Another Year, Another Post. 6
Mothers...
I am aiming for 7 posts of the same series, each post for each year...a total of 7 years...
21st of March is the Spring Equinox, the first day of Spring, it is also the Nawroz, the Persian (and also the Afghan and Kurdish New Year), it is also the day someone very dear to my heart was born but he is no longer here to celebrate...it also Mother's day in the Arab World and in the Middle East...
It is also around this time, plus or less a day, that the invasion of my beloved Iraq took place...promising us a new Spring flower with birth pangs for a new Middle East...and since, we have been stuck in an eternal cold winter...a cold winter of grief, loss and exile...
So what can be more fitting than today, the 21st of March to dedicate a post to Iraqi Mothers...
But before I do so, I need to dispel some myths...you don't have to have a child to be a mother...yes you read me right...every woman is a mother...maybe you lost your child, maybe you don't have any, maybe you are a childless Mother, but you are still a Mother, because that is your nature...the nature of the Feminine...
And by the same token, you can be a biological mother with many children but you are not a mother...this is only to say that mothers, motherhood is not defined by your capacity to have or not have children...motherhood is defined in my book, by your capacity to give birth to a new life...
There is the Great Mother, the Rahman - Raheem...
Uterus in Arabic is Rahm, from which is derived Rahman, Raheem...the Compassionate, the Merciful...
So when I talk of mothers, this is the Divine attribute I am referring to...the compassionate, merciful uterus of the world...where all is conceived, formed and where all grows...and earthly mothers are supposedly a reflection of this cosmic Uterus...
I am yet to meet anyone, male or female who when talking about his/her mother does not become emotional, either in a positive or negative way...it's impossible to talk of Mother without having your heart weep, one way or another...either weeping for a love you had no one else can give you, or a love you wished you had and no else can give you, or for a mother you wish you still had, or for a mother you never had, or for a memory...
Mother and motherhood are very charged emotional topics...regardless of where you're from...regardless of your race, nationality, religion, background, history...but it is a UNIFYING topic...all weep (even if they hide it) when the subject of mother comes up...
So can you imagine what Iraqi mothers, or mothers in the making, or what the Iraqi Feminine must be feeling today on the 21st of March ?
Can you imagine what it must be like for those who weep for their mothers...mothers gone because of a "spring flower of a democracy", gone because missing, gone because in prisons, gone because too debilitated by the effects of torture, rape, loss, grief...gone because ...
Can you imagine what it must feel like for the mothers of Iraq, who have no more children to tell them happy mother's day, who have no husbands, or no families to remember them on this occasion, who have no one to celebrate the first day of Spring with...what they are left with are but photos, memories of a son or a daughter or a grandchild...not even...because some have no more homes...and some have more hungry mouths to feed and not know where the next morsel will come from...and some look at their DU, napalm deformed baby and curse the day they became mothers...
Iraqi mothers are nothing but the reflection of Iraq, the great mother...broken in her spirit, broken in her body, all the workings of this great uterus, of this God inside, gone with a man made bomb, a man made bullet....gone with a lie...
How is it possible to celebrate the first day of Spring, how is it possible to celebrate the New Year, how is it possible to celebrate Mother's Day, how is it possible to celebrate the 21st of March and not remember Iraq, the great earthly mother, the uterus and birth place of civilization, on her 7th "anniversary"....
I am aiming for 7 posts of the same series, each post for each year...a total of 7 years...
21st of March is the Spring Equinox, the first day of Spring, it is also the Nawroz, the Persian (and also the Afghan and Kurdish New Year), it is also the day someone very dear to my heart was born but he is no longer here to celebrate...it also Mother's day in the Arab World and in the Middle East...
It is also around this time, plus or less a day, that the invasion of my beloved Iraq took place...promising us a new Spring flower with birth pangs for a new Middle East...and since, we have been stuck in an eternal cold winter...a cold winter of grief, loss and exile...
So what can be more fitting than today, the 21st of March to dedicate a post to Iraqi Mothers...
But before I do so, I need to dispel some myths...you don't have to have a child to be a mother...yes you read me right...every woman is a mother...maybe you lost your child, maybe you don't have any, maybe you are a childless Mother, but you are still a Mother, because that is your nature...the nature of the Feminine...
And by the same token, you can be a biological mother with many children but you are not a mother...this is only to say that mothers, motherhood is not defined by your capacity to have or not have children...motherhood is defined in my book, by your capacity to give birth to a new life...
There is the Great Mother, the Rahman - Raheem...
Uterus in Arabic is Rahm, from which is derived Rahman, Raheem...the Compassionate, the Merciful...
So when I talk of mothers, this is the Divine attribute I am referring to...the compassionate, merciful uterus of the world...where all is conceived, formed and where all grows...and earthly mothers are supposedly a reflection of this cosmic Uterus...
I am yet to meet anyone, male or female who when talking about his/her mother does not become emotional, either in a positive or negative way...it's impossible to talk of Mother without having your heart weep, one way or another...either weeping for a love you had no one else can give you, or a love you wished you had and no else can give you, or for a mother you wish you still had, or for a mother you never had, or for a memory...
Mother and motherhood are very charged emotional topics...regardless of where you're from...regardless of your race, nationality, religion, background, history...but it is a UNIFYING topic...all weep (even if they hide it) when the subject of mother comes up...
So can you imagine what Iraqi mothers, or mothers in the making, or what the Iraqi Feminine must be feeling today on the 21st of March ?
Can you imagine what it must be like for those who weep for their mothers...mothers gone because of a "spring flower of a democracy", gone because missing, gone because in prisons, gone because too debilitated by the effects of torture, rape, loss, grief...gone because ...
Can you imagine what it must feel like for the mothers of Iraq, who have no more children to tell them happy mother's day, who have no husbands, or no families to remember them on this occasion, who have no one to celebrate the first day of Spring with...what they are left with are but photos, memories of a son or a daughter or a grandchild...not even...because some have no more homes...and some have more hungry mouths to feed and not know where the next morsel will come from...and some look at their DU, napalm deformed baby and curse the day they became mothers...
Iraqi mothers are nothing but the reflection of Iraq, the great mother...broken in her spirit, broken in her body, all the workings of this great uterus, of this God inside, gone with a man made bomb, a man made bullet....gone with a lie...
How is it possible to celebrate the first day of Spring, how is it possible to celebrate the New Year, how is it possible to celebrate Mother's Day, how is it possible to celebrate the 21st of March and not remember Iraq, the great earthly mother, the uterus and birth place of civilization, on her 7th "anniversary"....
