Eternal Women

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By Nada Shams

Whether it?s with an action, or with moral support, mothers, daughters, wives offer their undying support to a just cause, that of defending the land.

The year is 680 AD. The place is Karbala. The battle is triggered by a dispute between the Umayyad dynasty and the family of Ali Ibn Abi Taleb over the succession to the Caliphate. When Imam Hussein reached Karbala, his group of 72 members - consisting of men, women and children was faced with an army of thousands, equipped with frightening armor. The Caliph Yazid asked Hussein to submit to his rule. Unwilling to compromise with a ruler he viewed as the destroyer of Islam, Hussein took to the battlefield and was beheaded.

Al-Sayeda Zeinab, the granddaughter of Prophet Mohamed, "heroine of Karbala'," rallied troops at the battle, providing them with water and food, treating the injured and taking care of children. When she saw that a struggle and revolution had begun against an oppressive system, she carried the flag of the continuation of Karbala's revolution.

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sanioura is nothing but a freaking traitor

Jazak'Allah Khair Sister
news.bbc.co.uk

How can the Lebanese Prime Minister sit with these animals - persons who have the blood of his people on their hands?

He must suffer from selective amnesia.

1) www.irib.ir

2) www.iric.org

4) www.guardian.co.uk

5)http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1938667,00.html

6) www.guardian.co.uk

7) www.progressivefilms.org

8) english.wa3ad.org action=article& id=409

Dear readers, whoever and wherever you are, from time to time, within the depth of you heart, offer a thought of deep thanks to all those brave fighters who gave their life, their blood, willingly, forsaking mother, wife, sister and daughter to protect the land. Symbolically, lay a flower on their tombs: ? we will never forget the ultimate sacrifice?. And to those who stayed behind, a thought of deep respect.

Dressed in complete black, this young woman was calm and confident. Throughout our conversation, she did not cry or express any sadness. She explained that the purpose of Hezbollah is to defend its land and the people within its border.? (7)

Yes, the women from Qana, the women from Beit-Hanoun, the women from Dahiyeh, the women from Bint-Jbeil with your steadfastness, your pride, your dedication, whether cooking bread for a fighter, signing a petition, taking part in a demonstration or peace march, whether colleting donations in the box of the ?Resistance Support Organization?, (8) you are the backbone and the cement of the resistance, you are the real unknown soldiers, and will continue to be the thread of steel that hold together the strongest Arab institution yet, the family.

Again and again stories were told about hiding in their homes during the war, women cooking food for the fighters and young men delivering messages between fighters. The sister of a fighter proudly quoted military analysts who were surprised that Hezbollah was able to fight for thirty-three days. One woman said, ?I can go to Aaita ech Chaab. I can still go to the South without any checkpoints. It is a victory for me.?
Dr. Urum Shiekh visited Lebanon just after the war. She says that :? The reconstruction assistance from Hezbollah uplifted the local people because they did not feel abandoned. I saw individuals rebuilding their homes and they articulated a sense of optimism. Many times they smiled when I asked about their damaged/destroyed houses and they told me, ?Inshallah (God willing), it will be rebuilt, not a problem.? At this time, they were happy for having been able to halt Israel.? She goes on to write: ? I visited a family of a martyr in the South.

They begin to wave posters and sing songs honoring the leader of Hizbollah and the war he has started against Israel. The mood is upbeat and defiant despite the square kilometer having been pummeled into bricks and concrete dust. It's as if they are fighting the Israelis the only way they can: By refusing to be cowed. Other than the volunteers - who readily admit to being Hizbollah - patrolling with their handheld radios, there's a noticeable lack of fighting age men. There's no point asking where they are. These people don't know, answering only that their son or father is a 'Mujihadeen' or holy warrior?. An older woman in a headscarf, who will not give her name, appears and wants to talk. 'If America and Israel want to do this to us, there is nothing we can do about it,' she says. 'We don't care about staying here as long as the boys who are fighting and al-Sayeed Nasrallah and the leaders are ok. We can withstand anything as long as we don't have to bow to the Americans and Israelis. Death is normal to us and it means we will go to heaven. May God bless all the Mujihadeen around the world,' she exclaims. (6)

Whether it?s with an action, or with moral support, mothers, daughters, wives offer their undying support to a just cause, that of defending the land. What is amazing is that they do not display an ounce of selfishness or regard for their personal possessions or private concern. Consider Umm Ali. Her home crumbles under her feet. The first human reaction would be one of self-pity, of personal loss, or tears and despair of having no shelter anymore. But no, as ?the minute Umm Ali hears the Israeli fighter jet engines overhead, she stops looking through the rubble of her destroyed Haret Hreik home in Beirut's southern suburbs, turns her scarf-covered head toward the sky and begins to shout in Arabic at the unseen enemy above. 'Allahu Akbar, God is the Greatest!' she cries, pumping her fist in the air and cursing the Israeli pilots bombing her nation from above. Within a few seconds another woman also in a full hijab, or headscarf, joins her.' With our blood and souls we redeem you, al-Sayeed Nasrallah,' they chant?.

Every woman, according to her circumstances and her capabilities, brings whatever is possible for the sake of the resistance. Consider that last November, scores of women with the outmost courage, acted as a human shield for men who were resisting inside a mosque in Beit-Hanoun, Palestine. A large group of women protesters went on to gather outside the mosque. In the resulting confusion all the militants managed to escape, some reportedly wearing robes supplied by the women. Witnesses said two women, both aged about 40, were killed, and 10 others were wounded. The Israeli army said troops spotted two militants hiding in the crowd of women and opened fire. The Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas "saluted the women of Palestine ... who led the protest to break the siege of Beit Hanoun". A spokesman for Hamas militants said 32 gunmen who had taken cover in the mosque escaped with the help of the women. (5)

During the last war in July 2006, many young women were most eager to volunteer in any manner possible. Sitting with three friends in one of the Zarif school's empty classrooms recently converted into a women's prayer room, 21-year-old Sanine says: "As a woman I can help in many non-military ways. I can help the wounded; I can provide food and bring supplies. We all want to help in anyway we can."

Daisy is a 34-year-old Christian who works in a bank in up market district of Beirut. "I feel a great rage burning inside me," she says. "We are all the resistance now. They are not doing this for Syria, they're not doing this for Iran, they are doing this for Lebanon." (4)

"There was a woman charged with carrying the food to a house, before one of the militants takes it to his colleagues," she added. "With the help of Hajjeh Fatmeh, I cooked for them chicken, eggs and Hommos." "Hizbullah militants ambushed the Israelis and destroyed two of the tanks," she said.
"I ran, along with some fellow citizens, bare foot trying to attack the Israeli soldiers who were running at a high speed," she added.

She said that she succeeded, along with a group of women, in ?hitting and
throwing out" an Israeli soldier who lost his way while his military troop was breaking into the area.(3) Hamade went on to say she was not afraid of losing her house nor was she worried about her son whom she did know anything about. "He will be back holding victory," she said praising Hizbullah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

She brought awareness to all. After her death she became the manifestation of the search for justice and truth Even at the present time, she is the role model for Muslim women, as a daughter of Allah's Prophet, as a mother who trained a girl like Zeinab as a wife, a great, exalted, and ideal wife to her husband, and as the companion throughout Ali's solitude, hardships and difficulties. She was beside him everywhere as a committed social woman, a woman who, from the early stages of her life, never left her father and fought beside him and struggled with him. She was the woman who fought against tyranny on the external front and who fought against deviation, usurpation and oppression on the internal front.

Thousand of years later, Mariam Hussein Hamade, a 75-year-old southerner from Maroun al-Ras relates with pride the resistance?s heroism in confronting the Israeli forces in Maroun al-Ras and her own role in cooking for the militants. "I used to cook for Hizbullah militants and provide them with food without being noticed by anyone,"

She expressed with words the truth that Hussein expressed with blood. She shouted out against tyranny in any land. With Supreme courage and determination, she resolved not to be overcome by grief and be crushed by the weight of the tragedies that had befallen her family; she was determined to make the best use of every opportunity to propagate the mission of Imam Hussein. It was Zeinab who stood against and confronted the ruling oppressive power, and who overcame all resistance. She spread the thoughts and ideas of Hussein 's School of revolution and martyrdom everywhere and in every land. She took the drops of blood of Karbala as a symbol of courage and justice to all places and all times. Yes! All of these miracles belonged to a woman! (1) In Medina it was Zeinab's practice to hold regular meetings for women in which she shared her knowledge and taught them the precepts of Islam as laid out in the Holy Qur'an. Her gatherings were well and regularly attended. She was able to impart the teachings with such clarity and eloquence that she became known as Fasihah (skillfully fluent) and Balighah (intensely eloquent).(2)

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Eternal Women

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Village Journals

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