This did happen, and we owe these brave young men more than we can ever say.
There are no words to express such gratitude.
We will not forget.
Humanity in Progress
If you have been following the news out of Syria these past weeks, and especially these past few days, you have probably learned that the struggle against the Assad regime is on full force, and that the demonstrations and protests have re-introduced themselves into many parts of the country.
Now it looks like much of the north of Syria is held by anti government forces, who have also attacked and killed a large number of police/army personal, according to some of the news from the Syrian TV station (the one that speaks for the regime). The good news in all of this misery is that it seems that the new protests came as a result of the meeting the opposition to government talks in Turkey last week, and the some say have ended with the agreement that the new Syria will not have a religious government, but will stay secular.
In a significant contrast to the Egypt and Tunisian revolutions evolution, Syria seems to have finally set the first stone for a real revolution, an understanding between the people who oppose the forced leadership on the new way they seek for their country.
However there are a lot of things that still need changing, especially the Arab habit of singing the same old songs and chanting the same old way, it almost looks like the only thing that actually changes are the words, you can plug in any word you like to match the day and the overall feeling. Watching some of the very violent videos that came out of Syria in the last days, one can not help but notice that the main thing that is sang, chanted or shout in the streets is the same old “God is Great”, the same cry uses suicide bombers, child killers and the opposition itself, everyone cries out the god loves them, and indeed they think so.
It will be refreshing and encouraging to see a new Arab culture rise from this revolutions, one that does not walk the streets chanting the same old way old regimes have forced it to do, one that truly understands the power of democracy and demonstrating.
Video –
Something that started as a kind of crazy made up story turns out to be true, for reasons that will be near to impossible for non Muslim westeners to understand, it looks like the Egyptian army did conduct “virginity checks” to females arrested during the rough couple of weeks that started the revolution.
The main question I had when I saw this was why the hell would anyone bother to check the virginity of the protesters, and how on earth this got to do with anything else, answers came soon enough. It looks like if you are a virgin any kind of sexual assault on you could be easily discovered and tracked, but if you are not a virgin than anyone can have his way with you, because in Islam that is how you roll.
This is simply unbelievable, to write this on a laptop, 400 years or so after the end of the Spanish inquisition, when we got micro waves and tivo… Can this really be?
Oh yeah, just ask the Saudi woman who bravely drove a car last week, she was arrested and released yesterday, however it looks like she will not take to this struggle any more, because she is a divorced mother, and by that I do mean not a virgin, and was considered free game for any one of the many all male guards at the prison.
And if you still did not get it, will spell it out to you, if you are a woman stupid enough to rock the boat in Muslim countries and you are not a virgin be ready to get what is coming in the prison or facility you are held up in, if you are guilty or not is a whole different question, try asking up some Twitter ladies from Iran.