In the Shadow of War, Mothers of Resistance, Voices for Peace

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.

May 14, 2025 – 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 In Ukraine, where the lullaby has been replaced by the drone of sirens, mothers gather remnants of childhood in shelters, cradling both fear and hope.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!

Currently, Ukraine, Palestine (Gaza), and Sudan are three of the most devastating and active war zones globally, each involving widespread civilian suffering, displacement, and violations of international humanitarian law and Iran while not in war but always under threat of war and atrocities of a regime that has the highest per capita of death penalty in the world and highest number of women being sentenced to death penalty.

In Palestine (Gaza), following the October 2023 escalation, Gaza remains in a severe humanitarian crisis. Massive civilian casualties, displacement, and the collapse of health, education, and food systems have turned daily survival into a struggle. Over 13 thousand children have died, close to 800 under the age one and Palestinian mothers endure constant danger of losing their children and grief for lost ones. “21 March marks both the beginning of spring and Mother’s Day in Palestine. A day of celebration, of hope, but it is hard for us to think of hope now. My 12-year-old son apologized to me because he could not buy me a present on Mother’s Day, I hugged him and said that their survival – for now – is the most precious present that God has given me, I want nothing more. I live in Beit Lahia. We are still sweeping the rubble, trying to restore our damaged house, to make it livable, more than a month after our return to the north. Everything here is a struggle: to be a mother during genocide is to fight, every minute, every second to maintain your family when nothing is available. Getting clean water is a battle; securing food is a battle; getting fresh vegetables or fruits is a dream, but I am a lucky mother because my children are still alive. I look at my children and feel guilty because they have been denied their childhood, they were forced into the cruel world of adulthood, of war: no schools, no playgrounds, no daily walks by the sea. I hear bombs and wish I could wrap them with my own body, wish that my love, larger than the universe could protect them, shelter them.“ And “You have no choice under genocide. You gamble with death: please stay away from my children; We were already displaced on nine occasions to flee death. We try to cheat it, but eventually you know that we are all defenseless against this.” A mother from Beit Lahia, Gaza. 

WUNRN

In the Shadow of War, Mothers of Resistance, Voices for Peace – LA Progressive