The drop and the ocean

 "Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

(Rumi)  

 

 

I don't like what snails invariably want do to my garden, but I am quite fascinated by and respectful of them. I've learned that they re-trace their steps across, through, up and under obstacles and natural or manmade boundaries to return to their most fruitful habitat. You could relocate them in a wilderness five minutes walk from your backyard, but if they feel they're meant to be contentedly chomping their way through your lettuces, they'll do their darnedest to return. If this takes them several days over rocky ground or a busy road, so be it: for such tiny, fragile little messers, they are fearlessly determined, with a do-or-die attitude.
Although the snail is probably the slowest creature on earth, the species has survived for millions of years. Unable to hear at all, they rely on touch and an exceptionally sense of smell to follow their own path back to snail-happiness.

I suppose they're actually little mollusc travellers, their caravans on their backs. The same self-secreted track they follow "home" also enables them to repair wounds and regenerate cells. Elements of snail-trail have been used in some "wonder" anti-wrinkle creams; I shall be keeping to my Nivea, thank you.

I do believe that we humans carry "home" on the inside: and that God, Spirit and the universe if you will are within us all. If we open ourselves to our capabilities and have faith in ourselves and the love of a higher power, we can find our way over any rocky ground to realise our home. It may be the very house we were born in or hundreds of thousands of steps away from family and what should seem familiar to us. Each path will be different in the detail if not obviously in direction.

Faced with calamity in my working life again, my immediate reaction has been dismay and a weary "Why?" Yet truthfully, I haven't been content with what I've been doing and know I'm capable of doing more. Better the devil, drudgery or simply apathy you know? A comfort zone is often little more than a closed but otherwise unprotected box. And those nearest to us frequently have surprisingly strong, closed opinions when we change direction in life: it threatens the sense of familiarity and mutual status quo.

In particular, when we take a damaged soul under our wing, they can seem suddenly ruthless in their desperation to prevent us from altering our path; not yet willing to contemplate their own. For all their frailties and fractures, they can almost become bullying, although they have first-hand knowledge of the inexorable damage done by constant denial of purpose and the crushing of someone's spirit. Just like stepping on a hapless snail, however accidentally; with his disproportion tenacity and remarkable sense of direction destroyed by a single misplaced heavy step, he will die where you tread.
I've been reading a lot of Rumi, the 12th century Persian poet and mystic. I've found it comforting to absorb his themes of salvation through both romantic love and the love of God. Passion and divinity are intertwining vines in Rumi; his soul is both his conscience and his compass throughout life.

Today, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī would be seen to be a Sunni Muslim, yet his writings are embraced as ecumenical in nature. He felt religion was a very personal experience and that the urge to reconnect with Spirit should be the pinnacle of life towards which everything moves. Ever conscious of it's divine origin, Rumi was passionate about preserving the dignity of life and honouring the truth of our paths and others: "The nation of Love has a different religion of all religions - for lovers, God alone is their religion."  His writing transcends ethnic and national borders: within the past five years, he's been described as the most popular poet in the United States.
Taking favourite lines from all over Rumi's teachings and poems, from different periods of his life, I've brought them together in my own personal affirmation; I find it as beautiful as any poem and as uplifting as prayer. Career paths and other trusted structures and channels through life may suddenly twist and turn menacingly or simply appear to fall away. Breathe deeply: your home is within you and the SATNAV in your ear may not be tinnitus or the onset of a psychotic disorder; it might just be your guardian angel.

 

 

 

 

 

"You are the drop, and the ocean.

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.

 Are you jealous of the ocean’s generosity?
Why would you refuse to give this joy to anyone?

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy.

Sorrow prepares you for joy.
The moon stays bright when it doesn't avoid the night.

Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure. 

Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.

I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God.   Only from the heart can you touch the sky.
If you want to be more alive, love is the truest health.
Remember, the way you make love is the way God will be with you.
Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood.
Reason is powerless in the expression of love.
Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.
Judge the moth by the beauty of the candle.
Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river; each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged.
The fault is in the one who blames. Spirit sees nothing to criticize.
Spend less time with nightingales and peacocks.
One is all talk, the other only colour.
Look carefully around you and recognize
the luminosity of souls.
Sit beside those who draw you to that. 
You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?
Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling, they're given wings.
Try something different. Surrender.
Give up to grace.
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
The ocean takes care of each wave 'til it gets to shore. You need more help than you know.
Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.
Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.
Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.
No one can take your place in existence,
or in absence.  
Never will a lover's body be found buried in the earth.
To love is to be God.
Ask all from yourself.
The garden of the world has no limits, except in your mind.
Do not be lonely for you carry the whole universe within you.
But Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.
And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with love like that.
It lights up the sky.”

 

 

 "Home"  Gabrielle Aplin

 

  

 "Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.”

(Rumi)  

 

 

Maiden born and made

"All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee 

Of mother's love with maiden purity" 

(from "The Virgin", William Wordsworth)

On 8th December, Christians respect the Solemnity of The Immaculate Conception; one misconception non-Christians may have of this feast day is that it's the celebration of the virgin conception of Christ. The feast is actually a recognition that Mary the Mother of God was born to St Anne in a state of grace, conceived and preserved from original sin: William Wordsworth beautifully depicted Mary as: "Our tainted nature's solitary boast".
While there is no suggestion in scripture that Mary was conceived in anything other than the usual manner, Anne herself is generally described as being childless until her later years: indeed she is Jesus' grandmother. Somewhat overlooked in Christian mythology, Anne, (from the Hebrew "Hannah", meaning "grace"), is also revered in Islam and mentioned in the Qu'ran as Mary's mother and a highly spiritual woman. Islamic legend holds that she prayed for a son after watching a bird nurturing her young. Against all odds, she conceived, bearing a daughter who would be blessed among women; and who would bear and nurture the Son of Man.
The patron saint of housewives and unmarried women: I like St Anne! (She's also the patron saint of grandmothers and women in labour; and, rather more randomly, of cabinet makers and miners...)

"The Immaculate Conception"

A dew-drop of the darkness born,

Wherein no shadow lies;

The blossom of a barren thorn,

Whereof no petal dies;

A rainbow beauty passion-free,

Wherewith was veiled divinity.

(John Banister Tabb)

"The Holly and the Ivy"  Annie Lennox

Goin' down South...

Brighton Beach nuns!

“What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.” 

(Chuck Palahniuk) 

Across the world's most popular religions, folklore and mythologies, hell has traditionally been seen as an underworld of relentless retribution, exclusion and damnation. Religions with a cyclic tradition often depict hell as an intermediary state between incarnations or levels of recovery; even then, generally located below the earth's exterior surface, with entrances from The Land of the Living. The modern English word "hell" derives from the Old English "hel / helle"; around 750AD, this referred to a netherworld for the dead. An Anglo Saxon variation translates as something hidden, covered up, buried. The Norse Pagans feared a being named "Hel", described as the ruler of their underworld; a place of banishment for all women and some men! In Greek mythology, the underworld of Hades included a deep abyss, a place of torment and torture. Islam warns of pits of extreme ice and deadly cold as well as the eternally fiery ones. Chinese folklore tells of an unfathomable maze incorporating eighteen levels of underworld and pits of filth. The Native American and Inuit cultures also feature terrible netherworlds; with deepening levels of despair and ever more tortuous routes, including flesh-ripping winds and rivers of blood. You get the (not very pretty) picture.
Within Judaism, hell has been depicted as not entirely physical; it has often been compared to the most intense feeling of shame and isolation. The Roman Catholic Church will define hell as "a state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed." My own Dad, in contrast to Monsieur Sartre on his bookshelves, told me that hell was being kept from others, those you loved, as well as being excluded by God. Yet through Dante, Milton and Blake, there is the persistence of the "fall" of beings, the terrible descent, the claustrophobic enclosure; in vivid contrast to the rise skywards to God and the heavens, the freedom of flight and the summit of enlightenment. Little wonder then that many Irish people and other rural folk in Britain and the United States used euphemisms such as "going down" or "heading south" when referring to the fate of Bad People. When I was a very little girl in (whisper it) sarf London, I'm sure I had a notion that sinners were headed somewhere beyond Margate.
Barely a couple of years ago, "South" for me was that hemisphere beneath the Southern Cross constellation, principally my beloved Australia. Called to think about it more deeply, The South would also refer to Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas: places oozing with the blues, with country, with bourbon, hot sauce and hugs; places I have only romanticised about and still long to visit. Those dreams are still very vivid, but these days "going back down south", from whatever angle, means coming home to rusty, glinting little Brighton. Yes, it is indeed geographically somewhat beyond Margate.
Thank you to my dear friend Tom, husband of the equally lovely Ellen, for sending me this joke while Brighton has a late burst of sunshine! Tom isn't as well as he should be or will be at the moment, but nothing deters a saucy sense of humour! Thanks also for the excuse to play Kings of Leon on this blog...
(Much love to both of you. I'll see you soon; get the broccoli in x)

A couple decided to go to south to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.
Because of their schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel together. So, the husband flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day.
The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in the email address and sent the email without realising...
Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. The widow decided to check her email for messages from friends and family. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted.
The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the message on the computer screen:

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I've Arrived
Date: July 19, 2012
I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you're allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in.
Everything's ready for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was!

P. S. Sure is freaking hot down here!!!!

Photo: Gigi, album

"You can all go to hell; I shall go to Texas."
(David Crockett)

"Back Down South"  Kings of Leon

"If you're going through hell, keep going."

(Winston Churchill)

By George... a new type of dragon

 

 "Upon this charge, cry God for England, Harry and Saint George!"

(from Shakespeare's Henry V)

 

Yesterday, 23rd April, was the anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth and death; also the feast of St George, patron saint of England. I wanted to post something nice and uplifting for St George's Day, but first I wanted to check the outcome of Sunday's march through Brighton by the interestingly named English Defence League. "Interesting", because of course England as part of the United Kingdom has a ready defence in her armed forces. The British Armed Forces are a professional force to be reckoned with: a combined strength of around 190,000 regular personnel and more than 35,000 volunteer reserves: the British Armed Forces constitute the second largest military body in the European Union. Charged with the defence and protection of the UK as a whole plus her "overseas territories and Crown Dependencies", they also promote her wider security interests and support international peacekeeping efforts. Nearly 10 percent of all serving members are from ethnic minorities.
Now, the English Defence League have a mission statement which I have taken the time to read: I was particularly interested to clarify the origins of their name and their obviously proud use of the cross of St George in their logos and promotions. Apparently, the EDL see themselves as "a Human Rights organisation that was founded in the wake of the shocking actions of a small group of Muslim extremists who, at a homecoming parade in Luton, openly mocked the sacrifices of our service personnel without any fear of censure".  I see.  Surely the key here is that this was a small group of extremists? I well remember the reportage of this inexcusable and pathetic behaviour, and the condemnation it drew from British Muslims. The web page does indeed appear to condemn racial prejudice and race-based violence; it acknowledges that there are personnel from ethnic minorities making an invaluable contribution to Britain's armed forces. But it also suggests that Halal restaurants and fast-food establishments should serve non-Halal dishes, out of respect. Hmm. Should pizza establishments be obliged to offer pie, mash and bread and butter pudding? Would I really go to my favourite Indian restaurant and enthusiastically demand egg, chips and a nice fried slice? Or is this simply directed at our Muslim population; and isn't that exclusively targeting? Somewhere, something in my head is still beeping "Racism". However gentle and bland the mission statement and their other formal publicity aims to be, I have read some of the forum comments on the website.
It was important to me as a Christian to be able to include St George's cross in this post, yet I was a bit apprehensive. In this week's New Statesman, George Eaton quotes from a recent poll that only six out of ten of those who describe themselves English associate their national flag with pride and patriotism, compared with eight out of ten in similar polls in both Scotland and Wales. Even more depressing, one in three of the English interviewees under the age of forty think of racism and extremism when they see St George's Cross. This sad attitude has been attributed to the reputation for appalling behaviour of some of our football supporters, but also to the toxification of the flag by the extremism and sometimes "street hooligans" membership of some semi-politicised, socially divisive groups. The red cross on a white background has been associated with St George since medieval times, adopted in the coat of arms and flags of several countries and cities of which St George is patron, notably England, Georgia, Aragon, Greece, Genoa and Barcelona. For centuries, and notably as carried by crusaders throughout Europe during the crusades, it has long been referred to as "God's Flag". This interpretation was carried to America by the early Church of England and Anglican communities. Recognised as God's Flag rather than representing any nationality, it is the only flag allowed to fly (in pennant form) higher than the United States national flag in certain restricted circumstances: specifically during church services for naval personnel when masses are conducted by a naval chaplain at sea.
During the first Crusade, the Pope decided that knights of different nationalities should be distinguished by different crosses. English crusaders originally wore a white cross on red; French crusaders a red cross on white, Italian knights a yellow cross on a white. However, at some stage, English crusaders began wearing the red cross. In the late twelfth century, Phillip II of France agreed to the English claim to the red cross on white. Subsequently, as the majority of Christian crusaders had been associated with the symbol, it became the standard flag of the crusaders. Already in widespread use, in 1277 St George's cross officially became the flag of England, with the three lions retained as the coat of arms of the monarchy. The cross may also be formally displayed by churches of the Church of England.

There were about 150 marchers from the EDL at Brighton station on Sunday, rather fewer than the official defence forces of these islands. Several were wearing the cross of St George in their insignias, although some had their faces covered. They were met by more than 400 anti-fascism protesters: as one of my neighbours said, we may be a bunch of latter-day, seaside hippies in Brighton, but we don't take kindly to this kind of thing. Of course, the long-suffering police and their poor beleaguered horses were in the midst of it all. There isn't a chapter of the EDL in Brighton, but they've marched here before and I sense they will do again. Brighton doesn't have a history of racial tension and it's not what we want for the future of the city. The most recent census shows that nearly ninety five percent of the population is white with less than five percent of mixed race backgrounds or from ethnic minorities. Around sixty percent of the population call themselves Christian: less than two percent are Muslim. The EDL gathering on their mission in Brighton reminds me of the invasive presence of the despicable National Front when I was growing up in south London. They were times that grounded me and bonded me to my beliefs, but they're still unpleasant memories.
I wonder just how much these staunch self-appointed defenders and crusaders know about the man beyond the flag. George wasn't England's first patron saint. His veneration spread to the Roman empire from the Middle East during the fourth century. He was canonised in 494AD by Pope Gelasius, but his popularity as a militant Christian martyr and a medieval man's man really developed from Richard the Lionheart's devotion to him. Richard believed that the saint appeared to him to encourage him and his despondent crusaders. In 1222, the Council of Oxford declared 23rd April to be St George’s Day and he eventually replaced St Edmund the Martyr as England’s patron saint in the 14th century. In 1415, 23rd April became a national feast day.
St George is now probably globally known as the patron saint of England and legendary slayer of the dragon. He's also the patron protector of soldiers, archers, knights, saddlers, sword-cutlers, scouts, of horses, of those suffering from fevers and plagues... He's regarded as one of the most prominent of the military saints and is venerated in the Anglican and Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches as well as Catholicism. Something of an exception amongst Christian saints, St George is also known and respected in the Muslim faith: his standing in the Middle East derives from a composite character pieced together from Biblical and Qu'ranic sources as well as folklore. Most Muslims revere Saint George, identifying him with the Prophet Elijah, and have long allowed Christians to celebrate an annual mass at his supposed tomb in Palestine, in what is now a consecrated mosque. The first church in the Middle East to be dedicated to St. George, in 514AD, was also sited in an existing mosque. In fact, the first recorded "George and the dragon" legend tells that he killed the beast at the seashore in Beirut; a popular shrine grew up there in the early 20th century.
Traditionally, George lived between  275 - 303AD, a Roman soldier in the guard of the emperor Diocletian. Disappointingly for the EDL, it seems very unlikely his feet walked upon England's green and pleasant land. There seems to be strong historical evidence that he was born to a noble Christian family, either in Syria or Turkey, and that he died in Nicodemia, about sixty miles east of the modern city of Istanbul. His father was a famed Roman officer named Gerontius and his mother Polychronia was from Palestine. The Latin name "Georgius" means "worker of the land". By the time he was in his late teens, both his parents had died; at this point he decided to travel to Nicodemia to present himself to the emperor for military service. Within ten years, George was promoted to the rank of tribunus, an imperial guard. However, Diocletian's favours were fickle: in 302AD, he issued an edict that all Christian soldiers in his army should be arrested and that his soldiers must make sacrifice to the Roman gods. The strength of George's faith came to the fore: he publicly renounced the edict and proclaimed himself a Christian. Nor willing to lose his best tribune and the son of a legendary warrior, the emperor offered George money, land and slaves if he would bow to the Roman gods and make sacrifice to them. George resolutely refused all his offers and bribes. Exasperated, Diocletian ordered his execution. Before his death, legend tells that George gave away everything he owned to the poor. He was tortured horribly at length, including laceration on a wheel of swords. He was resuscitated three times before he was finally beheaded, on 23rd April in 303AD. Apparently, witness reports of his torture and death led to the conversion to Christianity of the empress, Alexandra, and a pagan priest named Athanasius. The latter would become St Athanasius the Great and one of the acknowledged pillars of Christianity. George's body was taken to Palestine, where a cult of veneration quickly grew up around his story.

Eastern Orthodox depictions of St George slaying a dragon often include a young maiden, looking on from a distance. Traditional iconographic interpretation of the tale is that the dragon represents Satan or evil itself; therefore in this instance the Roman Empire. The maiden is presumed to be Alexandria, the emperor's wife. The legend of St George and the dragon originated during the Crusades. The western version evolved as the thirteenth century poem "The Golden Legend", originally an epic in Latin with a distinctly courtly romantic flavour that tinctures the holy narrative. This widely popular poem was recited in many versions, resulting in the localising of the adventure in very different places. Where and how this poem originated remains a part of The Golden Legend itself. Essentially, a dragon or perhaps a crocodile nests at the site of the water-spring at the city, possibly in Libya or the Holy Land. The people cannot collect their water because of the terrifying reptile; to pass to the spring, they have to offer it a sacrifice of a sheep, or failing that a maiden. Having drawn lots, one day the king's own daughter is the elected unfortunate. Enter St George, who faces the dragon, slays him and rescues the princess. The king and his people are so grateful that they immediately convert to Christianity. There are obvious parallels with ancient tales pre-dating Christianity, of Perseus' rescue of Andromeda from the sea-monster and even with Zeus' defeat of Typhon the Titan: yet George's dragon may often represent pagan cults. There have been various suggestions that George's tale is a Christianised version of that of older deities in indo-european culture. From the time of Hercules, wherever there has been a dragon, there has been a George.
St. George and his dragon sometimes surface around rural England in "Mummers plays" at Easter and Christmas: traditional folk dramas based on tales championing Christendom. On 23rd April, English scouts and guides groups often organise local parades and attend mass in honour of their patron. Traditionally, St George's Day is the day to wear the red rose of England in your button-hole. However, England does not celebrate it as Americans celebrate 4th July. In fact, you're more likely to see a St Patrick's Day parade in England than you would a St George's Day celebration. Personally and as a Christian, I would welcome the revival of his feast day as one of national festivities. I'm not so sure of St George's pleasure as a figurehead of groups like the EDL. St George was traditionally unafraid and intolerant of bullies and oppressors;  a defender of those unwilling to compromise their right to practise their faith. I wonder where he would have seen the dragon on Sunday outside Brighton station? As a peaceable vegetarian and Catholic, I do hope the EDL members managed to grab a tasty kebab before they caught their trains back home.

"Now order the ranks, and fling wide the banners, for our souls are God's and our bodies the king's, and our swords are for St George and for England"

(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Jerusalem"  sung by Paul Robeson

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Unveiling Egypt's new shame

"Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That's their natural and first weapon"

"The authority of any government must stop at it's people's skin"

(both Gloria Steinem)

Thank God you are not an Egyptian woman with a heart and brain who also wants to have a voice in her country today.

Earlier this month, an Egyptian military court acquitted an army doctor charged with carrying out a forced virginity test on a female detainee during last year's civil protests. Samira Ibrahim, a twenty four year old political activist, said she was forced to undergo a test last March. Hers and other similar cases have enraged dissenters against the generals who took control of Egypt when Hosni Mubarak was driven from office in February 2011, after what was called a popular uprising. Samira was one of seven women who said they had been forced to undergo such humiliating tests to determine if they were virgins while in detention. She received a sentence of a one year suspended custodial term for insulting the authorities, joining in an illegal assembly and breaking the curfew.

On 9th March 2011, Samira decided to participate in a sit-in in Tahrir Square, Cairo. Military police evacuated the square, violently dispersing protesters. Samira was detained, along with a number of other women who had been at the demonstration. They allege they were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched and said they were forced to undergo virginity tests while being exposed, insulted and video-taped. Dr Ahmed Adel, an army conscript, was acquitted of testing Ibrahim against her will. The court has claimed the ruling was issued due to conflicting witness accounts. He had been accused of public indecency after an initial charge of rape was dropped. The defendant's lawyer told reporters that the case wasn't initially strong and had only been enabled to be brought due to international media pressure. Indeed, getting the case into court in the first place could be considered a victory for the female protesters: it raised hopes for the further trials of those accused of the abuse. Before the hearing, Amnesty International said the court’s decision would “show if Egypt’s military courts are prepared to offer any redress for female victims of violence by the army.” Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Director,  Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said that "Ever since this unacceptable episode, which is nothing less than torture, women protesters have repeatedly faced beatings, torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of Egypt’s army and security forces.” The revealed army practice had sparked a national outcry last year and naturally stained the reputation of the governing militia. Public outrage and disgust increased after a general was quoted by CNN, saying tests were carried out to prove the women were not virgins when they were detained, so they could not say they were raped in detention. A spokesman for the Egyptian army subsequently denied the comment.
Infinitely more surprising than an Egyptian military tribunal finding one of its own not guilty, is that the case went ahead at all. Samira was incredibly brave to take on not only Egypt's masculine leadership but also her country's deeply ingrained, damning attitude toward women. Human Rights activists have stressed that the military rulers have taken full advantage of the nation's oppressive view of female equality. Samira has had to deal with reputation smearing in the Egyptian media, clearly steered by the militia. From the outset of the case, military generals were issuing inflammatory and defamatory statements, saying that the women who joined the protests at Tahrir Square were females of low morals and ill repute. The "virginity tests" themselves were of course an extreme violation of the body and, in a country such as Egypt, the ultimate smearing of a woman's reputation and character. Once the woman has been subjected to such a test, even if previously a virgin, her body has been soiled or even "ruined", her status forever diminished, her self respect destroyed. Every area of her life as a Muslim woman in the Middle East will be impacted. Social analysts have also warned of other consequences of this abuse of female protesters by the forces, saying it may cause national outrage among the Egyptian public, and even a disintegration of society's morals in a nation which has prided itself on it's respect for women. In December, a civilian court ruled that the army should end the practice of virginity tests: a military judicial official then said cases of reported forced virginity tests had been transferred to the Supreme Military Court. The world now realises that this was calculated lip service.

Last week, protesters gathered outside the court, chanting: “We demanded dignity and change. Instead they stripped our girls in Tahrir." This is reference to the particular disrespect and savagery the militia has meted out to young female protesters since last December. The shamelessly brutal way the protesters were dealt with was captured for the World Wide Web, sending shock waves through the international community, along with the sickening images. At least ten protesters have been killed and hundreds wounded in the violence. Earlier this month, one of a group of peaceful protesters outside the cabinet offices was detained to be beaten up by troops. Graphic video footage shows several militia mercilessly attacking the lone, unarmed female, beating her into the ground and then pulling up her clothes and dragging her exposed, dazed and bleeding through the streets. One riot police officer can be seen kicking her savagely in the chest. It's pitiful and disgusting to watch. The troops are reported to have almost routinely stripped female protesters of their headscarves to drag them along the ground by the hair, before kicking them in the head until they lie motionless. The violence alone is staggering, but the additional focused sadism and misogyny have no place in the ranks of those pledged to govern and protect. This kind of behaviour has no defence in Islam, it is not becoming in any soldier; it is an abuse of power and strength that demeans manhood.
The presence of the international media has certainly not discouraged the troops' brutal activity. There are widespread calls for the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to relinquish control immediately. The SCAF grabbed power following the popular revolution that toppled the former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak last February. Initially, the SCAF promised to hand over to a civilian government as soon as practically possible: of course, they are now refusing to do this. Thousands of Egyptian women had taken part in the eighteen day uprising last year; everything seemed to change from day nineteen. Women were subsequently told by the new regime that similar activism would be seen as opposing Islam and that it would decide when the time would be right to talk about any female agenda. Obviously, this is shockingly disappointing news, particularly as such traditional Egyptian groups as the Muslim Brotherhood have been accepting of women in the public sphere. Protesters now say that the SCAF has simply continued with the ruthless bullying and violent practices of the former regime. There's a new chant now which rings out amongst the protesters, until it's silenced; "This is the army that's protecting us."
And what of brave Samira? Egyptians rallied in Cairo last Friday against the military tribunal ruling and in Samira's support. Hundreds of supporters carried her photo aloft and chanted their support. Her decision to come forward at all, and then to proceed with such a case, has challenged social taboos in the Arab Muslim world, where female victims of sexual abuse can often be vilified and punished, rather than the abusers. Samira has said she intends to bring a lawsuit against the militia in an international court, as she now has little chance of winning an appeal in the Egyptian legal system.
“I am determined to prosecute them,” she says, “I will not give up."

"The tyrant is only the slave turned inside out"

(Egyptian proverb)