THE crime that has sent a minor shock throughout the country was the murder of Kamal Doonwah, a mother of three.
As was reported in the press, Kamal’s children were forced to spend the night in the house with their dead mother. This is not something any child should go through and it is horrifying to even think of the impact this incident is going to have on these children, even more so due to the fact that their father is the one alleged to have committed the crime.

“A mother,” according to writer, Tenneva Jordan, “is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.”

This analogy of motherhood is something that can be identifiable not only across cultures but, as any dedicated naturalist could readily testify, across species as well.

Remove the “pie” and substitute “roti”, “pita”, “tennis rolls”, “worms”, “antelope meat” and the central thrust of the definition remains the same – as it has through centuries, even millennia.

At the same time, motherhood, as relates to the human experience, is a steadily evolving concept the world over.

Outside of this natural biological urge towards self-sacrifice, the social mores surrounding exactly what constitutes the roles of a mother have been constant to speculation, analysis, revision and change.

Moreover however, it is also a constantly evolving phenomenon, one that has seen as many changes as there have been changes in the roles reserved for women.

There was a point in the history of the world when women were not allowed to vote, not allowed to hold political office, not allowed higher education, sometimes not allowed to think even.

As societies the world over, particularly within the Western liberal tradition, have evolved, many of these wrongs against women have been corrected; and the benefits accrued to women as a whole have been passed on to their children, as easily as a woman bequeaths a piece of pie to her child.
In short, the social ascendancy of women has been the ascendancy of all society.

As any modern social worker will tell you, if you want to really influence change within any particular social group, you have a greater rate of success if you target mothers with the lessons you wish to teach.

Finally, while motherhood is exclusively the domain of women, motherhood is simply part of the larger equation of parenting, something which is impossible – at least from a biological perspective – without input from the male of the species. Granted that men have historically proven the lesser parent in many ways, motherhood is strongest within, more complete, as a part of overall parenthood.

Our society needs to evolve its concept of the role of women in general, and mothers in particular – the true value of motherhood still needs to be acknowledged and celebrated.