One of my favorite talks at Empowering Women Through Secularism: Elida Radig.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPhbs_q4Kk8

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

Human Rights Watch has more on Wajeha al-Huwaider.

A Saudi court convicted two Saudi women’s rights activists on June 15, 2013, for inciting a woman against her husband. Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Oyouni were each sentenced to 10 months in prison and two-year travel bans.

Al-Huwaider, a member of the Human Rights Watch Middle East advisory committee, told Human Rights Watch that she believes authorities pursued this case to punish her for unrelated women’s rights activism over the last 10 years. Al-Huwaider and al-Oyouni said they intend to appeal their convictions.

“Saudi authorities are using the courts to send a message that they won’t tolerate any attempt to alleviate the dismal status of women’s rights in the kingdom,” said

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

As expected, there’s fighting in Cairo. The Islamists were never going to shrug and say ok, were they.

Tensions in Cairo escalated after Egyptian troops opened fire on crowds that had gathered outside the Republican Guard headquarters, where Mr Morsi is believed to be held.

Three people were killed and dozens more wounded, including the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen whose head was grazed by shotgun pellets.

Tens of thousands of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood – to whom Mr Morsi belongs – had massed outside Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque throughout the day.

By evening, the crowd had filled nearby streets and the Brotherhood’s supreme leader, Mohammed Badie, told the crowd: “We shall stay in the squares until we bring President Morsi

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

Marie-Thérèse took this photo of Maureen and PZ in conversation last Saturday in Dublin.

… Read the rest

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

Athlete has bad headaches, goes to “therapist” who decides that sticking a needle in her chest will fix her headaches. Lung collapses, athlete’s life is trashed. This is called “traditional Chinese medicine.”

The therapist accidentally pierced Ms. Ribble-Orr’s left lung during acupuncture treatment that was later deemed unnecessary and ill-advised, causing the organ to collapse and leaving it permanently damaged. An Ontario court has just upheld the one-year disciplinary suspension imposed on therapist Scott Spurrell, rejecting his appeal in a case that highlights a rare but well-documented side effect of acupuncture.

Mr. Spurrell, who learned the ancient Chinese art on weekends at a local university, had no reason to stick the needle in his patient’s chest, and had wrongly

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

Katha Pollitt reports on a horror story from Saudi Arabia.

After proceedings that stretched out over nearly a year and violated many legal  norms, Wajeha Al-Huwaider, the prominent Saudi Human rights activist and  co-organizer of protests against the ban on women drivers, has been sentenced to  ten months in prison, along with her colleague Fawzia Al-Oyouni. (I interviewed  Al-Huwaider here.) After they serve their terms, both will be banned from travel for two years.

What did they do? They tried to help a Canadian woman whose Saudi husband is holding her hostage.

They were accused of kidnapping and trying to help Nathalie Morin, a  Canadian woman married to a Saudi, flee the country in June 2011. Morin, who

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

Yesterday the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a couple for homicide – or, as NBC News put it, the conviction of a ”deeply religious Wisconsin couple who prayed over their dying daughter rather than seek medical help.” Not fanatically religious or irrationally religious or stupidly and dangerously religious but “deeply” religious. Let’s give them extra deference and admiration for the profundity of their unreasonable magical thinking even as we report that their “deep” religion caused them to let their daughter die of an easily treatable condition.

Kara Neumann, 11, of Weston, Wis., died March 23, 2008 — Easter Sunday — of complications of untreated juvenile onset diabetes.

According to the case records, Kara had been showing symptoms

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

Well great. Which is least worst, military rule or Islamist theocracy?

Couldn’t Egypt manage a third possibility?

Egypt’s military has moved against the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood a day after deposing President Mohammed Morsi.

Mr Morsi is in detention, as well as senior figures in the Islamist group of which he is a member. Hundreds more are being sought.

The top judge of Egypt’s constitutional court, Adly Mahmud Mansour, has been sworn in as interim leader.

Let’s hope they can figure it out soon.… Read the rest

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

So there’s this comedy writer Kurt Metzger, who’s on the staff at Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer. You know the next line already.

Lindy West and Sady Doyle, two outspoken critics of rape humor in comedy, are accusing Metzger of an online harassment campaign that started more than a month ago. Doyle is taking the evidence straight to Amy Schumer and Comedy Central.

Are they sure it’s harassment? Couldn’t it just be…you know…comedy?

Doyle and West both drew Metzger’s attention after they voiced their opinions on the ongoing debate about rape jokes within the comic community—a persistent issue since last year’s Daniel Tosh controversy.

The bloggers claim Metzger is targeting them and other feminists by making impersonator

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

Oh by the way did I mention that I’m back? I am, I’m back. It was a looooooooong trip. Jane and Michael picked me up at 11:15 yesterday (Tuesday) morning and I got home at 7:30 the next morning Dublin time. That’s 20 hours. Lordy.

I had a bit of good luck though, that made it a little shorter than it might have been. I looked on the board at JFK to find my gate and saw that there was an earlier flight in half an hour. Ooh, could I get them to put me on that one? Could I get there in time? It was a long shot, especially when I found I had to take a shuttle bus … Read the rest

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

Anne Ferris TD, Vice Chair of the Oireachtas Committee for Justice, Defence and Equality, has a scorching article on the Magdalene laundries. If you read it it will make you feel angry.

In 1955 Halliday Sutherland was doing research for a book on Ireland and managed to visit a Magdalene laundry in Galway.

The day before he visited the laundry in Galway, Dr Sutherland visited the Mother and Baby home in Tuam. He noted that the accepted practice was that unmarried mothers in the Tuam home ‘agreed’ to provide a year of unpaid domestic service to the nuns, and that in addition to this servitude, the home received State support, via Galway County Council, to the tune of £1

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

The Irish abortion bill passed, 138 to 24.

It’s very limited though. Don’t go getting any ideas about a general right to decide about your own life.

Mr Kenny issued a stern defence of the legislation in his own speech to the Dáil, saying it was not possible to remove the suicide clause. He also rejected demands for a time limit to be applied to when a termination can take place.

“To those who fear that this Bill is the first step towards a liberal abortion regime in Ireland, I say clearly that this extremely restrictive Bill is the only proposal that will be brought forward by this Government on this issue,” he said.

What about those who fear … Read the rest

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

The videos are flooding in now!

Rebecca Goldstein’s amazing talk at Women in Secularism 2 is one.

It starts with a bang.

I probably agonized over this talk more than any other talk in my entire career.

…

The source of my agony is this: do I, for the first time in my life, publicly address the gender issue. My MO has always been to try to behave as if my being a female doesn’t matter insofar as my professional life is concerned.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that? The trouble is, other people don’t try to behave as if our being female doesn’t matter as far as our work is concerned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rekIIHooss

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

Here’s my talk at the Atheist Ireland conference on Saturday. That was before I developed a cold and started coughing every 3 seconds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnpXTDxfF3o

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

Big Dublin-explore this morning.. Where did I go, you don’t ask. Let’s see…

Through the back gate to Trinity College to the far (west) side, to College Green and Dame Street and Lord Edward Street. (Funny the way the streets get a new name every few yards or meters). Along the north side of Christ Church cathedral, down the hill to the Liffey, along the south bank to the next bridge and across, along the north bank to the next bridge and cross back, up to St Audouen’s church, to the castle for a look at the courtyard, to the spectacular St George’s Street shopping arcade…

To a modern version of that near Stephen’s Green, like Joseph Paxton but with … Read the rest

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

The conference finished yesterday. In the meantime, during the night between Saturday and Sunday, the cold passed on to me by the two lavishly sneezing coughing guys who sat next to me on the plane made itself known; I felt crappy all of yesterday and coughed enough for ten people. Oddly, though, it’s much better today. (But thanks, guys on the plane. Thanks a lot. Thanks for never properly covering your coughs and sneezes during the ten hours of that flight. Thanks for never giving a thought to the people trapped an inch away from you for ten hours. You’re real pigs, both of you.)

[pause to cough]

For dessert last night we went to a comedy bar for a … Read the rest

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

I was on a panel this morning, so now that’s over. I thought it was terrific (leaving my part aside). Clare Daly TD is someone you want on your side and part of government! She’s a pistol.… Read the rest

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

I’m here.

Took a quick walk through Merrion Square, then Stephen’s Green. Two swans with eight cygnets in the latter.

Jane Donnelly picked up Maryam and me at the airport. Good times.… Read the rest

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

I’m at Schiphol. I survived! Mind you I expect to get very ill, because the guys on each side of me coughed and sneezed all over me for 10 hours.

I like the airbus though. There’s a nice little passage in the back where if things are quiet you can stand and exercise and stretch. I did that twice.… Read the rest

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

In this matriarchal culture where jokes about rape are simply forbidden…

Brave heroes each…and every one of you. [salutes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjWd9eJbIGI

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