A NEW female militancy is growing in the Arab world, with angry cries of revenge being directed at Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, and burgeoning support for female Palestinian suicide bombers.

"A person who kills women and children must be burned to death, not just killed," said Walaa Samir, a female student at Cairo University, which has been rocked by recent protests against Israel.

The demure-looking young woman, whose head was covered in a pale yellow scarf clipped together at the neck, was voicing sentiments that have swept the usually mute ranks of Arab women in recent weeks.

Like dozens of Egyptian women, Miss Samir defends the actions of a new kind of Arab heroine, the female suicide bomber - better known here as a "self-sacrificer". She said: "These women are heroes of Islam for defending our holy land."

The scenes witnessed across the Arab world in recent weeks are not the scenes that anyone, especially Egyptian men, expect to see.

In Alexandria, women in head scarves drop their books and charge riot police. In Cairo, female students throw stones and denounce police officers guarding the Israeli Embassy.

Some Egyptians say the recent Israeli offensive against the West Bank has sparked a new political awakening among moderate Arab women.

"We are amazed by the amount of solidarity being shown by Arab women, particularly in conservative Gulf societies where women have moved - for the first time - into the street," says Doris Frangieh, a foreign relations official with the Cairo-based Palestinian Women's Union.

Hala Mustafa, an analyst for the Al-Ahram newspaper group in Egypt, said: "During the anti-British uprisings in 1919, women emerged for the first time to play a key role in national and public affairs.

"The new militancy is part of a new national liberation movement, not a women's liberation movement."

The Telegraph, London  10 May 2002