Bring Back Our Girls – “Million-Woman March” – Abuja – Capital of Nigeria
30 April 2014
Photo Credit: Gnomes National News Service

Mother’s Day. Today in the United States and in some countries around the world, we honor our mothers. We owe our mothers our lives and much more. But all is not rosy for mothers.

We women have been blessed or cursed, perhaps a bit of both, with Nature’s endowment of childbearing and child nurturing. Our role as child bearers is a labor of joy and sorrow, love and pain. We rejoice in our children’s achievements, however small; we suffer when they are sick or injured. If we could, we would take their pain. When they are bullied by their peers, we stand ready to defend them. When they are snatched from us, we find no solace.

For the mothers of over 270 girls kidnapped, almost a month ago, from their school in northeast Nigeria, this is a time of great anguish.

“It’s unbearable. Our wives have grown bitter and cry all day. The abduction of our children and the news of them being married off is like hearing of the return of the slave trade,” said Yakubu Ubalala (The Guardian).

Their 17- and 18-year-old daughters, Kulu and Maimuna, are among the girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram Islamic Fundamentalist group. The leader of the group has since threatened to sell them. In times of political unrest, our children, especially our girls, are easy targets for male aggressors.

In the United States, over a hundred children go missing every day, abducted by a stranger or slight acquaintance (Child Find of America). These children are either held for ransom, killed, or kept permanently.

This Mother’s Day I honor all mothers who grieve for a missing child, not knowing whether they are dead or alive.

Blessed are those mothers whose sons and daughters have not yet been touched by the evil impulses of our human nature.