2011م - 1444هـ
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest



It is estimated that some six hundred women served during the American

Civil War. They had signed up disguised as men. Hollywood has missed a

significant chapter of cultural history here - or is this history ideologically too

difficult to deal with? Historians have often struggled to deal with women who do

not respect gender distinctions, and nowhere is that distinction more sharply

drawn than in the question of armed combat. (Even today, it can cause

controversy having a woman on a typically Swedish moose hunt.)

But from antiquity to modern times, there are many stories of female

warriors, of Amazons. The best known find their way into the history books as

warrior queens, rulers as well as leaders. They have been forced to act as any

Churchill, Stalin, or Roosevelt: Semiramis from Nineveh, who shaped the Assyrian

Empire, and Boudicca, who led one of the bloodiest English revolts against the

Roman forces of occupation, to cite just two. Boudicca is honoured with a statue

on the Thames at Westminster Bridge, right opposite Big Ben. Be sure to say hello

to her if you happen to pass by.

On the other hand, history is quite reticent about women who were

common soldiers, who bore arms, belonged to regiments, and played their part in

battle on the same terms as men. Hardly a war has been waged without women

soldiers in the ranks.