“Eve teasing”

Jan 12th, 2012 11:54 am | By

What? What’s that?

It’s a fun game in India and Bangladesh: stalking and/or taunting women. It has a funny jokey haha name, so obviously it’s totes harmless, even though some women kill themselves to get away from it (silly bitches) and some people get murdered trying to stop it.

Young women often face verbal abuse and taunts in Bangladesh, and sometimes stalked by colleagues at school or other young men.

Some young women, unable to bear the repeated insults, have even gone so far as to commit suicide.

The High Court last week asked the government to take measures to stop sexual harassment and stalking of women after a number of suicides and killings related to the issue

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



You call that “Light”?

Jan 12th, 2012 11:38 am | By

Just what Egypt needs – a mutawiyin like the one the lucky people in Saudi Arabia have.

The radical Islamist Nour party, or “Party of the Light,” has captured more than a quarter of votes in the post-Mubarak Egyptian elections. Nour, which ran second to the Muslim Brotherhood in the polling, is a Wahhabi party, reproducing the ideology of the rulers of Saudi Arabia, under the label of “Salafism.” Its rhetoric presents “Salafism” as pure Islam unchanged by 14 centuries of Muslim history in differing lands and cultures worldwide. Nour is hostile to non-Wahhabi Muslims, repressive of women’s rights, and discriminatory against non-Muslims.

The Saudi mutawiyin or “morals patrols” – sometimes miscalled a “religious police” – coordinated by the

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Egypt: Nour party demands “morals patrols” *

Jan 12th, 2012 | Filed by

The Egyptian supporters of Wahhabism have wasted no time in demanding the importation of retrograde Saudi customs into Egypt.… Read the rest



Stop Ukpabio from Bringing her Witch hunting campaign to the US

Jan 12th, 2012 | By Leo Igwe

In March, Nigeria’s notorious witch hunter, Helen Ukpabio, is organising a Deliverance Session in the United States, according to the information posted on the web site of the Liberty Gospel Church. The event is slated for March 14-25 at Liberty Gospel Church in Houston Texas (Tel +1 832 880 8406 +1 713 530 2080). The program is said to be ’12 days of battling with the spirit for freedom.’

The poster lists the categories of people invited to ‘come and recieve freedom from the Lord’. It asks ‘Are you in bondage – Having Bad dreams – Under witchcraft attack or oppression – possessed by mermaid spirit or other evil spirits – Untimely deaths in family – Barren and in … Read the rest



In town next week

Jan 11th, 2012 5:38 pm | By

Of local interest – I’m told that the historian Olivier Zunz has written a very good book on philanthropy. He’ll be at Town Hall January 16 at 7:30.… Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Damn you LEGO

Jan 11th, 2012 5:25 pm | By

Yet another petition. But it’s a good one. I couldn’t resist (typical woman, eh).

After 4 years of marketing research, LEGO has come to the conclusion that girls want LadyFigs, a pink Barbielicious product line for girls, so 5 year-olds can imagine themselves at the café, lounging at the pool with drinks, brushing their hair in front of a vanity mirror, singing in a club, or shopping with their girlfriends. As LEGO CEO Jorgan Vig Knudstorp puts it, “We want to reach the other 50% of the world’s population.”

That makes my head want to explode, so I signed.

As representatives of that 50%, we aren’t buying it! Marketers, ad execs, Hollywood and just about everyone else

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Jessica Ahlquist wins the case

Jan 11th, 2012 5:16 pm | By

The judge said yes that’s a religious prayer. A Daniel come to judgement. Also a guy who can read with his eyes open.

Why yes, that does seem quite religious, doesn’t it. Also patriarchal.

The prayer banner that hangs at Cranston West High School must be removed immediately said U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lagueux in his decision issued Wednesday.

According to the Justice’s decision “The purpose of the prayer banner was clearly religious in nature,” and that “No amount of debate can make the school Prayer anything other than a prayer, and a Christian one at that.”

Jessica Ahlquist, a Cranston West student brought suit against the city over the banner saying it made her feel excluded and ostracized

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Jessica Ahlquist wins her case *

Jan 11th, 2012 | Filed by

Judge finds school prayer to “our heavenly father” is in fact religious. Stone the crows.… Read the rest



Beliefs are mutable (with qualifications)

Jan 11th, 2012 4:52 pm | By

Josh Rosenau keeps bombarding me with Tweets demanding I explain my views on identity (on Twitter ffs!) and sniping on his blog, so I’ll explain what he professes to find so perverse. I think there is a difference between aspects of identity that are not optional and those that are.

Wo, super twisted and weird, huh? Nobody ever had a thought like that before.

That’s what I had in mind when I said (slightly abridged)

What if there are people whose New Age or “alternative” beliefs feel like commitments and part of their identity?

Well there are such people, and there are also their cousins who are that way about their religious beliefs…

That’s a kind of category mistake,

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Remove that offensive image at once please

Jan 11th, 2012 12:10 pm | By

And while we’re at it…we might as well be at it, don’t you think?

Silencing.

The purposes of debate.

Have I removed it enough yet?… Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Jesus and Mo and the barmaid resolve to say nothing offensive

Jan 11th, 2012 11:21 am | By

Jesus and Mo today.

If you haven’t already, sign the petish.… Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Jesus, Mo and barmaid resolve to say nothing offensive *

Jan 11th, 2012 | Filed by

A quiet evening at the pub. Very quiet.… Read the rest



Alex Gabriel provides background on J and M fuss *

Jan 11th, 2012 | Filed by

Includes the full correspondence between the president of UCL’s atheist society and the one Muslim student who complained to them.… Read the rest



The Freethinker on UCL and Jesus and Mo *

Jan 11th, 2012 | Filed by

The petition is attracting signatures from around the world, including those of Richard Dawkins and Maryam Namazie.

Read the rest



Misogyny? What misogyny?

Jan 11th, 2012 8:57 am | By

Reading Greta’s most recent post about…about friends and allies and misogyny and how to deal with it and talk about it. You know: what we’ve been talking about for months and months and months now. One thing that happened in the comments is that Justicar showed up to discuss the issues in a calm, reasoned, civil way…deceptively calm, reasoned, and civil. He’s not like that everywhere. He’s not like that at ERV and he’s not like it on his own blog.

Aerik pointed out one example that I don’t think I’d seen before (although who knows, maybe I did, I saw a lot last summer and no doubt I’ve forgotten most of it by now).

On top of attacking Watson

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



That’s what she said

Jan 10th, 2012 12:36 pm | By

Josh Rosenau has tweeted and done a post about how stupid I am to think beliefs aren’t a matter of identity*. Well that would be somewhat stupid if I had just stated it like that, but I didn’t. As is typical of Rosenau, he ignored all the qualifying language that would have made it clear that I wasn’t just stating it like that, and quoted 15 words as if they were all I had said.

Rosenau’s version:

beliefs aren’t actually a matter of identity and shouldn’t be treated as if they were.

With his commentary:

This claim seems so obviously false that I can’t really imagine how she could have written it.

The version I actually wrote:

What if there

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



What are Ron Paul’s liberal fans thinking? *

Jan 10th, 2012 | Filed by

In a Paul administration, we wouldn’t see an end only to wars like the one in Iraq. It would mean an end to any humanitarian intervention at all.… Read the rest



Ajita Kamal

Jan 10th, 2012 10:25 am | By

This is a bad day. Ajita Kamal has died – in “an incident” in Tamil Nadu, which sounds as if he was killed, which seems different from just dying. Anyway he’s gone, which just sucks.

He founded Nirmukta. He was an inspiration to a lot of people.… Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Defend freedom of expression at UCL *

Jan 10th, 2012 | Filed by

We the undersigned urge the University College London Union to immediately halt their attempts to censor the UCLU Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society.… Read the rest



Not where Egyptian feminists hoped women would be *

Jan 10th, 2012 | Filed by

Emboldened by the revolution to claim a new voice in public life, many are finding that they are still dependent on the protection of men.

Read the rest