All entries by this author

The ministry of truth

Jul 17th, 2012 4:15 pm | By

Kausik Datta has an incisive post on Ayesha Nusrat’s op-ed in the New York Times about how liberating it is to submit to a religious obligation to wrap your head and neck in a large bandage.

Clearly, to Ms. Nusrat, the hijab is merely a few yards of cloth. For far too many women in far too many countries (for instance, the Middle East, North Africa, Far East and the Southeast of Asia, not to mention, Europe), the hijab is an obligatory article of indenturement that permits no choice, but is to be worn on pain of punishment and/or death; to them, it is a symbol of systematic oppression.

A symbol and the reality, which is why it’s so infuriating … Read the rest

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The hijab is not a symbol of freedom *

Jul 17th, 2012 | Filed by

For far too many women the hijab is an obligatory article of indenturement that permits no choice; to them, it is a symbol of systematic oppression.… Read the rest

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Afghanistan: are reported poisonings mass psychogenic illness? *

Jul 17th, 2012 | Filed by

“Patient Zero” turned out to be a girl suffering from epilepsy. She apparently experienced a seizure while fetching water from the school’s well, which triggered mass panic.… Read the rest

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Talking about rape jokes *

Jul 17th, 2012 | Filed by

The bro-code reaction speaks to uncomfortable fault lines around gender politics and unexamined power that comedians rarely like to acknowledge.… Read the rest

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Toronto street imam wants law to force women to “cover up” *

Jul 17th, 2012 | Filed by

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

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Proportions

Jul 16th, 2012 4:16 pm | By

Richard 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.)

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Acid in the face

Jul 16th, 2012 3:45 pm | By

Be 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

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In your face

Jul 16th, 2012 3:32 pm | By

You 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

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Dividing bridges

Jul 16th, 2012 2:12 pm | By

Kristjan 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

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A few yards of cloth

Jul 16th, 2012 11:15 am | By

A 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.

My 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

… Read the rest

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Stereotypes about women in science *

Jul 16th, 2012 | Filed by

Useful? Helpful? The way to get women into science? No.… Read the rest

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Wearing hijab is the most liberating experience ever *

Jul 16th, 2012 | Filed by

“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

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Pall of uncertainty over NGO’s work after Afridi murder *

Jul 16th, 2012 | Filed by

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

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Another wild attack on secularism *

Jul 16th, 2012 | Filed by

“The Freedom From Religion Foundation is, itself, a religion of self-exaltation and secularism, and a very aggressive one at that.”… Read the rest

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Hamlet

Jul 15th, 2012 3:21 pm | By

A 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

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What Pamela Gay said

Jul 15th, 2012 12:54 pm | By

Pamela 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.

Doing what he does isn’t easy. It’s a lot

… Read the rest

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Creationist footprints in the Giant’s Causeway visitor centre *

Jul 15th, 2012 | Filed by

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.

 

 … Read the rest

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Bishop on riots and “structural sin” *

Jul 15th, 2012 | Filed by

“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

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Bishops marked tardy

Jul 15th, 2012 9:41 am | By

A 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.

More than 4,000 cases of sexual abuse have been reported to the doctrinal office over the past decade, the office reported earlier this year.

… Read the rest

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Most bishops’ conferences miss deadline on abuse guidelines *

Jul 15th, 2012 | Filed by

But hey, if you drop out a whole large continent, almost half were on time.… Read the rest

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