And what is it, anyway? An expensive but meaningless credential, a ticket to debt, vocational training, or education?… Read the rest
All entries by this author
British mum finds Allah in her potato
Mar 31st, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSee? Those brown lines where it’s starting to rot? That’s Allah.… Read the rest
Mona Eltahawy on Eman Al Obeidi
Mar 31st, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd revolutionary women in Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia…… Read the rest
Susan Jacoby on that absurd heaven book
Mar 30th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat is truly disturbing about this book’s huge commercial success is that it attests to the prevalence of unreason among vast numbers of Americans.… Read the rest
The uses of leisure
Mar 30th, 2011 3:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonAs Lauryn Oates points out, it’s good that Afghanistan is so happy and prosperous that its President can afford to pay attention to the elegant details of life.
The deputy governor of Helmand province has been sacked for organising a concert that featured female performers without headscarves.
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai took the action against Abdul Satar Mirzakwal after tribal elders complained that it was inappropriate.
Karzai himself was sufficiently at leisure to fire a deputy governor for allowing two women to sing at a concert without bags over their heads.
And while we’re on the subject, notice the typical craven way the BBC puts it – “without headscarves.” Notice what an official says a few paragraphs down … Read the rest
Here come the resonant bodies
Mar 30th, 2011 12:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe University of British Columbia has a Theory Workshop. No really; it does.
This month’s was a Derrida one. Coming up in April there will be a Deleuze one. It looks way good.
… Read the restMost of us who draw from, and aim to produce, critical theory set out to make analytical interventions in the making of political transformations. This is, after all, what sets critical theory apart from mainstream theory. The ongoing wave of revolutionary unrest in North Africa and the Middle-East provides us with an opportunity and a challenge, both of which are theoretical as well as political: to put the tool kits of our conceptual assemblages to the test and re-invent and expand our intellectual horizons in response
Official fired because two women did not wear niqab
Mar 30th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“Women do not appear in public without wearing a burka and niqab in an Islamic country like Afghanistan,” one official said.… Read the rest
Top priority for Afghanistan
Mar 30th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe war? Poverty? Schools, roads, hospitals? Ravening Islamists? Corruption? Incompetence? Of course not. It’s naked female heads.… Read the rest
Documentation in McGuire case
Mar 30th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“The more the Jesuits learned about McGuire’s problems, the harder they worked to cover them up.”… Read the rest
Suit says Jesuits ignored warnings about priest
Mar 30th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLots of warnings, over a period of four decades.… Read the rest
It’s not just “neocons” who criticize arrests at Oda TV
Mar 30th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe police raid of the news website, a fierce critic of the ruling Justice and Development Party further fueled debate on freedom of the press in Turkey.… Read the rest
Turkish journalist defends Turkish press freedom
Mar 30th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLast year, the same journalist faced jail for criticising the courts.… Read the rest
Why should new atheists engage in interfaith service?
Mar 30th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy indeed.… Read the rest
Do women hate god?
Mar 29th, 2011 4:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonKristin Aune brings the good news. She and a colleague surveyed “nearly 1,300 British feminists” and guess what?
The results show that, when compared with the general female population, feminists are much less likely to be religious, but a little more likely to be interested in alternative or non-institutional kinds of spirituality.
That’s a relief, isn’t it? Much less likely to be religious but oh whew, a little more likely to be “spiritual.” At least they’re not all hopelessly atheistic and bad.
… Read the rest[Pat] Robertson was worried that feminism was challenging traditional Christian values – at least, values he considered Christian. Many liberals and feminists, concerned about the rise of fundamentalism and its erosion of women’s rights, conclude similarly that
“Why feminists are less religious”
Mar 29th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDon’t worry; they’re more spiritual, so it’s ok.… Read the rest
On reading with a modicum of scepticism
Mar 29th, 2011 | By Allen EstersonThat recycled accounts of events or reports frequently contain inaccuracies going beyond anything in the original is a phenomenon well documented in the psychological literature.[1] I recently happened upon an extreme example of this, made more notable by the fact it occurs in an issue of the highly respected magazine, National Geographic – though not, I hasten to add, the familiar English-language publication. The article in question was published in the Hungarian National Geographic in 2005, the “Einstein Year” centenary of the publication of Einstein’s celebrated 1905 articles in Annalen der Physik. It pays tribute to several individuals whom it describes as “forgotten Hungarian collaborators” with Einstein, albeit that in the next paragraph it is acknowledged that for the … Read the rest
Thai women resort to home abortions
Mar 29th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA Thai government crackdown on illegal abortion clinics has seen women turn to drugs bought over the internet.… Read the rest
An interlude
Mar 29th, 2011 11:42 am | By Ophelia BensonOh my – this is funny – tragic but funny. Aspiring author self-destructs in public. Is urged to stop self-destructing. Continues self-destruction process. Tragic…I can’t wait to read the rest.… Read the rest
Libyan woman who claimed rape is being sued
Mar 29th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“The boys she accused are bringing a case against her because it’s a very grave offense to accuse someone of a sexual crime,” said a government spokesman.… Read the rest
Muslim Brotherhood has a great new idea
Mar 29th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWomen-only buses. Brilliant!… Read the rest