"Women of the Revolution"

Tweet when i was in a socialist group, it espoused the idea that people change in a revolution, which is how we get to a new society. i think this article goes along way to prove that idea. we'll have to wait to see how the work of these women resonates with the wider society. linda

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/02/2011217134411934738.html

EXCERPT:

When 26-year-old Asmaa Mahfouz wrote on Facebook that she was going to Cairo's Tahrir Square and urged all those who wanted to save the country to join her, the founding member of the April 6 Youth Movement was hoping to seize the moment as Tunisians showed that it was possible for a popular uprising to defeat a dictator.

Mahfouz later explained on Egyptian television that she and three others from the movement went to the square and began shouting: "Egyptians, four people set themselves on fire out of humiliation and poverty. Egyptians, four people set fire to themselves because they were afraid of the security agencies, not of the fire. Four people set fire to themselves in order to tell you to awaken. We are setting ourselves on fire so that you will take action. Four people set themselves on fire in order to say to the regime: Wake up. We are fed up."

In a video she subsequently posted online , which quickly went viral, she declared: "As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go down and take a stance, then there will be hope."