Instead of standing up to growing conservatism among some Muslims, many liberals simply give in.… Read the rest
Azam Kamguian on a ‘Piece of Clothing’ 
Mar 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Do young girls really choose to wear the hijab? … Read the rest
News From CDWRME
Mar 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
New of women’s rights in Iran, Iraq, Syria, India, Pakistan, more.… Read the rest
A ‘God’ Gene?
Mar 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Define ‘spirituality’ so broadly that everyone has it, then call that god. Hmm.… Read the rest
Hedda Gabler Is
Mar 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Intelligent,ignorant, snobbish, mean, small-minded, conservative, cold, bored, vicious. … Read the rest
Interview With Marjorie Grene
Mar 7th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
On Polanyi and the relation of freedom and spontaneity to science. And more.… Read the rest
Scare-mongering
Mar 7th, 2005 | By Julian Baggini“More than 50 dangerous pesticides contaminate Britain’s food, official tests reveal. […] The revelation – in a survey of official testing results – will heighten concern about food contamination.”
Geoffrey Lean, the Independent on Sunday 27 February 2005
Geoffrey Lean, the environment editor of the Independent on Sunday, should not be a soft target for criticism. He has won numerous awards, including a special award for lifetime achievement in environmental journalism from the World Conservation Union, the Martha Gellhorn Prize, the Reuters-IUCN Media Award, and The British Press Award Scoop of the year. Yet finding faults in his report on the “more than 50 dangerous pesticides found in British food” is like shooting fish in a barrel. Big fish. In … Read the rest
Words Fail Me
Mar 7th, 2005 2:11 am | By Ophelia BensonWell. What a lovely story.
Ms Bibi was catapulted to world attention after a panchayat, or tribal council, at the remote Punjabi village of Meerwala in June 2002. Her 12-year-old brother was accused of having an affair with a woman from the higher-caste Mastoi tribe. In punishment, the elders ordered that Mukhtaran be raped. As several hundred people watched, four men dragged her screaming through a cotton field. Pushing her into a mud-walled house, they assaulted her for more than an hour.
Is that pretty or what. It has all the ingredients, doesn’t it. Nothing left out. A higher-caste tribe. The elders. Punishment of A for something B is accused of doing. Rape as punishment, rape as judicial (sort … Read the rest
Women’s Groups Angry at Court Decision
Mar 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Women often suffer “honour punishments” to pay for crimes attributed to relatives.’… Read the rest
Most Women Accept Their Fate
Mar 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
NGO statement: reason for increasing violence against women in Pakistan: men rarely punished. … Read the rest
Court Ruling Intensifies Rape Victim’s Fear
Mar 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Case got international attention because the rape was approved by village council.… Read the rest
Blow to Struggle for Women’s Rights in Pakistan
Mar 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Several hundred people watched as Mukhtaran Bibi was dragged off to be raped.… Read the rest
Case Shocks Rights Groups in Pakistan and Elsewhere
Mar 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Boy kidnapped, assaulted, accused of rape; his sister then raped.… Read the rest
Pakistan Plans to Appeal ‘Honour’ Rape Acquittals
Mar 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Rape of woman ordered by village elders to restore ‘honour’ of prominent clan.… Read the rest
Letters on Nagel Review of Hart Biography
Mar 6th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Simon Blackburn and Jeremy Waldron on Austin, Wittgenstein, and meaning.… Read the rest
Islam, Political Islam and Women in the Middle East
Mar 6th, 2005 | By Maryam NamazieThe situation of women living in Islam-stricken societies and under Islamic laws is the outrage of the 21st century. Burqa-clad and veiled women and girls, beheadings, stoning to death, floggings, child sexual abuse in the name of marriage and sexual apartheid are only the most brutal and visible aspects of women’s rightlessness and third class citizen status in the Middle East.
This is Nothing but Islam
Apologists for Islam state that the situation of women in Iran and in Islam-stricken countries is human folly; they say that Islamic rules and laws practised in the Middle East are not following the true precepts of Islam. They state that we must separate Islam from the practice of Islamic governments and movements. In … Read the rest
Don’t Forget the Face in the Tortilla
Mar 5th, 2005 11:38 pm | By Ophelia BensonRight, that does it – a post I’ve just read at Pharyngula has goaded me into doing the post I’ve been meaning to do for a couple of days.
It’s time for a look at credulity and superstition and general soft-headedness in the Mass Media and popular culture.
Here is the Pharyngula post. About a story on MSNBC (hey if it’s partly owned by Microsoft shouldn’t it be all full of rationalist geeky types who would throw heavy rocks at anyone who suggested such a story? No? Why not?) about a ‘legendary Roman stone’ that gets soggy when a pope is about to snuff it that is currently dry therefore the stone ‘says pope will live.’
My item is … Read the rest
Pluralism and Compromising Science
Mar 5th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Arguments that science education should respect cultural differences help creationists.… Read the rest
John Gray on Bryan Appleyard
Mar 5th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Are alien-spotters sophisticated cognitive scientists?… Read the rest
Words for Physicists Not to Use
Mar 5th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Obvious, simple, easy, and above all, trivial.… Read the rest
