Convert to Islam says rapes “are continuously happening because of Canadian laws, which give too much freedom to women” in how they dress.… Read the rest
Proportions
Jul 16th, 2012 4:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonRichard Dawkins asked a very interesting question on Twitter a couple of days ago (so I’m sure he wants our input).
Writing my autobiography and struggling to find the right balance. How much personal stuff to put in, how much purely intellectual memoir?
I say more of the latter than the former. 70/30, maybe.
Intellectual is personal to people who care about intellectual matters, so making it mostly intellectual needn’t mean it’s dry or Spockian. Mill’s autobiography is fascinating. So is Gibbon’s. And then, the point of RD is the intellectual stuff, so it makes sense not to skimp on it.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Acid in the face
Jul 16th, 2012 3:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonBe sure you don’t miss Taslima’s post on acid attacks on women – unless you can’t stand it: warning: it is horrific; the pictures are horrific.
It’s terrible to look at the pictures and realize people must know this is what acid does, and that’s why they do it.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
In your face
Jul 16th, 2012 3:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonYou know that T shirt that Harriet Hall wore?
This is the back view
She wore it three days in a row, at least. My source didn’t see her on the fourth, but it seems likely she wore it then too.
I don’t understand this. I don’t understand people.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Dividing bridges
Jul 16th, 2012 2:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonKristjan Wager has a good post on the Deep Rifts. He’d rather have the rifts than no rifts at the price of entrenched sexism.
So, to sum it up, there are deep rifts in the movement, and I think it is fine. Not only that, I feel more comfortable being in a smaller community within the movement, which doesn’t include people whose opinions and behavior I find repugnant. I can still appreciate the good work done by those people (like I did with e.g. Hitchens) without wanting to be part of the same community.
Fewer but better Russians. (I kid, I kid.)
Massimo Pigliucci also has a good post, although he does do the “both sides” thing, which … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A few yards of cloth
Jul 16th, 2012 11:15 am | By Ophelia BensonA young woman finds an exciting new path to liberation. She takes to wearing the hijab.
…before you race to label me the poster girl for oppressed womanhood everywhere, let me tell you as a woman (with a master’s degree in human rights, and a graduate degree in psychology) why I see this as the most liberating experience ever.
We know. You’re taking control, you’re being seen for who you really are instead of as a female human being with hair and a neck.
… Read the restMy experience working as a Faiths Act Fellow for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and dealing with interfaith action for social action brought me more understanding and appreciation of various faiths. I found that engaging
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Stereotypes about women in science 
Jul 16th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Useful? Helpful? The way to get women into science? No.… Read the rest
Wearing hijab is the most liberating experience ever
Jul 16th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“My experience working as a Faiths Act Fellow for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and dealing with interfaith action brought me more appreciation of various faiths.”… Read the rest
Pall of uncertainty over NGO’s work after Afridi murder
Jul 16th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The murder of rights activist Farida Afridi in Khyber Agency has driven the already dwindling number of female social workers towards more uncertainty.… Read the rest
Another wild attack on secularism
Jul 16th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“The Freedom From Religion Foundation is, itself, a religion of self-exaltation and secularism, and a very aggressive one at that.”… Read the rest
Hamlet
Jul 15th, 2012 3:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonA longish time ago we talked about the idea of doing book discussion threads, or was it Shakespeare threads. One of those. Inspired by Pamela Gay’s urgings to make the world better and do something, let’s get to it.
Let’s start at the top, with Hamlet.
We’ll talk until no one has anything left to say.
I’ll start.
Biggest thing: it’s not [just, or primarily] about A Guy Who Can’t Make Up His Mind. That’s become the boring soundbite about it, and it is very damn boring. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about a million things, and that one is more incidental than most of them.
It’s about everything. I think I mentioned when we were talking about Shakespeare … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
What Pamela Gay said
Jul 15th, 2012 12:54 pm | By Ophelia BensonPamela Gay has posted the text of her instantly-famous TAM talk – and oh man is it a stemwinder.
She starts with the bullied school bus monitor, and the people who changed her life in response. She moves on to the 5th grader forbidden to give his winning speech on same-sex marriage, and the internet outcry that made the principal feel compelled to let the student give his speech after all.
She moves on to people getting together to do good things, like “the Virtual Star Parties that my dear friend Fraser Cain hosts and that I and many others participate in.” She talks about hope and despair, dreamers and trolls.
… Read the restDoing what he does isn’t easy. It’s a lot
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Creationist footprints in the Giant’s Causeway visitor centre
Jul 15th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Young Earth creationism is dispiriting. It’s not just that it’s wrong, but that it needs such a mountain of futile effort to maintain even the shadow of plausibility.
Bishop on riots and “structural sin”
Jul 15th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“Christian beliefs about sin prevent them from dividing the world between good and evil in ways which ignore the complexity of moral contexts.” lolwut… Read the rest
Bishops marked tardy
Jul 15th, 2012 9:41 am | By Ophelia BensonA dog ate the bishops’ homework.
Most of the bishops’ conferences around the world have missed a Vatican deadline on drawing up anti-abuse guidelines, it emerged yesterday.
But Mgr Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s top investigator of clerical sex abuse, said that without counting Africa “more than half of the conferences responded” to the May deadline.
Or even better, you just decide not to count any of the late ones, and that way you can say all the conferences responded to the deadline. Dropping all of Africa just to get to more than half seems inefficient.
… Read the restMore than 4,000 cases of sexual abuse have been reported to the doctrinal office over the past decade, the office reported earlier this year.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Most bishops’ conferences miss deadline on abuse guidelines
Jul 15th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But hey, if you drop out a whole large continent, almost half were on time.… Read the rest
Movies: girls can be brave, but women get punished
Jul 15th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The only time self-actualized young women can earn more applause than anxiety is when they occupy a truly alternate universe.… Read the rest
Higgs boson physicist shunned in Pakistan
Jul 14th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The name of Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate is removed from textbooks because he was an Ahmadi.… Read the rest
China censors Michelangelo
Jul 14th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They pixelated Apollo’s pee-pee.… Read the rest
Imam sexually assaulted two children
Jul 14th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
An Imam from Wellingborough has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two children while he was employed to teach them about the Koran.… Read the rest
