True North

Boudica (or Boadicea) was the wife of Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, a British tribe, at a time when Britain was a Roman province. When Prasutagus died he willed half of his kingdom to the Roman empire and half to Boudica and their two daughters, Camorra and Tasca¹ or, according to legend, Voada and Voadicia². British law allowed royal inheritance to be passed to daughters in the absence of male heir, but Roman law did not. The Roman administrator ignored the will and proceded to take over the entire kingdom. Roman historian Tacitus wrote, "Kingdom and household alike were plundered like prizes of war... for a start, his widow Boudica was flogged and their daughters raped. The chieftains of the Iceni were deprived of their family estates as if the whole country had been handed over to the Romans. The king's own relatives were treated as slaves."

Enraged Boudica joined Iceni forces with another tribe, the Trinobantes, and together they fought back. They attacked and conquered the Roman colony Camulodunum (now Colchester) and burned the temple dedicated to Claudius, the Roman emperor who completed the conquest of Britain. The Romans retaliated against the insurgents by sending a whole division of soldiers, but they were defeated. The insurgents then marched on London, which they sacked, and killed its Roman population, as well as their sympathizers. They did the same at Verulamium (now St. Albans) and other settlements.

Then we have Queens Candace, Kahina and Hatshepsut, all African warrior queens who ruthlessly fought to keep and enlarge their countries. We have the Trung Sisters who are acknowledged to be the "Founding Mothers" of Viet Nam. Moving forward a few hundred years, we come to Joan....Saint Joan of Arc who was instrumental in defending her beloved France from the English invaders in the Hundred Years War. In modern history we have Golda Meir, the fierce Israeli premier who did whatever it took to grow her fledgling nation, Indira Gandhi who helped defend India against China when she was premier and Margaret Thatcher who led the British in the war to reclaim the Falkland Islands. Then there is Miriam Farahat.

Consider Miriam Farahat, a Palestinian mother who has raised three sons to be homicide bombers for Hamas. Known throughout Gaza as Um Nidal, or “the mother of the struggle,” Farahat is featured in a Hamas recruitment video telling one 17-year-old son to attack Israelis and telling him not to return. And Farahat -- who is now an elected member of the Hamas parliament -- says she is willing to sacrifice all her 10 sons to the war against Israel because “Israelis are not civilians and there are no prohibitions on killing them.”

“I’ve actually become a more violent person since I became a mother, If someone came between me and my kids, they’d be dead meat. So I didn’t agree with that particular statement.”