Roar deal as army's lion loses its privates

Published on Saturday 15 December 2007 19:21

IT WOULD seem to be the most unusual type of cut the armed forces have faced in many years but for some Swedish women the issue was no laughing matter.

The female squaddies protested to the European Court of Justice that the lion insignia on the crest of the Nordic Battlegroup was simply too male.

It was argued that, in the 21st century, the image was something they could not identify with.

They subsequently won their case of sex discrimination and so it was ordered that the king of the jungle should become a sexless beast and its genitalia were removed.

Christian Braustein, of the army's Tradition Commission, said: "We were forced to cut the lion's willy off with the aid of a computer."

The unexpected snip, however, has angered some, who believe it debases the Swedish armed forces.

Vladimir Sagerlund, from the National Archives who designed the crest, said: "A heraldic lion is a powerful, stately figure with its genitalia intact and I cannot approve an edited image."