Kira Nerys - A character Star Trek needed

As I have read and answered to a number of rather "interesting" posts in some star trek boards I feel compelled to write a defense of my probably favourite Star Trek character ever (Spock does have some chances as well).
Star Trek has in its history had many different characters of varied complexity. It has had the philosopher, the fanatic,  the scientist, the humanist, the war criminal as well as the capitalist and hundreds more.
But before Kira Nerys Star Trek didn't have a really strong female character. Tasha Yar might have become such a character, but she was there only for one season and was too traumatized and too much in the shadow of other strong characters like Picard,  Riker or Worf. Then there is Ro Laren who has certain aspects of that character we are looking for, but Ro Laren though she changes sides in the end is too much impressed by Picard to be a worthy adversary for him in the long run. Most of the other woman characters are simply not tough enough. They surely are not submissive or anything like that, but they have those certain characteristics our society attributes to women: Deanna's sensibility would be the best example, but Uhura starting to cry while all the men are still very much under control works as well.
Now there is Kira Nerys and I liked her from the very first moment I saw her, but that's probably because she reminded me of myself. But if we just analyze the first episode of Deep Space Nine we realize that Sisko won't have that easy a life as Picard and Kirk did. Kira Nerys' first scene shows her shouting at a monitor in the office of the former prefect. This is a very telling scene because we see a woman who is at war not only with the Cardassians but with everyone. Her taking Dukat's office is a physical act of freeing her people at one of whom she shouts at exactly that moment. Kira isn't happy to see Sisko and different from Ro Laren she won't be happy in the second episode either or the third. It takes Kira a long time to trust anyone. Six years later she would be extremely worried that maybe she would have to keep that office she so reluctantly gives up at the beginning.
Kira develops extremely from being a very angry person to being still an angry person with completely different motives. Kira distrusts everyone non-Bajoran (except Odo, but she counts him among the Bajorans) at the beginning simply because she grew up in a world where distrust could keep you alive.
The occupation and the resistance have made her tough, a fighter, but not without emotion. Kira is overflowing with any kind of emotion and they only make her stronger. She is tough, but not incredibly tough. When someone begins to kill all her friends she cries and almost breaks and then she stands up and does something about it.
Kira fights her way through life, but she stops to learn a lot along the way.
She has been a terrorist most of her life, but she has been a terrorist out of necessity, never because killing gave her pleasure. It was the necessity to free her people that made her do what she did. And while she doesn't regret fighting in the resistance this never stops her from regretting some of the things she did. Kira feels guilty, but that guilt never overwhelms her.
Kira starts out having the views of a terrorist: We are the good ones, they are the bad ones. But she learns fast. When Marritza is killed in Duet she realizes that that is wrong. Him being Cardassian is no reason to kill him, because he was a honourable man and innocent of the crimes. And in season 7 we see her leading the Cardassian resistance movement together with Damar and Garak, though she sees the irony and doesn't like it very much at the beginning.
But Kira doesn't change so much herself. She mostly changes her opinion about other things. About Cardassians (the most interesting persons involved here are surely Tekeny Ghemor and Ziyal), about the Federation, about the Provisional Government, about Sisko and she learns to accept them. But she doesn't shape herself to be like them. They have to take her the way she is. She is still a child of the occupation, she is still extremely honest, she still mistrusts a lot of people, she is still very religious, she is still angry, she still argues with Sisko and she still usually shoots first. She still doesn't fit into the world view of the Federation.
And while Dax says to Worf in season 5 "five years ago I didn't think she could be anyone's friend" she makes a number of very good and very unlikely friends.