WHAT DOES A DAUGHTER MEAN TO A MOTHER?

"A daughter is a copy of her mother and at the same time someone totally distinct and unique."
- Simone de Beauvoir -

The relationship between mothers and daughters is both pivotal and complex, changing throughout the course of both their lives. Realizing the need to continually nurture this valuable relationship, the WFWP Toronto chapter holds an annual event on the topic of the mother-daughter relationship. This year, on May 26th, 2019, the main theme was ‘Walking in my Mother's Shoes, Seeing through my Daughter's Eyes.’

The program began on a rainy Saturday morning with our wonderful emcee, Miss Jennifer Biscocho, who shared a few points on the importance of the mother-daughter bond.

Lilly Tadin, the president of WFWP Canada, welcomed the guests by asking a series of questions: “When I mention the word ‘mother’, what do you think about? Why did God create mothers and how did God make them?”

Several more questions were asked and shared with the audience. There were some cute replies and all were followed by much laughter.

Ms. Tadin also shared how important a mother is by quoting King Solomon from Proverbs 31 in the Bible, where the focus is on a woman having great virtues. She concluded her speech by saying that the mother has an important role in bearing children, raising them and guiding them as God's representatives with her feminine sense of affection and love that God has granted uniquely to women. God blessed each woman with this feminine nature. Since mothers have an important role in the bearing and nurturing of children, they also can enable their daughters to become such giving mothers. In the end, we all greatly benefit from this precious gift.

The emcee then introduced our guest speaker, Ms. Atiya Hasan, a financial advisor, former president of Zonta Club in Toronto and a public speaker. Being a Muslim and celebrating the month of Ramadan didn't stop Ms. Hasan from coming to share her views at our Mother-Daughter seminar. Her presentation had two components, one from the scriptural perspective and the other one from the worldly point of view.

She shared Biblical views on women and mothers from Eve, to Moses's mother, and to Mary, Jesus's mother. Ms. Hasan spoke more in-depth about Prophet Mohamed's first wife and the influence she had on his life. She stated that "Heaven lies under the feet of their mothers."

Aside from the scriptural views, Atiya also shared about her own mom, who influenced her to become the person she is today. She attributed this influence to the unconditional love and investment that her mother personally showed her. She taught her to be strong, yet loving and kind, to be perseverant, yet passionate and to maintain a strong faith and cultivate a great love for all humanity. In families of faith, she said, "we believe that mothers are the glue that keeps the family together". During the Q&A period, participants had the opportunity to ask various questions related to Muslim beliefs and culture, with regard to the importance of mothers and women in general.

After a hearty and refreshing lunch, the emcee led us in a fun quiz between some of the mother and daughter pairs in attendance. The mother/daughter team that was able to give the most accurate answer about each other received a very nice prize.

The program continued with several mothers sharing concerns about their personal relationships with their own daughters and they also shared some concerns and challenges on how to raise daughters with high standard and good values.

President Lilly Tadin also offered some of her guidance that may help them to raise up good daughters. Her central suggestion was that children want mothers to listen to them. Their daughters want to be heard; they want to be trusted and they want mothers to spend more time with them and have some fun too.

Special thanks to Japanese students for their wonderful performance of several songs and great thanks also to all involved in the setup and preparation, as well as all the technical support provided by Rev. Ryan Abrenir and the photography by Mr. Edmund Young.