Mots d’ordre are made not to induce thinking and debating but to produce agreement.… Read the rest
Philosophy Companion and Future Reviewed
Jun 5th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEconomist calls Nietzsche and Freud
‘unfashionable.’… Read the rest
Women Driving Leads to Evil
Jun 5th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey could leave home whenever they like and go wherever they want to. … Read the rest
The Uses of Divisive Partisanship
Jun 5th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt is not a virtue to escape thorny questions and postpone larger ones. … Read the rest
Gary Taylor on James Shapiro’s Shakespeare
Jun 5th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Shapiro connects areas of scholarship usually kept separate.’… Read the rest
Have Mercy
Jun 5th, 2005 2:45 am | By Ophelia BensonHumans, humans, humans. One despairs sometimes, one really does. How can one help it.
… Read the restPolice and child protection experts are to investigate the extent of child abuse linked to religious practices after three adults who branded an eight-year-old child a witch and tortured her for months were yesterday convicted of child cruelty offences. The girl, known only as child B, was an orphan from war-ravaged Angola and brought to Britain by her aunt who falsely claimed to be her mother. She was cut with a knife on her chest, had chilli peppers rubbed in her eyes, was starved and repeatedly slapped, kicked and beaten…In one incident child B was bundled into a laundry bag and made to believe she
Ordeal Lasted Months and was Nearly Fatal
Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBeaten with a stiletto shoe, cut with a kitchen knife, starved for days at a time. … Read the rest
Police to Investigate ‘Witchcraft’ Child Abuse
Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChild welfare groups warn there may be dozens of such cases. … Read the rest
‘In our community, kindoki happens’
Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Kindoki is something you have to be scared of because in our culture kindoki can kill you’… Read the rest
‘Exorcisms are part of our culture’
Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMembers of communities which practice exorcism say it is not necessarily harmful. … Read the rest
‘Witchcraft’ Abuse Case May be One of Many
Jun 4th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFour London charities told BBC News this was not an isolated case. … Read the rest
Contorting to balance
Jun 4th, 2005 | By Julian Baggini“Evan Harris, Lib Dem MP and Honorary Associate of National Secular Society and Dr Jasdev Rai, Director of the Sikh Human Rights Group, discuss whether the play ‘Behzti’ in Birmingham should continue.”
The Today Programme, BBC Radio Four, 20th December 2004
I quite often get contacted by researchers for radio or television programmes as a potential contributor to some kind of topical debate. It’s common for nothing to come of the initial discussion, but on more than one occasion the reason for my unsuitability has left me concerned. As one researcher explicitly said, and others have implied, I am not extreme enough in my views.
This woke me up to the fact that all too often, “balance” in a … Read the rest
A Woman’s Life
Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDeprived of five years of school, fired for man’s comment, shot in head.… Read the rest
UNESCO Head Condemns Rezayee Murder
Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMurder cannot be considered an instrument for cultural policy.… Read the rest
Reporters Without Borders Voice Shock
Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRezayee murder shows press freedom still threatened in Afghanistan.… Read the rest
Rezayee Got Flak From Conservative Mullahs
Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTwo of her brothers being questioned in police detention about her murder.… Read the rest
Murder of Afghan TV Presenter Shaima Rezayee
Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTwo months after complaints from religious hardliners got her fired.… Read the rest
Shaima Rezayee or Shabina Begum
Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCultural imperialism analysis forbids people to change.… Read the rest
Meanwhile, in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen
Jun 3rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFiction about Schrödinger: physics unconvincing as narrative.… Read the rest
Things Are Against Us
Jun 2nd, 2005 8:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonOh dear – that’s one of the best laughs I’ve had in – well, a few hours, anyway. It was the surprise, partly. You know how a surprise can yank a loud sudden blurt of laughter out of you without your consciously intending it. It was that kind.
What, what, you eagerly cry, tell us so that we can laugh too. It was just a letter on the Letters page about my silly parodic wall article, which said ‘This is one of the silliest things I have ever read.’ Well good! That was the idea, so I’m delighted he thinks so! Mind you, he seems to have missed the fact that the silliness was intentional, but that’s all right – … Read the rest