I don’t know the image source for that, I wish I did because I want to read the story behind it. That image is so powerful to me.

The Women of Tahrir from Yasmin Moll on Vimeo.

That’s safe to watch with children, and the footage of the mother with her daughter in the square made me cry. I let C watch it with me as we’ve been discussing what is happening in North Africa & the Middle East. I was his age when we lived in Germany and the Berlin Wall fell (and we got a school holiday!) 🙂 I hope he’ll remember this, though it is far away, and someday understand the significance of what is happening there.

And not that women are the only ones participating in this change, of course, but because of the societal restrictions they’ve been enduring in some of these areas it makes the women’s voices that much more powerful to me. Especially the mothers, there with their children.

I do not know much about this region, I’m doing my readings now! (We’re studying ancient history this year, so Egypt’s golden age of pharaohs isn’t too relevant to current events.) But I remember stories from my father about laws regulating what women could do in some of the countries he visited. (“Visited” sounds like a funny word but it’s what came to mind!) The men in that first image, soldiers or security forces, I think they symbolize the oppressive government but I suspect that as individuals they hold a variety of views. Like the Libyan pilots ejecting and crashing their planes rather than carrying out bombings. I remember seeing video footage from Germany of former east german soldiers dropping their guns and walking away from their posts to cross to west Germany. I think there are many people with many different views and a lot of confusion and fear and so many different emotions as they sort out what is going on because for many of these young people, this government and this is oppression is all they have known – their world is changing, as is ours. 🙂