Gorgeous digital Mother's Day cards honor immigrant and Muslim moms
A new collection of beautiful online Mother's Day cards encourages everyone to celebrate the diversity of motherhood this year.
As part of the sixth annual Mamas Day campaign, queer and transgender artists of color have joined together to create free e-cards celebrating immigrant and Muslim moms. The initiative, first launched in 2011 by Oakland-based multi-racial social change organization Forward Together, uses e-cards to highlight populations of mothers often ignored in mainstream media and advertising every year.
Through the Mamas Day series, Forward Together hopes to diversify the images of families we often see around Mother's Day — even if it's just through a simple card.
"As an artist of color, I feel a strong obligation to use illustration for uplifting the narratives that go unnoticed in mainstream media," Breena Nuñez, one of the artists collaborating on Mamas Day, said in a release. "This project in particular is so beautiful because so many of these artists are bringing their personal and cultural understandings of what it means to honor our mothers."
Anyone can create a card by choosing an artist's image and writing a personalized message. You can then immediately email the card to a Muslim or immigrant mom in your life.
The Mamas Day website also allows users to send a physical card to a mother they don't know with pre-written message, like, "We see you. We love you. We support you. Happy Mamas Day." About 30 grassroots organizations will deliver these cards to 15,000 immigrant and Muslim mothers across the country on Mother's Day on May 14.
Each year, Forward Together dedicates the Mamas Day campaign to a marginalized group of mothers, such as LGBTQ mothers, mothers of color, low-income mothers, and Indigenous mothers. Last year, the group sent Mamas Day cards to immigrant mothers being held in U.S. detention centers.
This year's celebration of immigrant and Muslim mothers takes on particular relevance, given the political and social threats against the two groups in the Trump era.
"We wanted to use Mamas Day as an opportunity to let these mamas know they are not alone.”
"Our goal with Mamas Day has always been to highlight mothers who are invisible in popular representations of motherhood, so we focus on lifting up single moms, queer families, incarcerated parents and immigrant mamas," Kalpana Krishnamurthy, policy director at Forward Together, said in a statement.
"This year, with the rise of attacks on immigrant and Muslim communities — including efforts to ban people from Muslim majority countries from entry into the U.S. and mass deportations — we wanted to use Mamas Day as an opportunity to let these mamas know they are not alone."
You can check out the artists' work and learn more about the campaign here.
Related Video: What it's like being LGBTQ and Muslim
Topics Social Good Family & Parenting
Katie Dupere was a Social Good reporter at Mashable from May 2015 to July 2017, covering activism, identities and social impact. Prior to her work with Mashable, Katie penned pieces about queerness, body positivity, sex and relationships for Gurl. She also previously contributed LGBTQ news coverage to PinkNews.
