From Fur Mama To Bay Mama Shirt

Famous as the mother of Genghis Khan, she survived getting kidnapped, widowhood, and being an outcast, to becoming the mother and advisor to one of the largest empires the world has ever known (as well as being one of the few people who could yell at Genghis and get away with it). Around the time of her first marriage, she was kidnapped by Yesukhei, the chief of a minor clan (legend has it she took off her shirt, threw it to her husband, and shouted “Fly for your life, and while you live remember my fragrance”), and was forced to marry her captor. Several years (and children) later, Yesukhei was killed and Hoelun and her young children were kicked out of the clan, forced to barely survive on whatever they could forage on the Mongolian steppes. Eventually, one of her children with Yesukhei, Genghis Khan, would become a great conqueror—but his mother could still put him in his place. According to Frank McLynn in Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy, Genghis was planning to execute his brother for treason when Hoelun found out, traveled to Genghis’s headquarters, and begged Genghis to be merciful. When that didn’t work, “Hoelun grew angry, got to her feet and roundly rebuked the khan for thinking to execute his brother … Genghis raised her up and said he would grant the boon because of his love and deference for his mother.”

From Fur Mama To Bay Mama Shirt

In 1980, a hit-and-run drunk driver killed one of Candy Lightner’s 13-year-old twin daughters, Cari. The driver had had three prior convictions for drunk driving, and had been arrested two days prior for a different hit-and-run. Within a few months, Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to try to end drunk driving, pass tougher legislation, and help the victims of drunk drivers. Through its work to raise awareness and get legislation passed, MADD has helped save hundreds of thousands of lives.In 1970 when she was 5 years old, Waris Dirie was a victim of female genital mutilation in her home of Somalia. Then, when was 13, her parents arranged for her to marry a man in his sixties; she ran away from home and eventually arrived in London. Although she became a successful model (and even appeared in a 1987 James Bond film), she retired from modeling in 1997 to devote her time to combating female genital mutilation, partially through her work as a UN Special Ambassador. She founded an organization called Desert Flower that combats female genital mutilation around the world. As the mother of four children, she told Harper’s Bazaar that female genital mutilation isn’t just a women’s issue: “Every education begins with Mama. We have to rethink what we teach our sons. That’s the most important thing.”