When Assud first made his appearance, he said to Saraa: "We are all martyrdom-seekers, are we not, Saraa?" She responded: "Of course we are.
All martyrdoms, Oscar Wilde once observed, look mean to the beholder.
"We were involved in all the martyrdom operations -- in terms of overseeing, preparing and planning -- that took place in this country," the writer of the document says.
There is nothing like this bloodstain in all the countless martyrdoms of baroque painting, in all of the spurting severed heads and severed breasts; nothing that pulses quietly and fatally out of an unseen wound.
A veganism that meant all-encompassing martyrdom and a belief system that stood at the forefront of your life, because it had to: you couldn't go out for dinner without waiters getting confused and co-workers and acquaintances irritated by the fact you'd willingly made your life more difficult.
Instead, he intends to lie all the way to martyrdom.
While some interviewees are self-proclaimed religious jihadists who value martyrdom above all, others explain that, although they are Sunni, they have Shia relatives in their extended family and, in any case, no loyalty to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
The implication – that his martyrdom is all the more impressive given his irreducible humanity – was made explicit in lines Potter added to the late stage version, which starred Joseph Fiennes, where, asked by Judas if he is from God, Jesus replies "The son of man... cannot be other than a man, or else God has cheated".
It all seemed loony at the time, a martyrdom play.
But in almost all the world's religions, martyrdom plays an important role.What exactly does it mean?
