Father’s Day in Malaysia usually means a noisy, heartwarming gathering. We crowd into bustling restaurants, catch up over a local kopitiam breakfast, or fire up the grill at home to honor our Abah, Papa, or Appa. It’s a day about warmth, full tables, and family.
But as we pass the food and share a laugh today, it is hard to ignore the absolute silence hanging over tables halfway across the world. For fathers living through the wreckage of war, today isn't a celebration—it is a devastating reminder of everything that has been torn away from them.
True prihatin means looking beyond our own peaceful borders. Honoring fatherhood shouldn't just be about celebrating the men who are here; it means holding space for the ones who have been stripped of the very children who made them fathers in the first place. We owe it to them to ensure their agony isn't met with silence.
The Real Cost of Conflict
It is easy to scroll past the daily news and view conflict as a distant, abstract concept. But when greed and the desire for power take priority over human lives, the heaviest price is always paid by innocent civilians. From where we sit in Malaysia, safety is a privilege we often take for granted. These stories are a reminder of how quickly a father's entire world can be shattered in a single afternoon.
Mohammed Abu al-Qumsan (Palestine)
In August 2024, Mohammed celebrated the birth of his newborn twins—a boy named Asser and a girl named Ayssel. Just four days later, he walked to a local government office to collect their official birth certificates. While he was away, an airstrike hit the apartment where his family was sheltering. He returned not to a celebration, but to hold his babies' birth certificates next to their white burial shrouds. The strike killed his wife, his mother-in-law, and his four-day-old twins. "I didn't even have the time to celebrate them," he said.
Ahmad al-Ghuferi (Palestine)
For some fathers, the trauma comes from being completely helpless and trapped far away. Ahmad was working in the West Bank when an airstrike leveled his family home in Gaza City. The attack killed 103 of his relatives, including his wife, his mother, his brothers, and his three young daughters—Tala, Lana, and Najla. Separated by checkpoints and war, he had to mourn his entire world through a phone screen. His question leaves a haunting ache: "Who will call me Dad?"
The Fathers of Minab (Iran)
On February 28, 2026, a missile strike hit an elementary school in the southern port town of Minab, killing over 150 people—mostly young schoolgirls. Many fathers experienced the unique horror of rushing to the school to rescue their daughters after an initial blast, only for subsequent missiles to hit the building as they arrived. Months later, these grieving fathers still spend every single night at the cemetery, laying out rugs and lanterns by the graves, keeping a quiet vigil until dawn. For the father of 7-year-old Macan, the violence left no remains to bury, leaving him to search the debris for any final piece of closure.
Standing in Solidarity
Generosity and empathy run deep in our culture. This Father's Day, we can expand our perspective and honor these grieving parents through quiet, intentional solidarity:
Share Their Stories: Use your platform to talk about these fathers. Keeping the memories of their children alive fights against the isolation of their grief and unites global voices.
Direct Aid Where It Matters: Channel your support or sedekah into reputable humanitarian funds (such as Aman Palestin, Mercy Malaysia or international medical lifelines) that provide actual on-the-ground medical aid and trauma counseling to surviving parents.
Take a Moment of Reflection: Before the gifts are opened or dinner is served at your family gathering today, take a quiet moment with your loved ones to acknowledge the immense courage of fathers surviving in conflict zones worldwide.
The truest way to honor fatherhood today is to stand with those who have loved deeply, sacrificed entirely, and lost everything.
References
1. 'All that was left was bones': Palestinian father mourns newborn twins killed by Israeli army by Hani Abu Rezeq and Mohammed al-Hajjar in Gaza, occupied Palestine and Rayhan Uddin in London (14 August 2024)
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-gaza-father-mourns-twins-killed-israel-all-left-bones
2. 'Who will call me Dad?' Tears of Gaza father who lost 103 relatives by Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Jericho (27 February 2024)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68400463
3. Iranian parents: Minab is a land of martyrs Heartbreaking interviews with fathers of children at Iran’s Minab primary school, which was hit by a US-Israeli airstrike by CGTN Frontfline (7 March 2026)
https://www.facebook.com/frontlinestoriesfromreporters/videos/iranian-parents-minab-is-a-land-of-martyrsheartbreaking-interviews-with-fathers-/2537235720029539/