Mothers, Daughters, Wives

That unbreakable bond between mothers
and their daughters, that emotional attachment
that is passion and pride blemished by struggle
but leavened with love. They are attuned to
the defense exchanged from mother to her
daughters in the early years, from daughters to
their mothers in the later years nourishing both
their souls. Yet those bonds can be cracked and
crushed when men intrude and assume command
under guise of religion's demands of hierarchy
where women become subordinate to the will
of men their independence and will of purpose
suborned, denied. Power and prestige and
honour falls to men. To women submission.
Through this lens of reality in the cultural
order of theocratic-ruled societies motherhood
reflects the will of men demanding daughters
be chaste and modest, home-bound creatures
whose physical features from head to toe are
not to be viewed by lascivious males in the
public arena. Where defiant daughters dishonour
their fathers, their grandfathers, their brothers
their uncles and the price to pay is steep to wash
away unforgivable sins. If mothers weep it is deep
within, while they plot with their men to wipe
clean the slate of familial dishonour, expunging
disobedient daughters from life and memory.