Remembering, honouring, and cherishing

by Nicole Dickson

Women’s Month in South Africa is rooted in the memory of 9 August 1956, when more than 20,000 women of all races marched to Pretoria in protest against the expansion of pass laws to include black women in 1952. With strength, song, and defiant unity, they stood against the injustices of apartheid, declaring, “Wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo”—“You strike a woman, you strike a rock.”

Each August, since 1995, we are invited to reflect on the women whose courage has shaped our country—from those who stood on the front lines of political resistance to those who quietly sustained families and communities through acts of care, resilience, and love. These stories are not only national history, but also deeply personal. Each of us carries the memory of women—mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, mentors, friends—who embodied strength and dignity in the face of hardship.

This year, my remembering, honouring and cherishing has stretched beyond our borders to the women of Gaza. The women whose daily lives are marked by unimaginable devastation and loss. In the face of bombings, displacement, starvation, and grief, they rise each day to care for children, search for water, grieve their loved ones, and keep hope alive in a landscape of rubble. Their stories echo the heartache and resilience of South African women who held their families together through the years of Apartheid and struggle, reminding us that women’s resistance often takes the form of radical endurance—the simple, profound act of choosing life again and again. The women of Gaza remind me that courage is not always loud in the streets. Sometimes it is whispered in the dark, in prayers for survival.

To remember the women of Gaza in my prayers is to acknowledge the global struggle for justice and dignity. Their witness compels me to resist turning away from suffering, and instead to stand in solidarity, to lament, to listen, and to remember that their lives and stories are somehow interwoven with my womanity. The struggle for justice, freedom, and dignity is therefore both local and global in nature. To honour women’s courage is to acknowledge both their visible and hidden labour—their songs of protest and their prayers whispered in silence. It is to see their stories not as side notes to history, but as central threads in the fabric of our collective life right now.

While August comes to an end, may we continue to remember, honour, and cherish all women who have gone before us, the women who walk beside us, and the women across the world who continue to embody resilience in the face of oppression.

To the Women of Gaza

May the God of all mercy,
the Spirit of resilience,
And the One who is known by many names
Keep you in strength and shelter.