All entries by this author

So that she will mend her ways

Aug 29th, 2012 11:46 am | By

Małgorzata has sent me another gem - a lecture on tv by an Egyptian cleric explaining why men have to beat up women.

Abd Al-Rahman Mansour: Islam instructs a man to beat his wife as a last resort before divorce, so that she will mend her ways, treat him with kindness and respect, and know that her husband has a higher status than her.

That’s usefully blunt. We know where we are. We’re among stupid unreflective people who have not managed to figure out that stronger does not equal better or higher, and that the mere fact that person X is able to beat up person Y does not mean that person X is better than person Y. It’s … Read the rest

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



Police the borders

Aug 29th, 2012 10:37 am | By

The Everyday Sexism Project keeps track of that very thing. If you follow it on Twitter you see a lot of items that people send in. One today was the children’s magazine rack at Tesco.

Picture by @sconesgoneRead the rest

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



Both parties have respect

Aug 29th, 2012 9:47 am | By

Fabulous. The Republicans are having New York’s archbishop Timothy Dolan saying a goodbye prayer at their convention, so now the Democrats are having him too, so that everyone will know that both parties suck up to the Catholic church because hey, votes.

The fact that Dolan will be speaking at both conventions, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, shows the measure of respect both parties have for “ou[r] new cardinal.”

Yes exactly, and why the hell should they do that?

Mind you, the rest of what Bloomberg said sounded a tad perfunctory, or even contemptuous.

“It’s very flattering, I think, to him,” Bloomberg said. “He’s a very good speaker, and I’m sure he’ll give a very nice invocation, blessing or whatever

Read the rest

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



Gujarat riots: BJP former minister convicted *

Aug 29th, 2012 | Filed by

Former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani of the BJP is among 32 people convicted in one of the worst incidents of mob violence, in Naroda Patiya.

 … Read the rest



Enabling them

Aug 28th, 2012 2:23 pm | By

Aron Ra said his piece in Amy’s series.

Remember that we’re not talking about religizombies either; we’re talking about plainly prejudiced people who consistently identify as, associate with, and participate in the freethinking community –both virtually and personally. Yes or no, are these the sort of people you want to have seen as representative of your position? Or typical of it? Or welcome in it? Because when you minimize the threat they impose, you are enabling them.

If you’re tired of hearing what’s-her-name complain about this all the time, why not solve the problem? Could it help to pretend that isn’t a problem? Or not enough of one to warrant your attention? Should you become part of the problem

Read the rest

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



Soraya Chemaly on ways women get burned *

Aug 28th, 2012 | Filed by

Literally.… Read the rest



Giles Fraser versus human rights

Aug 28th, 2012 12:32 pm | By

Giles Fraser strongly disapproves of the idea (and the judicial finding) that non-medical circumcision is what it is: genital cutting of an infant for religious reasons.

Generally, the logic behind these moves is that circumcision is an act of unnecessary violence against a child and that it is imposing a belief system against a child’s will. If an adult wants to be circumcised, so be it.

But child circumcision violates the rights of the child over his body. I recently defended circumcision in the Guardian and was inundated with letters telling me I was a child abuser, that male circumcision was like female genital mutilation. But mostly, the arguments against were all about choice.

That’s surprisingly clumsy – it would … Read the rest

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



Tighten it up

Aug 28th, 2012 7:43 am | By

Hooray, great strides for women in India.

An Indian company has launched what it claims is the country’s first vagina tightening cream, saying it will make women feel “like a virgin” again. The company says it is about empowering women…

Empowering women? By making them feel “like a virgin”? Because virgin women are so powerful? What, like the Delphic oracle? Tight virginal vagina=telephone line to the gods?

This video is designed to market a vaginal “rejuvenation and tightening” product, which was launched this month in India.

The makers of 18 Again, the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Ultratech, say it is the first of its kind in India (similar creams are already available in other parts of the world such as

Read the rest

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



Everyday sexism: it’s not a rarity *

Aug 28th, 2012 | Filed by

The message sent by the normalised, prevalent street harassment in our society is
that women are there for men to treat as they wish.… Read the rest



Giles Fraser says circumcision is a precondition of freedom *

Aug 28th, 2012 | Filed by

Parents must be free to snip infant penises for religious reasons because “to be inducted into a community of values is a precondition” of freedom.… Read the rest



Company launches India’s first “vagina tightening cream” *

Aug 28th, 2012 | Filed by

Company claims it empowers women. Wut?… Read the rest



I do a guest post

Aug 27th, 2012 5:05 pm | By

Taslima invited me to write a post on why I’m a feminist, so now I get to have the honor of a post on Taslima’s blog. Woot!… Read the rest

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



Carol Blue on Hitchens, an impossible act to follow *

Aug 27th, 2012 | Filed by

We stood around his bed and reclined on plastic upholstered chairs as he made us into participants in his Socratic discourses.… Read the rest



Is this a fork in the road or just an added lane?

Aug 27th, 2012 2:54 pm | By

Ron Lindsay has some observations on atheism plus. Good stuff.

One question he asks in conclusion -

CFI has long been active in supporting LGBT equality, in supporting reproductive rights, in supporting equality for women, in opposing suppression of women and minorities, not just in the US but in other countries, in supporting public schools, in advocating for patient’s rights, including the right to assistance in dying, in fighting restrictions on the teaching of evolution, in opposing religious interference with health care policy, in promoting the use of science in shaping public policy, in safeguarding our rights to free speech, and in protecting the rights of the nonreligious. We focus on these issues because: 1. they are the issues

Read the rest

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



No joy

Aug 27th, 2012 11:32 am | By

Life should be dull and empty and joyless, because god. No music, no dance, no play, no laughter, no frivolity, no flirting, no getting jiggy. No faces, no conversation, no friendship, no mingling, no color. No joy – because that’s the devil’s work.

AFP reports:

Taliban insurgents beheaded 17 civilians, including two women, who were holding a party with music in a southern Afghanistan village, officials said Monday.

Party. Music. Women. Mingling. Too much fun. No fun for you! No fun, no pleasure, no heads.

“I can confirm that this is the work of the Taliban,” the Helmand provincial governor’s spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP, referring to Islamists notorious during their rule for public executions and the suppression of

Read the rest

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



She wept and begged to be released

Aug 27th, 2012 10:34 am | By

Spare a thought for that little girl in Pakistan who is in jail for “blasphemy” because she (supposedly, allegedly, some asshole saidly) had some pages of the Koran in a bag of trash, or put some pages of the Koran in a fire along with other trash, or some such stupid meaningless unreasonable bit of nonsense. Spare a thought for her, because she wants to get out. She would probably prefer to be at home, with people who love her and take care of her.

According to the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Islamabad, Rimsha’s lawyer said that when he saw her in jail over the weekend she wept and begged to be released.

Her parents have been taken into

Read the rest

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



Ron Lindsay on Atheism+ *

Aug 27th, 2012 | Filed by

Social justice is great. After all, who’s against social justice? It’s when one starts to fill in the details that disagreements arise.… Read the rest



Pakistan: doctors examine girl in “blasphemy” case *

Aug 27th, 2012 | Filed by

Rimsha’s lawyer said that when he saw her in jail over the weekend she wept and
begged to be released.… Read the rest



Afghanistan: Taliban behead 17 at party *

Aug 27th, 2012 | Filed by

“I can confirm that this is the work of the Taliban,” the Helmand provincial governor’s spokesman told AFP.… Read the rest



She was scolded and told she was next

Aug 26th, 2012 5:55 pm | By

No freedom for you. No work for you. No acting career for you. No safety for you. No right to decide how to live your life for you. Only death threats for you, if you have the nerve to be an actress in Afghanistan.

Afghan female artist and actress Sahar Parniyan has shifted her home from western Kabul city to an unknown location after she received death threats from unknown individuals.

Sahar Parniyan used to perform in Afghan drama serials and TV shows with Benafsha who was murdered by unknown men during the Eid days in capital Kabul.

She says she has been threatened by unknown individuals not to appear in TV channels before her colleague Benafsha was assassinated.

Read the rest

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