London, December 16: The Nordic Battlegroup has graphically emasculated the heraldic lion above its monogram, after a group of women Swedish soldiers lodged a complaint of sex discrimination with the European Court of Justice.

The contention of the women soldiers was that they could not identify with an ostentiated male lion on their army chest.

“We were forced to cut the lion’s willy off with the aid of a computer, ” Times Online quoted Christian Braunstein from the Tradition Commission of the Swedish Army, as saying.

Vladimir Sagerlund, the designer of the crest from the National Archives, is very upset over this change.

“A heraldic lion is a powerful and stately figure with its genitalia intact and I cannot approve an edited image, ” he told oteborgs-Posten, a Swedish daily.

“The Army lacks knowledge about heraldry. Coats of arms containing lions without genitalia were given to those who betrayed the Crown, ” he said.

The Nordic Battlegroup is a force of 2,400 soldiers from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, and Ireland. (ANI)