Is not this the fast that I choose: to let the oppressed go free....

Tomorrow will mark the beginning of the third month of a hunger strike by Khader Adnan, who was awakened in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers, forced out of his home and arrested on December 17. When he was not charged with a crime, Khader Adnan began a hunger strike, protesting Israel's illegal detention of 301 Palestinian prisoners without charges.

Photo shows Randa Jihad Adnan, Khadar's wife, holding a photo of her husband.

I have always seen the Muslim veiling as a sign of the inequality of women in some Muslim communities, that the veil, the hijab, the burqa, are all signs of women's subordinate role. That women deserve more respect and should not be forced to veil themselves, when the men dress as they please.

Looking at this photograph, I am forced to reconsider. Her veil forces me to look into her eyes, to see her passion for justice, her grief for her husband, her dedication to the struggle for hunan rights for her people. Without her veil, I would not have seen into her soul.

Yesterday Randa Jihad Adnan visited her husband in the military hospital, with her two young daughters and her father-in-law, and then she spoke with reporters. They found him "weak and extremely thin, his beard unkempt and his fingernails long. He was shackled by two legs and one arm to his bed, and was connected to a heart monitor. Though mentally alert, he could speak only with difficulty. 'I was shocked,' she said yesterday. 'I couldn't speak for about three minutes, and it was the same for my daughters.'"

Today's story in The Independent (UK) concludes, "Randa Adnan recalled that her husband told one of his lawyers: 'I do not want to go to oblivion or death. But I am a man who defends his freedom. If I die it will be my fate.'"

Read the rest of the story in The Independent (UK)....