Author: Ophelia Benson

  • Critics Accuse Mixa of Rewriting History

    Freethinker associations were disbanded by the Nazis and avowed atheists were persecuted.

  • Fuss Over ‘Faith’ Schools

    Heritage, faith groups, core part, identities, limit expression, community cohesion, quack quack.

  • Saudi Arabia Plans to ‘Regulate’ Child Brides

    Marriage of man age 60 to girl age 8 caused a fuss. Saudi practices ‘austere’ form of Islam.

  • Megachurch Sics Cops on Critical Blogger

    A blogger critical of a minister wants to know why his Web site was investigated by a police detective.

  • Welcome to austerity

    Saudi Arabia has seen the error of its ways. Or perhaps not.

    Saudi Arabia says it plans to start regulating the marriage of young girls, amid controversy over a union between a 60-year-old man and a girl of eight. A court in Unaiza upheld the marriage on condition the groom does not have sex with her until she reaches puberty.

    Oh good; because the only problem with marrying a child of 8 to a man of 60 is of course that she won’t much want him to fuck her, yet. There is no other problem. No problem with ending her schooling, no problem with her having to live with (and under the rule of) a man more than seven times older than she is, a man old enough to be her great-great-grandfather, a man she didn’t know and didn’t ask to marry, a man with whom she can be assumed to have absolutely nothing in common. No problem with consigning her to what amounts to a long prison sentence when she is too young to have committed a crime by any sane legal definition. No problem with deciding her life before she is anywhere near old enough to think about it herself. No problem with turning her into a wife when she is all of two years older than Sasha Obama and should be playing with a puppy rather than obeying some horrible old bastard who thinks himself entitled to marry a child.

    Saudi Arabia implements an austere form of Sunni Islam that bans free association between the sexes and gives fathers the right to wed their children to whomever they deem fit.

    That’s a stupid word for it – ‘austere.’ Typical BBC mealy-mouthing. What’s austere got to do with it? Where does austerity come in? It’s not austere, it’s harsh and punitive and degrading and cruel. What is ‘austere’ about making a small child marry an adult seven times her age? What is the luxury or hedonism or voluptuousness that that is the antidote to? The wallowing sybaritic indulgence of going on being a child, and going to school, and not being married to some old goat? Is that it? If so, what about the old goat then? Is he being ‘austere’ by marrying a child too young to cross the street by herself? That doesn’t sound like austerity to me. Greedy, ruthless, piggish, hard as nails, yes; austere, no.

  • The International Conference on Secularism

    On 7th March 2009 an international conference organised by Organisation for Women’s Liberation (OWL) was held successfully in Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference heard speeches from many invited speakers and ended with the showing of the film “Maria’s Grotto” about honour killings in Palestine. Many organisations supported and sponsored the event, including: European Feminist Initiative, Network against Honour Crimes, Women for Peace in Sweden, Centre for Research which is a secular and academic institution.

    More than 20 speakers were invited to the conference. Many activists from Ghana, Uganda, Pakistan and Bangladesh had shown interest to attend the conference but could not get entry visa. Also 3 of the speakers from Iraq, Jordan and Syria could not come due to visa difficulties.

    The speakers who attended the conference were: Layla Al Ali, a secularist activist of women’s rights in Lebanon who lives in Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon; Hugo Esterla from Argentine living in Italy; Imma Barbarossa from Italy; Soad Baba Aissa from Algeria living in France; Malene Busk from Denmark; Susana Tampieri from Argentine; Frances Raday from Israel; Boriana Jonsson from Bulgaria living in Sweden; Lia Nadaraia from Georgia; Maria Hagberg from Sweden; Karim Noori from Iran living in Sweden; Lilian Halls-French from France; and Azar Majedi the Chair person of OWL. Buthina Canaan Khoury, a Palestinian film maker showed her film at the end of the conference. Buthina talked about her film and the audience shared their views with her.

    The conference started by the opening speech of Azar Majedi. She focused on the necessity of an international secularist movement in defense of women’s rights. The conference was divided into 4 paneled sessions during which the speakers delivered their talks followed by questions from the audience and discussions. Imma Barbarossa and Susana Tampieri talked about the Catholic Church in Italy and Argentina and the devastating situation of women under the control of the church. Lia Nadaraia talked about the role of Orthodox Church in Georgia and the situation of women after the collapse of the Soviet Union. She explained how the collapse of the former Soviet Union and building of democracy gave some hope to women only to find out later that their situation has worsened. She noted that Orthodox Church has massive powers which make the necessity of secularism even more desirable.

    Layla Al Ali talked about the situation of women in Palestine and the degree of insecurity and violence imposed on them. Maria Hagberg showed a slide show about violence against women and honour crimes. Hugo Estrella talked about multiculturalism, cultural relativism and the regress of the international community on the issue in past decades. Karim Noori talked about the corruptive role of religion on children’s rights and the necessity of banning faith schools. His speech led to a lively debate in the hall. Soad Baba Aissa talked about individual rights and women’s rights. Azar Majedi talked about the obstacles and challenges facing secularism. She focused on the fact that unlike the general belief that considers religion as a moral and spiritual phenomenon, religion is a political institution. She mentioned the role of mass media and engineering of public opinion especially in the Middle East as obstacles for secularism.

    Frances Raday talked about monolithic religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity and their common aspects in suppressing women. Boriana Jonsson delivered her speech on the issue of militarism and its close relation to religion and suppression of women. She explained how during war, women’s suppression is used as a weapon against the enemy and how women are tortured and raped. Malene Busk’s speech was titled “Women’s Rights and why God should not have a role in them”. Lilian Halls-French talked about building a bridge between Feminists and Secularists. She emphasized the fact that secularism is a universal phenomenon and hence the best obstacle against fundamentalism and the apparatus of religion.

    Resolutions:

    After the speeches and discussions, Azar Majedi read out the resolutions submitted to the conference.

    OWL had 3 resolutions:

    • Condemning Islamic Republic of Iran for suppression of women;
    • Condemning Gender Apartheid in Iran;
    • The necessity of building an international secularist movement for women’s liberation.

    Resolution submitted by Susana Tampieri and Hugo Esterla:

    Condemning the Catholic Church; and recognition of the right to retract one’s baptism and leaving the church.

    Resolution submitted by Frances Raday:

    Criticizing all religions.

    It was decided to make some alterations in the resolutions before publication.

    Maria Hagberg, the coordinator of the Network against Honour related Crimes, Lilian Halls-French the chairperson of European Feminist Initiative and Azar Majedi the chair of OWL delivered their closing speeches. They all emphasized on the necessity of struggle for women’s equality, secularism and building of an international secularist movement. A music video given to the conference by Soad Baba Aissa was played at the end of the conference. The music video was a performance by a few Algerian women singers about women’s rights. The video is dedicated to women’s movement. The music video invoked warm applauds from the audience. Soad then talked about the gains of women’s movement in Algeria in changing the laws in that country which was warmly received by the conference.

    The conference ended by showing the film Maria’s Grotto made by Buthina Canaan Khoury. This film is beautifully made and is extremely moving. It depicts honour killing and the role of religion and the ruling ideology in maintaining the horrendous statuesque. Heated discussion followed the showing.

    The conference thanked Shahla Noori who had a major role in organizing it. OWL book stall was visited through out the conference. Azar Majedi’s book on women’s rights in opposition to political Islam was displayed and sold. Maria Hagberg’s book It starts to rot at 20, about honour killing, was also on sale.

    The conference was widely advertized internationally. Its announcement was published in various secular and women’s rights websites. The organizers and some of the speakers were interviewed by different radio and TV stations before, during and after the conference: Swedish National Radio Farsi section interviewed Azar Majedi and Esmail Owji, Radio Sepehr and For a Better World, Radio LoRa a Swiss radio and Hambastegi TV in Pars TV interviewed Azar Majedi, For a Better World TV interviewed Shahla Noori and Azar Majedi and Danish Radio 1 talked with Malene Busk. A public local TV recorded the whole programme and a French film maker, also recorded the whole conference and interviewed some of the speakers for a documentary on the conference. Maria Hagberg and Azar Majedi wrote an article about the conference for Fria Tidningen Journal. Those interested to find out more about the conference can visit our website for the films of the speeches and photos of the conference.

    This was a very successful conference. Although it went on for seven hours the participants wanted it to continue. It was decided that a similar conference will be held in six months over a period of two days to meet this demand. Those interested to participate please visit our website where we will announce the details shortly.

    For more information please contact Majedi.azar@gmail.com

    Organization for Women’s Liberation
    10 March 2009

  • Taliban Murders a Couple for Trying to Marry

    Two adults attempted to marry; the Taliban kidnapped them and shot them in front of a mosque.

  • Nightmare in Afghanistan

    Three Taleban mullahs brought them to the local mosque and passed a fatwa that they must be killed.

  • Roxana Saberi Goes on Trial in Iran

    She was charged with buying alcohol, then lacking a press card; now she’s charged with espionage.

  • Michelle Goldberg on Women, Sex and Power

    Religious traditionalists excoriate feminists and family planners as agents of Western cultural imperialism.

  • Things Getting Worse in Pakistan

    Taliban insurgents are teaming up with local militant groups to make inroads in Punjab.

  • Massimo Pigliucci on Faith and Reason

    Faith is one thing, trust is another, belief is another again.

  • Kenya: Girl Bled to Death After Infibulation

    She was seven years old.

  • Empty signs

    I wrote to the women’s studies list yesterday to ask for thoughts on sexist epithets, especially pussy and cunt. Here is a sampling from replies.

    “Recently, I was standing at the bus stop with a young man who was singing along to rap music. Suddenly, he yelled “Bitch!” and I almost ran for cover. But he was just singing along to the music. Can anyone wonder why young women are treated so badly when the music kids listen to describes them as bitches, evil, and mean?”

    “I’m not sure who your informants are but I can absolutely disabuse you of their misinformation. “Cunt” is seen as one of the worst possible expletives that can be used. “Twat” is aged and falling out of fashion currently. “Pussy” has a little ambiguity as (now very old) comedies occassionaly play on the dual usages as a colloquial for cat and for genitalia. I’d be surprised to see any evidence that the meaning of these words isn’t known – what evidence do your informants proffer for that view?

    In my opinion is it explicitly sexist but for slightly different reasons – its implication is that the worst possible thing is to be penetrated and that penetration is a sign of weakness in that instance. It relies on a belief that penetration is synonymous with strength and masculinity and to be penetrable is a sign of weakness. It also (certainly in the UK) is often used in the trope which asserts that female genitalia are dirty and smelly.” [That one is from someone at Oxford, so she’s not clueless about UK usage.]

    “I had a discussion about “pussy” in my psych of women class recently, and the students insisted that when Jon Stewart and others use the word they mean “weak as a kitten.” Of course, that is sexist, especially when men apply it to each other to suggest they are not macho enough. But I think they are wrong in their understanding.”

    Katha Pollitt refused to believe that the British are ignorant of the word ‘cunt.’ Well I sympathize, I can’t believe it either, and yet people insist – not quite exactly that they’re ignorant of the meaning, but that that’s no longer what the word means. In particular John Meredith in comments on Knowing what words mean.

    “‘Slag’ is, nearly always, a sexist term…It means a woman who is disgusting by dint of having more sex than is approved. It is sexist because it can only be applied to women and evinces disgust simply because she is a woman and behaves like one. But ‘cunt’ which can really only be applied to men, just means (in its sweary sense) ‘bastard’ and does not imply any hostility towards women as women, so is not sexist. It is an empty sign, really, that just indicates ‘I feel extreme hostility towards you to the degree that I will use a taboo word for you’. The word itself could be one of dozens used pretty much interchangeably.”

    I find that completely incomprehensible, and hard to believe. Just for one thing, why is the word taboo if it’s an empty sign? What is it that makes the word taboo if it is just an empty sign? What are the dozens of other words that could be used interchangeably? I don’t think there’s even one, let alone dozens. As far as I know, cunt is right at the top of the heap of Bad Words to call someone, and it is there because it is the most vicious hate-filled word for the female genitalia, while ‘pussy’ is a little less vicious and ‘twat’ is comparatively mild.

    But there’s also a thread on Shiraz Socialist:

    The word “cunt” is a highly effective insult precisely because of its shock value – nothing is more guaranteed to upset the secretary of the local WI than such a word. It’s no more endemically “oppressive” than any other word, the point is the context in which it is used. As Rosie said, it’s simply nonsense to claim that most people who use the word these days are referring to female genitalia, any more than when they call someone “posh” they are referring to Port Out Starboard Home. When they use the word “cunt”, they just mean that they really really disapprove of or dislike the individual to whom they’re referring. Like the word, dislike it, use it or don’t – I should care. But don’t invent a hierarchy of oppression amongst swear-words which is simply a false excuse for some left-wing version of parochial moralism.

    I don’t buy it. If the word has shock value, then the shock value comes from somewhere. If the shock value comes from somewhere, where does it come from? I submit that it comes from the fact that it is a word that 1) equates women to their genitals and 2) expresses hatred for both. If that’s not where the shock value comes from, then where does it come from?

    More later.

  • Taliban Gun Down Women’s Rights Activist

    Sitara Achikzai had returned from Germany to work in Kandahar as a teacher and provincial legislator.

  • Simon Blackburn on Hume and Sceptical Irony

    Hume is much too subtle to describe himself as an atheist.

  • A Historian Disputes Bishop Mixa

    Many saw no contradiction between their belief in a Christian God and their support for the Nazi regime.

  • The Murder of Sitara Achikzai

    The Taliban says it will pay 200,000 Pakistani rupees to anyone who kills a member of the council.

  • UNAMA Sickened by Murder of Achikzai

    Sitara Achikzai was serving her people with dedication in Kandahar.

  • Farhat Taj: Life in Swat After the Peace Deal

    The Taliban have made the 1.7 million people of Swat hostage, and the people continue to suffer.