Muslim journalists and bloggers promoting civil society and women’s rights in Islamic societies. … Read the rest
Germaine Greer on Frankenstein
Apr 11th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘It’s a masterpiece, so PBS wrote it.’ It’s not a masterpiece, it’s not even very good.… Read the rest
Beatrix Potter, Botanist
Apr 11th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe first person in Britain to speculate in a scientific paper that lichens are symbiotic life forms.… Read the rest
Quantum quantumness
Apr 10th, 2007 2:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonYou did have a look at the work of Carolyn Guertin when I posted the link in News, right? Do rush to have a read if you haven’t – it’s – what shall I say – it’s quantum. That’s what it is, it’s quantum.
… Read the restQuantum feminist works make no attempt to reconcile this dislocation between networked nodes and their gaps in space-time. Instead, they foreground and use this aspect, highlighting the disjunctures of the subject’s position as she is depicted and as she voyages through the text…In her essay “The Roots of Nonlinearity,” hypertextualist Christie Sheffield Sanford says that modern physics has erased the concept of absolutes in time and space and that this is evident in the texts of
Quantum Feminist Mnemotechnics
Apr 10th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDavid Thompson on the intersection of feminism, web browsing and space-time curvature.… Read the rest
Paradoxes of Single-sex Education
Apr 10th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGirls do better with single-sex education, boys do worse.… Read the rest
Serbian Death Squad Sentenced
Apr 10th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFirst trial in Serbia to deal with massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys around Srebrenica. … Read the rest
Assam’s Missing Women
Apr 10th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWomen in displaced peoples camps are offered jobs then never seen again.… Read the rest
Libby Purves on Raving Bishops
Apr 10th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDo they think that larding a religious gloss onto cruel, illegal, manipulative behaviour makes it all right?… Read the rest
Bishop on Moral and Spiritual Traditions
Apr 10th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIran’s got them, UK ain’t. Sad.… Read the rest
Bishop Distributes Condoms Despite Vatican
Apr 10th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe papal nuncio soon informed him that his views were unacceptable and in conflict with church teaching.… Read the rest
What is respect
Apr 9th, 2007 3:41 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe got in a discussion in comments on Just the questions, ma’am about whether it is reasonable to demand respect, which entailed a discussion of what respect is and what people mean by it. I agreed that it’s reasonable enough to demand a minimal version of respect, but I pointed out 1) that people often mean something very maximal by the word and 2) that that fact is often disguised because the minimal version is available. So I was pleased, while re-reading Simon Backburn’s ‘Religion and Respect’ to see this:
… Read the rest‘Respect’, of course is a tricky term. I may respect your gardening by just letting you get on with it. Or, I may respect it by admiring it and regarding
Our movement is peaceful. We’re not, but our movement is.
Apr 9th, 2007 3:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonHere’s a good juxtaposition which Allen Esterson pointed out to me:
“Our movement is peaceful,” he said. “The government too should stay calm. We’ve warned the government that if it ever tried to suppress us by force, thousands of students of madrassas will retaliate with suicide attacks.”
Peaceful indeed. Quaker-like. Peaceful as a pond on a windless afternoon in August.… Read the rest
Say what?
Apr 9th, 2007 2:59 pm | By Ophelia Benson… Read the restParents of some of the girls studying at a controversial religious school in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, have voiced concern for their safety. Their fears rose after an ultimatum from madrassa leaders that Sharia law be enforced in the country. The school and adjoining mosque are accused of promoting intolerance and taking the law into their own hands. On Sunday, the chief cleric issued a fatwa against a female minister who had been pictured hugging a man. The madrassa has frequently been in the news in recent months. In February, armed students prevented the authorities from demolishing an illegally constructed mosque, and occupied a nearby children’s library. Last month they abducted a woman they accused of running
Clerics at Red Mosque Demand and Threaten
Apr 9th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFatwa declares that Muslim women must stay at home and must not go out ‘uncovered.’ … Read the rest
UN HRC and ‘Defamation’ of Religion
Apr 9th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow about death threats against Taslima Nasreen then? But answer came there none.… Read the rest
Lal Masjid Issues ‘Decree’ Against Minister
Apr 9th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Who has authorised management of Lal Masjid to set up Qazi courts and issue edicts?’… Read the rest
Parents of Madrassa Students are Worried
Apr 9th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonParents worried by recent events, but do not want to harm daughters’ education. What education?… Read the rest
Study Says Child Abuse is Common in India
Apr 9th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAbuse of children is rarely admitted in India and activists have welcomed the study. … Read the rest
Gordon Wood on Inventing Human Rights
Apr 9th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe forget how contemptible or nonexistent other people were in the eyes of many throughout history.… Read the rest