Darakshan Hassan Bhat
Wars are raging in the world like uncontrolled fires, leaving behind only panic, fear, and an uncertain future. Today, humankind is living under the shadow of destruction, never knowing when a missile might drop from the sky and destroy homes, streets, and lives in a matter of seconds. History has seen many wars take place on this planet, and all of them have been justified on the grounds of power, security, ideology, and dominance. However, the result of all these wars is the same, irrespective of the justification provided.
The currentconflict between Israel and Iran, like all conflicts before it, has led to the loss of thousands of lives. Among these lives are small children, two months old, fifteen months old, one year old, who had hardly begun to breathe the world before they were snatched away from it. These are not mere statistics, but broken dreams, broken cradles, and unanswered prayers. This is what the so-called superpowers have shown the world, a world where might is right and where destruction is disguised as strategy.
Wars are usually talked about in terms of geographical locations, military advances, and political rhetoric. It is seldom talked about in terms of what the victims go through. In my own experience and introspection, I can say that one thing stands out very clearly: war is most unkind to mothers. While children belong to both the father and the mother, there is something like motherhood that is deeper and more intimate and cannot be replaced or substituted in any way.
A mother carries a child for nine months inside her womb, feeling every move and beat of the heart. She feeds the child for years, sacrificing sleep, comfort, and at times, her own dreams and aspirations. She nurtures, teaches, cures, and molds a human being with love and patience. Her body, mind, and soul are devoted to the life she brings into this world. When that life is taken away by the senseless violence of war, it is not just loss; it is the destruction of the very essence of existence for the mother. It is because of this that the wars and slaughters seem, in a very profound and historical sense, like the defeat of women. It is as if the world bellows at them, saying, “What you create and nurture, we will destroy.” The womb that bears life is made fun of by the weapons that take it away. The tenderness and sweetness of motherhood are crushed by the boots of power and conceit. The women are left to pick up the pieces, burying their children, mourning their husbands, rebuilding their homes, and living with the scars that will always be with them.
Women have always been associated with nature, giving life, nurturing, and protecting peace. Men, on the other hand, have always been associated with power, control, and domination. Wars become a platform to display power, control, and domination, to show masculinity by killing, to display strength by annihilating the enemy, and so on. When children become casualties, mothers become silent spectators to the unimaginable tragedy.
The killing of innocent children is the most painful act in the crime of war. What does a two-month-old child know of borders, politics, or ideology? What does a one-year-old child know of religion, nationalism, or conflict? The only world that such innocent kids see is the warmth of their mothers’ arms. To take that away from them by bombs and bullets is not only an act of war, but a moral deterioration of humanity itself. Such scenes will make the strongest of hearts bleed with pain, which has no words to describe.
The history of wars teaches us that nations are always changed by them, but they leave scars on generations as well. The cries of mothers in Gaza, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Kashmir, Syria, Ukraine, and many such places are similar. The language of these mothers is different, they believe in different religions, and they have different flags and different nationalities, but their pain is similar. The tears of a mother are not bound by any flag or language.
However, it is unfortunate that women are not heard in war meetings and decision-making sessions. They are not the ones who declare wars, but they suffer the most from them. They become refugees in a matter of seconds, widows in the morning, and mothers in grief forever. But still, they go on and feed the living, comfort the wounded, and keep the nations together when everything is falling apart.
If the history of humanity is to be evaluated based on its success or failure, wars will undoubtedly be its biggest failure, and that will be particularly in relation to women. It is hypocritical of the world to claim to celebrate the empowerment of women while at the same time killing children in war.
The future should not be built on the deaths of children. There should be no victory that comes at the expense of a mother’s grief. There should be no political or religious agenda that can justify the blood of innocent children. Until we learn this, wars will continue to be waged, and women will continue to mourn what they lovingly created and the world callously destroyed.
In remembering the children who have been destroyed in war, we must not forget to honor the mothers who survived them with their untold grief. It is their grief that should make us think, their tears that should make us question our politics, and their strength that should make us realize that peace is not weakness, peace is the greatest courage that we can muster as humanity.
(The author can be reached at darakshanhassanbhat@gmail.com)