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 In Ukraine, where the lullaby has been replaced by the drone of sirens, mothers gather remnants of childhood in shelters, cradling both fear and hope.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. “۲۱ 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.
In Ukraine the war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 continues. While some frontlines have stabilized, civilian areas still face shelling, infrastructure is damaged, and millions are internally displaced or refugees abroad. According to the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, as of the morning of April 14, at least 618 children had died and more than 1,884 others had been injured to varying degrees. Mothers face family separation, economic collapse, and trauma. Ukrainian mothers have shown extraordinary resilience amid the ongoing war, facing immense challenges while striving to protect and nurture their families. Many raising children alone, coping with trauma enduring loss and seeking justice and of course the emotional toll of the war. In Kharkiv, a mother described the constant fear for her child’s safety: “I would sit over the child all night, cover her, put pillows over her in case glass flew, then sleep for an hour or two and run to work.” Eventually, she sent her daughter to the countryside for safety, a decision that brought both relief and guilt. Viktoria Kovalenko lost her husband and 12-year-old daughter when a shell hit their car. She and her infant daughter were held captive for 24 days before escaping. Now in the UK, she continues to grieve while caring for her surviving child.
In Sudan since April 2023, the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has triggered one of the world’s largest displacement crises. The ongoing crisis has particularly affected vulnerable groups such as women and children, who arrive in refugee camps exhausted and traumatized. The conditions in these camps are dire, with overcrowding, limited access to food, water, and healthcare, highlighting the urgent need for continued humanitarian support. With 90% of schools closed and an estimated 17 million children currently out of school, education is in freefall. Widespread famine, gender-based violence, and the destruction of health services have left mothers and children especially vulnerable.In less than two years, the number of people at risk of gender-based violence has tripled to 12.1 million. Cases of conflict-related sexual violence remain hugely under-reported, but evidence points to its systematic use as a weapon of war. Amid the escalating conflict, women and girls are facing acute levels of food insecurity and a worsening hunger crisis in most impacted areas, given their limited access to food, essential goods, and services. With 80 per cent of hospitals in conflict-affected areas not functioning, maternal deaths have spiked, and women’s access to sexual and reproductive health care is hampered. 80 per cent of displaced women lack access to clean water due to affordability, safety concerns, and distance. The conflict has seen widespread reports of sexual violence used as a weapon of war. A survivor recounted: “At no stage in my years of study had I been taught how to deal with 8-year-old victims of gang rape in a rural clinic without enough sutures to go around.”Such atrocities have left deep scars on individuals and communities.
Iranian mothers face many challenges as they seek justice for their children who have been killed, imprisoned, or disappeared—many for protesting, resisting, or simply existing under an oppressive regime. These mothers endure profound pain not only from their loss but also from the state’s criminalization of their grief. They face criminalization of Mourning as public mourning for slain or executed children is forbidden or restricted. Mothers also are arrested or harassed for holding memorials, visiting graves, sharing their grief online or wearing symbols of remembrance (e.g. black clothing, photos) as these actions are treated as “propaganda against the regime.” Mothers of Khavaran, whose children were executed in the 1988 mass killings, are still denied the right to hold memorials or learn where their children are buried. Mothers are also being arrested, Imprison or being harassed for demanding truth or justice.
Leila Mahdavi, Mother of Siavash Mahmoudi (killed at age 16 during protests) bravely declare that “Your killers will face the consequences for what they have done. ” Zainab Mohammadi, Mother of Mohammad Taheri (killed in the November 2019 protests). “We neither forgive nor forget.” Gohar Eshghi, Mother of Sattar Beheshti (blogger tortured to death in 2012)“For the sake of our youth, after observing this hijab for [almost] 80 years for the religion that wants to kill people, I will take off my hijab.” Effat Moridi (Mother Moeini), Mother of Homayoun and Behrooz Moeini (executed in the 1980s). “She searched for Homayoun with her bare hands and came across beige-colored trousers resembling a pair worn by Homayoun. The shock of this experience never left Mother Moeini.” These mothers, through their grief and activism, have become symbols of resistance and the relentless pursuit of justice in Iran.
These stories reveal the deep and unrelenting struggles mothers endure in the face of war and injustice. Carrying the weight of fear, loss, and hope, their voices rise not in silence, but in defiance—testaments to a fierce and unbreakable love. It is time for mothers—and for all those who mother this wounded world with courage and compassion—to rise up and reclaim Mother’s Day. Let it no longer be a day of flowers and forgetting, but a bold and urgent call for peace, for justice, for the end of violence in all its forms.Let the world hear us: there can be no peace without justice.
The opinions expressed here are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of the LA Progressive.
In the Shadow of War, Mothers of Resistance, Voices for Peace – LA Progressive