, Mother’s Day was celebrated as the birthday of the mother of Mohammad Reza Shah, known as ‘Maleke Maadar’. It also celebrated the sister of the Prophet Mohammad, known as ‘Hasrate Zahra’.
As Mother’s Day is now gone mothers everywhere, as well as those women who are mothering the world, often face the harsh realities of poverty and economic crisis. This is the same crisis that is breaking the back of the working poor and the immigrant and single mothers.
The motherhood issues of equal-pay for equal-work, child care, health and education will now be filed away by politicians and policy makers until the next time they need mothers to further their political aspirations.
Let us make every day a “Mother’s Day” as we emphasize our collective action for homeless moms, teen moms, LGBTI moms, incarcerated moms and immigrant moms. Let us suffer their daily humiliations with them. Humiliations that can range from the denial in their rights to healthcare or living wages, job security and paid sick leave; to a prison mother who is shackled during childbirth or to living under the never ending immigrant threat of deportation.
Here’s something we must never forget.
We all need to keep moving forward to protect the rights and dignity of ALL MOTHERS, as well as the recognition of all the women who are mothering the world!
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Peace activist and WNN – Women News Network special reporter on Iran,
Elahe Amani, works with immigrant women who are part of the South Asian,
Iranian and the Middle Eastern ethnic communities in Southern California to
help women from these communities build peace at home and in society. Amani is
also chair of Global Circles at Women’s Intercultural Network, a global women’s
organization with grassroot circles in Uganda,