On Women And Mothers
I really hope that one day we will not need such a thing as International Women’s Day anymore. Once a year we are reminded of the incredible work women around the world are doing, it highlights the strength we find in females, it points fingers at the injustice between the genders and the violence committed against women. But, as always, those people who should most change their attitude and behaviour towards women usually ignore it, ridicule it or dismiss it as a folly. But at least it gives us a justification to talk.
To talk about women.
“Is there a woman that inspires you?” I ask Ahmad. He has to think for a moment. “A woman?” He has to think again. “Jane,” he eventually replies. Jane works in Mosney and offers help to people wherever she can, teaching English, helping out with paper work or whatever other struggles people encounter in their everyday lives. “When I see her she is like my mum – she looks after people.”
“And is there a woman who is like a role model to you? Someone who you would like to be like?” “Be like a woman?” he laughs. “No. No, not like a woman.” He grins. “I have an uncle in Syria, he is a Geography teacher. We have a family chat; he always sends pictures from Syria.” Ahmad’s family is scattered all over the world by now, and his uncle regularly sends them pictures of their home, their town and the current situation in Syria. “He is 84 years old, but his heart is younger. I want to be like him,” he nods. “He always helps people, like my mum,” he continues.
“My mum helped me to have a good life. I had bad friends. We drank lots of alcohol, stole motorbikes and went to other cities and played music.” One day, his mother locked him in the bathroom until he promised not to see his friends anymore. He used to have a tattoo of a scorpion on his shoulder. “I thought people around me were like scorpions, they were bad.” He wasn’t able to pray while he had this tattoo, so he got another one on his other shoulder, saying “prayer” and “goodness”. He had both tattoos removed at some point. “I feel better now. Somehow more right. My mother helped me to be good.”
“Do you celebrate International Women’s Day in Syria?” “No, but we have Mother’s Day. We always make a party for Mother’s Day. We kiss her feet and say ‘You are alive in my heart, I want to die before you.’” This year, he will only message her, and send her a surprise. “She wants to go on a Pilgrimage in Saudia Arabia,” he tells me. He gave some money to a friend to surprise his mum, so she could go on her pilgrimage.
“Actually, talking to you makes me a bit sad,” he says. "I am thinking of my mother now.”
