maternidad en el cristianismo

7/27/2019 Maternidad en El Cristianismo

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MOTHERHOOD IN CHRISTIANITYAND ISLAM

Critiques, Realities, and Possibilitiesjore_456 638..653

Irene Oh

ABSTRACT

Common experiences of mothering offer profound critiques of maternal

ethical norms found in both Christianity and Islam. The familiar respon-sibilities of caring for children, assumed by the majority of Christian and

Muslim women, provide the basis for reassessing sacrificial and selfless

love, protesting unjust religious and political systems, and dismantling

romanticized notions of childcare. As a distinctive category of womens

experience, motherhood may offer valuable perspectives necessary for

remedying injustices that afflict mothers and children in particular, as

well as for developing cross-cultural understandings of justice in general.

KEY WORDS: motherhood, Christianity, Islam, comparative religion,

justice, agency, feminist

BECAUSE IT is common to the lives of so many women, both Christian

and Muslim, motherhood is an ideal subject for comparative religious

ethics. Do Christian and Muslim sources, however, offer different views

of motherhood? Put differently, might Christian and Muslim women

mother differently as a result of their religious beliefs? In foundational

religious sources such as the Bible, papal documents, the Quran, and

hadith, commentaries concerning motherhood differ only slightly and

usually in emphasis upon one particular aspect of mothering versusanother. These differences, moreover, pale in comparison to the respon-

sibilities familiar to mothers everywhere: years dedicated to the daily

work of feeding, clothing, cleaning, holding, educating, and myriad other

activities necessary for the survival and flourishing of the next genera-

tion. Indeed, both Christian and Muslim texts that address mothers offer

little prescriptive ethical guidance for them; in these traditions one finds

that mothers tend to be objectified as symbols of willing and selfless

devotion. The actual experiences of mothers, however, challenge

assumed ethical norms of maternal selfless love, re-evaluate the role ofmothers in establishing just societies, and correct romanticized views of

childcare. The first part of this essay examines how maternal experi-

JRE 38.4:638653. 2010 Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc.


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ences might be employed to critique the ideal of maternal selflessness

found in both Christianity and Islam. The second part explores how

Christian and Muslim mothers interpret their religious traditions from

the margins to protest unjust political situations. The third part arguesthat such critical views of religion and society are largely possible as the

result of accurate and complex, rather than simplistically idealized,

renderings of motherhood. The fourth and concluding sections discuss

the distinctiveness of motherhood as the basis for cross-cultural justice

movements. Given the shared concerns and experiences of Christian and

Muslim mothers, the possibility emerges of a cross-cultural ethic of

motherhood rooted in womens experiences of caring for children.

1. Critical Assessments of Agape and Selflessness

Perspectives borne out of experience offer a critical view of assumed

maternal norms, such as love, agape, and selflessness found in reli-

gious texts. The lived experiences of mothers frequently come as a

shock compared to the idealized expectations of mothers often rein-

forced by religious traditions. Adrienne Rich, for example, reflects that

many of her frustrations and feelings of inadequacy as a mother

stemmed from her unquestioning acceptance that a natural mother is

a person without further identity, one who can find her chief gratifi-cation in being all day with small children . . . that maternal love is,

and should be, quite literally selfless (Rich 1986, 22). Rich remembers

feeling haunted by the stereotype of the mother whose love is

unconditional (Rich 1986, 23). Martha McMahon, in her study on

middle- and working-class Canadian mothers, found that the women

she interviewed implicitly knew the cultural associations of caring,

morality, and character in womens lives (McMahon 1995, 159).

The most powerful critiques of Christian ethics come from the

perspective of mothers themselves, who question such expectations ofselfless, other-regarding love. The ideal of unconditional, disinterested

love, often assumed between mother and child, is interrogated by actual

maternal responsibilities and experiences. Pope John Paul II inRedemp-

toris Mater typically idealizes Mary as the archetype of maternal love,

which he describes as self-offering, limitless, and tireless. He

equates Mary, in her saintly devotion to her son, with the sacrifices of

women:

In the light of Mary, the church sees in the face of women the reflection

of a beauty which mirrors the loftiest sentiments of which the human

heart is capable: the self-offering totality of love; the strength that is

capable of bearing the greatest sorrows; limitless fidelity and tireless

devotion to work; the ability to combine penetrating intuition with words

of support and encouragement [John Paul II 1987].

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Christine Gudorf, by contrast, offers a critical view of agape based on

her experiences as the mother of one biological child and two adopted

children with disabilities. For Gudorf:

The insistence on Christian love as selfless has created tremendous guilt

in people who constantly find that they cannot forget themselves com-

pletely in their loving as they should. The experience of having their love

rewarded, returning fourfold, frustrates many who come to assume that

Christian love must be only for the saints, not for ordinary people

[Gudorf 2005, 85].

Gudorf finds that the assumption of parental love as selfless giving

without any thought to ones self is both inaccurate and demoralizing.

The maternal expectation set by glorified depictions of Mary is unre-alistic and, moreover, ignores the social realities and web of mutual

concern that surrounds the parentchild relationship. Although

Gudorfs experience is imaginably more difficult than that of most

mothers because of her childrens medical conditions, her sentiment

shared earlier by Richechoes a profound dissatisfaction with the gap

between idealistic expectations of mothering and the actual experi-

ences of mothering. John Paul IIs euphemistic descriptions of moth-

ering reinforce the belief that women ought to revel gloriously in the

responsibilities of motherhood without any concern for themselves.Holding Mary up as the paragon of mothers, John Paul II sets an

impossibly high bar for them. The absence of Marys own reflections

on motherhood further enables the popes rendering of Mary as the

model mother. Without her testimony and given the papacys ultimate

interpretive authority, Christian expectations of mothering fail to rec-

oncile the ambivalent feelings actual mothers may have about moth-

ering. The Churchs expectations of mothers are questionable given

that these are based on incomplete and inaccurate understanding of

childcare.As Gudorf suggests, the Churchs skewed understanding of Mary

has serious ethical implications for mothers. Although mothers are

certainly concerned about the lives of their children, mothers are also

concerned about their own happiness and satisfaction. If, as the pope

indicates, mothers are to love and work with unquestioning devo-

tion, the Church essentially silences critiques of the injustices that

unduly burden mothers. There is little space for understanding how

mothers realistically perceive their own lives. Mothers sometimes do

feel overwhelmed or depressed or simply fail to experience the joy thatthey, according to the Church, ought to feel, particularly when they

are burdened with medical, economic, or psychological issues. The

Churchs maternal vision obscures the many factors that facilitate or

hinder a mothers ability to care for her children, including the role of

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other family members, neighbors, and governments. Motherly love

personified through the singular example of Mary is not only radically

misunderstood but also ethically negligent.

The practices of mothering provide a lens through which one under-stands more accurately both agapeistic neighbor-love and proper self-

love. The physical and emotional work of caring for a child refines for

many mothers the notions of both self-love and other-regarding love. In

caring for ones own child, one might better imagine how one cares for

and loves children who are not ones own, and how others care for and

love their own children. Because children are both other and of oneself,

they also provide a unique opportunity to examine how love for another

and self-love interact. The relationship between the ability to love

oneself and the ability to love a child, who may not be capable ofexpressing love in return, tests the boundaries of such loves.

Gudorf reminds her readers that when parents raise their young,

they do so not purely out of self-sacrificing love, but also with the hope

that their efforts will be returned with love and affection from their

children and with the satisfaction in seeing children mature. In con-

sidering the raising her two disabled children, Gudorf remarks that

there

was no way to do that without also gratifying our own self-interest inthat when they learned to walk, talk, eat, use the toilet, attend school,

and form other relationships not only would their horizons expand, but

ours also. As with all children, every achievement of the child is both a

source of pride and a freeing of the parent from responsibility for the

child [Gudorf 2005, 80].

She points out that when parents care for their young, they do so with

the expectation that the giving will become mutual. Parents are not

completely selfless in their love. While self-sacrifice and selflessness

surely characterize much of childcare, especially when young childrenare utterly dependent upon parents, self-love and self-concern remain

inextricably tied to the efforts and work of mothers.

Christian feminist thought has explored the relationship between

self-love and other-regarding love (Weaver 2002), but Islamic thought

also contains possibilities for reading religious texts with similar

concerns in mind. That is, one might take passages from the Quran

and the hadith with a critical eye that focuses upon acknowledging the

self-consciousness and moral awareness of the mother, rather than her

selfless love. In one of the most common wedding gifts given to Muslimbrides in Southeast Asia, a century-old guidebook titled Bihishti Zewar

(Heavenly Ornaments), the reader does not encounter the terminology

of self-love, but the text clearly indicates that young women ought to

respect and care for themselves in order to prepare for marriage and

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motherhood. Author Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi encourages women

to educate themselves about Islam. With emphasis placed upon taking

the time and effort to become literate and well versed in Islam, to

master essential math skills, and above all, to question confidentlytraditions and customs that may be more harmful than good; Bihishti

Zewar validates a brides intellectual, emotional, and social abilities

(Metcalf 1997, 59, 97, 102). His guidebook also provides numerous

portrayals of inspiring Muslim women, including scholars, doctors, and

religious leaders.

The vast majority of exemplary Muslim women in Bihishti Zewar,

however, gain their knowledge and prominence in relation to the needs

of men (Metcalf 1997, 293308). Although they are responsible for

saving their own souls, women pursue educations so that they maybetter serve their children and husbands. Women who learn to read

and write manage their homes well, raise their children well, and

know every minute the proper status of her mother, father, husband,

and other relations; and she will fulfill her obligations (huquq) to them

(Metcalf 1997, 59). The education of young women remains ultimately

couched in other-regarding terms.

In Islamic canonical texts, mothers are described as objects of

veneration. The traditional canon comprising the Quran and hadith

contains numerous references to mothers made by observers ofmothers, but few references come directly from mothers themselves.

The Quran as well as the hadith of Bukhari, considered the most

reliable archivist of hadith in Sunni Islam, state explicitly that chil-

dren are to respect their mothers. In one famous hadith, mothers are

deserving of the kindest of companionship, even before fathers. Many

Muslims view the wives of Muhammad as exemplars of virtue and

behavior, but hadith concerning Khadija, the Prophets first wife, are

especially popular among Muslim women in part because, of all of

Muhammads wives, she is the only one to have borne a child whosurvived the death of Muhammad (Stowasser 1992). Still, traditional

religious references to motherhood are mostly variations on the theme

of respect for ones mother, without providing guidance to mothers

themselves for handling the struggles and complexities of motherhood.

Although hadith from Muhammads wives exist, few can be attributed

to Khadija (most are attributed to Aisha, who did not have children),

and no substantial commentary from mothers about mothering exists

from this formative period.

In several hadith, however, the nursing mother is described asperforming moral work that deserves divine reward. Notably, these

hadith are addressed to mothers themselves and refer to concrete

practices of mothering. The nursing mother in the Quran and hadith

is depicted as a woman who receives reward for the work of mothering.



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According to one hadith, Muhammad explains that when a mother

nurses, she receives for every mouthful [of milk] and for every suck,

the reward of one good deed. And if she is kept awake by her child at

night, she receives the reward of one who frees seventy slaves for thesake of Allah (Schleifer 1986, 53). Although it might be construed as

religious reinforcement of the sacrificial mother, this hadith might also

be viewed as the Prophets explicit recognition of the physical and

moral tasks of mothering. Mothers pain in labor and weariness in

childcare are not viewed as punishment for sin, as described in Genesis

3, but rather as occasions for immense gratitude. The Quran indicates

that a Muslim ought to revere ones mother because a mother beareth

him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years

(Quran 31:14). The Quran also acknowledges the ambivalence thatmothers may feel, given the hardships associated with pregnancy and

nursing: ones mother beareth him with reluctance, and bringeth him

forth with reluctance, and the bearing of him and the weaning of him

(Schleifer 1986, 52).

Developing an understanding of the ethical agency of mothers may

require the retrieval of sources within these religions that acknowledge

more realistically the lives of mothers. Both Mark and Luke in the

Christian scriptures, for example, describe pregnant and nursing

women as those who suffer greatly at the end of days: And alas forthose who are with child and for those who give suck in those days!

(Mark 13:17), and For behold, the days are coming when they will say,

Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the

breasts that never gave suck! (Luke 23:29). Genesis 3, of course,

famously describes the pain in childbearing that will plague women

since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. These

and similar texts in religious sources avoid romanticizing motherhood

and begin to acknowledge the realities and work of mothering. Focus-

ing on such sources may provide a means for developing an under-standing of motherhood as ethical practice, rather than as an

impossible ideal.

2. Mothers, Religion, and Political Protest

The physical, emotional, and intellectual experiences of mothering

may contribute to a mothers awareness of political justice and the role

of religious institutions in establishing just societies. These perspec-

tives of religion and society based upon maternal experiences, however,ought not to be construed as a maternal, feminine ideal of peace as

opposed to a paternalistic, masculine tendency toward violence and

war. Indeed, the dangers of gendered polarization prompt many

caveats against the attempt to forge a politics based upon motherhood.

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Muslim scholar and activist Amina Wadud draws from her experi-

ence as the mother of five children to speak out against the injustices

reinforced by the oft-quoted hadith stating that paradise lies at the

feet of the mother (Wadud 2006). Her protests against the poortreatment of mothers within patriarchal cultures are inspired by the

living hell for many single female parents, or women with disabled or

un-able fathers, husbands, and brothers in a Muslim community that

pretends that such an idiom [or more accurately, an adage] is a

statement of fact and therefore ignores the agony of these women

making them invisible (Wadud 2006, 126). Through the lens of moth-

erhood, Wadud provides a subversive reading of the story of Hajar

(Haggar), the ancestral mother of the Arabs and Islam. She notes that

Hajars status as single head of household is never commented upon,no one was held accountable for its resolution, and later legal codifi-

cations in Islam would still overlook it (Wadud 2006, 144). This

oversight within Muslim societies carries important implications, espe-

cially considering the ways in which current Islamic laws treat single

mothers by harshly penalizing pregnancy out of wedlock. Wadud calls

for a more equitable system of justice within Islam that recognizes a

single mother not as a deviant figure, but as a paradigm that demands

greater consideration and just treatment.

For Wadud and the Madres, protests against the injustices carriedout by religious traditions and political systems come directly from

their experiences as mothers. While their status as mothers lends them

the credibility to speak out publicly concerning these issues, their

direct observations of mothers lives seem to have provided the critical

lens that motivates their activism. Rich and Friedman are rightly

concerned about the dangers of associating motherhood with political

movementsmothers may very well be reinforcing stereotypes by

protesting issues directly relevant to childrens welfarebut given the

urgency of these injustices, such concerns are arguably secondary tothe need to call attention to them, whether by mothers or by others.

Rather than view mothers politicization as a step backward, the

unexpected activism of mothers against the abuses of children and

mothers may in fact constitute a step toward overturning romanticized

images of motherhood.

3. The Possibility of Critique: The Recognition of Motherhood

The critiques of political injustice and religious norms above arepossible as the result of taking seriously the perspectives of mothers.

Although images of mothers abound, their voices are largely absent.

This absence has severe implications for the development of com-

prehensive ethical frameworks. Feminist philosopher Susan Okin

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observes, for example, that the history of Western philosophy has paid

scant attention to the process by which babies become rational adults

and especially to those mothers who raise them. Aristotles Nicoma-

chean Ethics, which has played a significant role in the development ofboth Christian and Islamic ethics, does not acknowledge the role that

mothers play in the upbringing of virtuous young male citizens. Ironi-

cally, the women who are expected to raise children, at least in their

earliest, most formative years, are themselves excluded from the edu-

cation of virtue. This omission raises concerns about the accuracy and

comprehensiveness of Aristotles pedagogy of virtue. With regard to the

liberal tradition within philosophy, Okin observes that it

appears to be talking about individuals, as components of politicalsystems, it is in fact talking about male-headed families. Whereas the

interests of the male actors in the political realm are perceived as

discrete, and often conflicting, the interests of the members of the family

of each patriarch are perceived as entirely convergent with his own, and

consequently women disappear from the subject of politics [Okin 1979,

202].

Mothers have historically played a vital, but unacknowledged role in

the formation of the body politic. Their absence from philosophical

thinking about virtue, governments, and the good life does not consti-tute a mere oversight, but has potentially serious ramifications for the

development of any complete ethical framework.

Author Jane Smiley has similarly observed the extreme paucity of

mothers and the tradition of a maternal vision in Western literature.

She asks, What do we know about mothers from reading our litera-

ture? We know what they look like and what others feel about them

(Smiley 1993, 6). Very little reliable information exists, for example,

about how Mary thought and acted as a mother except in relation to

her sons birth and death. The Greek term used for Mary in OrthodoxChristianity, theotokos, literally the God-bearer, emphasizes the

physical relationship of Mary to Jesus, rather than the emotional,

intellectual, or spiritual one that she may have had with her son.

Similarly, in stories of exemplary women found in the Quran, the

importance of childbearing as a central part of a Muslim womans

identity is emphasized (Brockopp 1999, 7). Charles Hallisey, describ-

ing the dearth of information about women in Buddhism, remarks that

rarely do we see the women in these models depicted as having the

complex, if not contradictory, characters that most of us do in facthave. . . . Nowhere is a gap between idealization and realistic possibil-

ity more visible than in Buddhist models of mothers (Hallisey 1999,

12324). Available information about mothers is often secondary, told

through the voices of male observers, redactors, or authors, not



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through the voices of the mothers themselves. This lacuna has impor-

tant implications for developing a more complete understanding of the

good life.

Understanding motherhood as an ethically rich and complex expe-rience ultimately depends upon accurate portrayals of motherhood in

society. Traditional images of mothers in Western religious history

and in popular media portray young, healthy, content, and presum-

ably married women, with equally healthy and content babes in their

arms. One questions the accuracy of the placid images of Mary and

the baby Jesus given the physical drain and messiness of the birth-

ing process, newborn care, and nursing. The iconic image of mother

and baby is so deeply entrenched that a contrary view, such as that

of a profoundly destitute mother and her young children portrayed inDorthea Langes Depression Era photograph, Migrant Mother, elic-

ited comments that the photographs were subversive propaganda

and false (Stevens and Fogel 2001).1 Poor women have long expe-

rienced motherhood differently than white, middle-class women.

From the time of slavery, African American mothers have had to

work outside the home while their own children were raised by

othermotherswomen in the African American community who

shared the work of raising each others children (Collins 1995, 120

24).Images of Mary and Khadija, hardly normal mothers, are not the

only culturally prominent mothers. Celebrity mothers and fictional-

ized mothers can be found in supermarket tabloids and in light-

hearted mommy lit, as the genre is dubbed (Bazelon 2006, 10). Our

culture is simply inundated with skewed images of motherhood.

These diversions, however, hint at the need to recognize the ethical

struggles of real mothers. The attraction to Mary and Khadija, Ange-

lina Jolie and Britney Spears, as well as the protagonists of mommy

lit may suggest the publics desire to understand maternal view-points on a plethora of topics, both trivial and profound. These

women symbolize moral boundaries in the form of good mothers

and bad ones. Unfortunately, like Mary and Khadija, celebrity and

fictional mothers are promoted without sincere reflection upon the

actual experiences of mothers. They provide little insight into the

mundane but ethically important daily work of mothering. The

danger of these modern depictions of motherhood lies in their glam-

orous extremity and the applications of that extremity in creating

ethical norms for mothers.

1 See the photograph at http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html.

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4. A Distinctive Voice

In recognizing mothers voices and recording their experiences so

that they are available as sources of critique, one needs to value

motherhood as a distinct category of experience. Some may argue that

experiences of mothering and fathering are similar enough such that

the term parenting is the more valid term. Other thinkers may argue

against the use of the term motherhood for political reasons. bell

hooks, for example, reasons that the use of mothering as a term to

denote childcare exacerbates the problem of the gendering of childcare

(hooks 1984, 13839). Changes in language to become more sex- and

gender-inclusive, she asserts, may function as a precursor to social and

institutional equality. Also, men who have borne a fair share of their

work raising young children may protest the decision to use the

gendered language of mothering, rather than the more inclusive term

of parenting. In North American and Western European societies, men

are increasingly active partners in the rearing of young children.

Additionally, some women do not want or cannot become pregnant,

while yet others may not be able to or choose not to become primary

care givers to the children they bear.

The choice to employ the term mother instead of father, parent,

or caregiver honors the fact that historically and across cultures,

women have typically carried the responsibility of childcare (Ruddick

1989, 4445). Nancy Chodorow also reminds us that while substantial

changes have occurred over the last few centuries with regard to

womens work, marriage rates, and fertility, womens mothering is one

of the few universal and enduring elements of the sexual division of

labor (Chodorow 1978, 3). Discussions of men as primary caregivers to

young children are virtually absent in traditional religious resources.

Caring for children, especially young children, has, for both physical

and cultural reasons, been typically viewed as womens work. Lactat-

ing womeneither biological mothers or wet nurseshave fed infants,

and women in their roles as mothers, teachers, nannies, and sitters

have raised children to maturity.

Choosing to use mother and its obvious association with women

also makes sense given that most women have no choice but to confront

the biological possibility of pregnancy and motherhood. The possibility

of pregnancy (through rape, for example) is significant because it forces

women to consider motherhood, even if they never want to become

mothers. Men, on the other hand, may never know for sure if they are

biological fathers; unless confronted with DNA evidence, they can fairly

easily deny their biological role in creating a child. For women, con-

cealing a pregnancy or birth, while possible, is quite difficult. Con-

fronted by their biology, women inevitably face the question of whether



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or not they want to become mothers. Women therefore spend a dispro-

portionate amount of thought, time, and money to avoid or to become

mothers. Susan Starr Sered observes that

in every known culture adult women grapple with motherhood. Most

women are, have been, or try to become mothers, or conversely, make

effortssometimes even life-threatening effortsto avoid becoming

mothers. Many, if not most women, are concerned with controlling the

number of children whom they bear and raise, and with determining the

way in which their children are raised. The diverse implications of

motherhood . . . strongly resonate with womens religious beliefs and

rituals [Sered 1996, 7].

By choice or by coercion, many women find themselves facing possible

motherhood.

The non-gendered term caregiver, while in many ways appropriate

to this study, is also not acceptably accurate. Caring for a young child,

an elderly person, and a disabled person (child or not) engender

different ethical reflections. All three types of care involve a relation-

ship between a caregiver and one who is cared for, but the physical,

psychological, and intellectual demands of each type of care differ. A

person who cares for her aging parents, for example, experiences

distinct, though no less profound, emotions than in caring for her

young infant. In the former case, memories of being cared for by ones

parents; surprise, shock, and anger at the aging process; and the

reality of end-of-life concerns entail different ethical responses than

those emerging from the care of a child whose future and whose

memories are yet to be created.

For many women awareness of the ethical demands of motherhood

begins with pregnancy, a condition that women alone experience.2

Many women, for example, prepare for the responsibilities of caring for

an infant during pregnancy when they restrict the consumption of

certain foods and tobacco, seek prenatal medical care, and begin or end

other practices unique to their pregnant lives. Arguably construed as

exercises in virtue, pregnant women attempt to habituate certain

practices deemed culturally good over the course of months with the

goal of fulfilling a desired end of a healthy mother and child. Emo-

tionally, women often begin the process of bonding with their infants

when they are still fetuses in utero. The intense physical and emotional

bond between women and their children, found through practices such

as nursing, often develops through infancy and into early childhood.

2Thomas Beatie, a transsexual man who kept his female reproductive organs intact

despite a sex-change operation that transformed his outward appearance, has recently

announced that he is pregnant. So, although I state here that women confront

pregnancy, I realize that exceptions may occur (Beatie 2008, 24; Winfrey 2008).

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Pregnancy involves different, but related, ethical issues than mother-

hood because pregnancy often initiates the ethical lives distinct to

motherhood.

The morally transformative process often begins with pregnancy,but lies predominantly in the years of work caring for dependent

children. Biological mothers may perform the majority of early child

care work, but adoptive mothers, fathers (biologically male parents),

and other persons who assume a primary role of caregiver for a child

can also care for children. Therefore, fathers, adoptive mothers, and

others who take on this role may similarly experience the moral

work of caring for children. Notably, the Abrahamic traditions

acknowledge our moral responsibilities to non-biological children.

Both Moses and Muhammad were orphaned and cared for by adop-tive parents. Psalm 68:5 praises God as Father of orphans who

gives the desolate a home to live in (NRSV). The Quran warns

Muslims to protect the assets of vulnerable orphans (6:152, 17:34;

18:82), to feed orphans (76:8), and to avoid the harsh treatment of

orphans (93:9, 107:2). Even in caring for adopted children, however,

women in most cultures still assume the lions share of the work of

caring for children.

The language of mothering has admitted deficiencies. Nonetheless,

such language best suits this particular study because it reminds us ofthe fact that women have, and continue to bear, the primary respon-

sibility of caring for young children. The gendered term also acknowl-

edges that most women do in fact become biological mothers. Perhaps

most significantly, the category of motherhood prods us to consider

more fully the ethical perspectives that result from the experiences of

women who care for the next generation of humanity. Mothers consti-

tute a distinct group of persons who, as women and as caregivers to the

young, may develop particularly valuable and much-needed perspec-

tives on religion and society.

5. Conclusion: Conversing as Mothers, with Mothers,for Mothers

In a forceful critique of Judith Butlers theories that destabilize the

notion of biologically determined gender, Martha Nussbaum argues

that the failure to recognize the category of woman as a discrete

category has the dangerous implication of dismantling the foundation

of feminist work (Nussbaum 1999). For Nussbuam, Butlers discredit-ing of the notion that there is such a thing as a woman means that the

injustices carried out against women because they are women become

delegitimized. Specifically, the work of feminists with regard to issues

such as womens heath, reformation of rape laws, ownership and



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property rights, and workplace discrimination, loses traction if women

lose status as a distinct sex. One might extend this argument to

mothers as a discrete, albeit large, category among women. There are

serious issues of injustice facing mothers in particularissues such asalarmingly high maternal mortality rates in poor communities, work-

place discrimination against mothers, and disproportionately large

numbers of mothers and children living in povertythat require the

recognition of both the plight of mothers and the voices of mothers

themselves if we are to remedy these injustices (United Nations 2010,

3038).

The unpublicized struggles and joys of motherhood potentially

provide a basis for cross-cultural justice movements. Although mothers

would be the first to claim that the experience of raising a child differsfrom child to child and culture to culture, enough of the experience of

childcare is similar that mothers from different religious traditions are

able to empathize with each other over the various triumphs and

travails of mothering. Experiences of motherhood as complex practices

of care bring into sharp relief the relationships between self, other, and

society. Mothers see how the well-being of a child relies upon the

well-being of the mother, and how this relationship depends also upon

a well-functioning society. Mothers across political spectrums and

religious divides share a concern for the communities and environ-ments that they and their children inhabit. The care for ones own

children and the empathetic recognition of other mothers work can

translate into a profound concern about cultural values and the role of

religious institutions in upholding or neglecting those values. Changes

in moral self-understanding as a result of motherhood may provide the

impetus for social and political change, including the transformation of

religious traditions.

In creatively seeking moral agency through their respective reli-

gious traditions, mothers illuminate the potential of religion in waysthat might otherwise be neglected. Indeed in both Christian and

Muslim communities, children possess the unique status of being

social objects of great social worth and have the symbolic power to

transform womens identities (McMahon 1995, 21). As symbols of

society, children imbue mothers with the legitimacy to act in the

public sphere on their behalf and on the behalf of other mothers.

Especially in these times of intense discord, the needs of mothers,

witnessed to by mothers, may provide platforms to critique unjustified

religious conflict. Because mothers, in their experiences of nurturingthe future generation of humanity, comprehend the responsibilities of

caring for children, they especially may provide much-needed perspec-

tives to foster greater understanding and justice between cultures and

traditions.

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