Mother Day special

On this Mother's Day, filled with its many celebrations, it is appropriate to pause for a moment of reflection on the challenges of women around the world.

No doubt Anna Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe, with whom the day's history is intertwined, would have wanted that.

Jarvis, the Appalachian homemaker who fought for improved sanitation and wanted a day to highlight that effort, and Ward, the suffragette and reformer who wanted mothers to devote a day to peace after the Franco-Prussian war, were activists to their core.

Jarvis' daughter, whose name was also Anna, lobbied for a national day to honor mothers like hers. In 1914, the second Sunday of May was established as Mother's Day around the nation.

In the United States, many women -- most of them mothers -- grapple with daunting issues like poverty, violence, inadequate child care and lack of access to adequate health care. It is encouraging that President Barack Obama recently created the White House Council on Women and Girls, which involves every federal agency and is charged with closely monitoring female-related issues.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, is drawing attention to the plight of Native American women. It says Native women are more than twice as likely to be sexually assaulted as other women in the United States.

Outside the United States, rape is a tool of war in places like Congo and Darfur. Women are the majority of refugees fleeing their homelands, and they are frequently targets of abuse by "security forces, border guards, locals, smugglers and other refugees," according to Amnesty.

Where are they safe?

Last month, Afghan women protesting Shiite marital laws that allow rape by husbands, among other things, were pelted with stones by fellow Afghans. The outcry was heard around the world -- perhaps loud enough to force some change.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has consistently reported on the trafficking of women and children in Asia and other countries. He recently added the United States to his list as he chronicles the plight of teenage girls who are exploited by pimps who use drugs and beatings to control them.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-Manhattan, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have introduced the International Women's Freedom Act of 2009. The legislation would create a U.S. Commission on International Women's Rights that would report on women's rights issues around the globe. Such a commission should be welcomed.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said as first lady nearly 15 years ago that "women's rights are human rights," is committed to a global women's agenda.

Concerned citizens must get involved, too -- in part by contacting their congressional representatives and making sure they are engaged in efforts to protect women here and around the world.

Ward and the Jarvises would have wanted that.