Mai welcomed decision, had been planning to travel to US at invitation of human rights group.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Pakistan Lifts Travel Restrictions on Rape Victim
Jun 16th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
US State Department and human rights groups objected.… Read the rest
Microsoft Criticized Over China Censorship
Jun 16th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Human rights’ forbidden in subject line but allowed in text.… Read the rest
Untitled
Jun 15th, 2005 9:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m sick of the sound of my own voice.… Read the rest
Vatican Wins in Referendum Boycott
Jun 15th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Failure of attempt to liberalise law on IVF treatment called ‘the great revenge.’… Read the rest
India Muslim Divorce Code Disappoints Women
Jun 15th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Code silent on minimum marriage age for women, triple talaq still there.… Read the rest
Woman Ordered to Marry Rapist
Jun 15th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Indian woman ordered by Muslim council of community elders to marry father-in-law. … Read the rest
“Theory’s Empire”
Jun 15th, 2005 | By Mark BauerleinThis spring, Columbia University Press published an anthology of literary and cultural theory, a 700-page tome entitled Theory’s Empire and edited by Daphne Patai and Will Corral. The collection includes essays dating back 30 years, but most of them are of recent vintage (I’m one of the contributors).
Why another door-stopper volume on a subject already well-covered by anthologies and reference books from Norton, Johns Hopkins, Penguin, University of Florida Press, etc.? Because in the last 30 years, theory has undergone a paradoxical decline, and the existing anthologies have failed to register the change. Glance at the roster of names and texts in the table of contents and you’ll find a predictable roll call of deconstruction, feminism, new historicism, neopragmatism, … Read the rest
Qu’est-ce qu’il a dit?
Jun 14th, 2005 11:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonA little from Foucault himself, since it’s available. Some wisdom and insight from M. Discipline and Punish.
One thing must be clear. By “Islamic government,” nobody in Iran means a political regime in which the clerics would have a role of supervision or control.
Shrewd, ain’t it! Noooo, nobody meant that! Clerics? A role? A role of supervision or control? Oh, hell no! That’s not what anybody meant.
He did go to Iran, right? He wasn’t confused? He didn’t, like, get off the plane a stop or two early? In Marseille or someplace? He didn’t accidentally say ‘Stockholm’ to the ticket clerk when he meant to say ‘Tehran’?
… Read the restTo me, the phrase “Islamic government” seemed to point to two
He Had Seen the Future and it Worked
Jun 14th, 2005 8:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo Foucault went to Iran in 1979, to see what he could see.
… Read the restWhile many liberals and leftists supported the populist uprising that pitted unarmed masses against one of the world’s best-armed regimes, none welcomed the announcement of the growing power of radical Islam with the portentous lyricism that Foucault brought to his brief, and never repeated, foray into journalism…Foucault’s Iranian adventure was a “tragic and farcical error” that fits into a long tradition of ill-informed French intellectuals spouting off about distant revolutions, says James Miller, whose 1993 biography “The Passion of Michel Foucault” contains one of the few previous English-language accounts of the episode. Indeed, Foucault’s search for an alternative that was absolutely other to liberal democracy seems peculiarly
Tulsa Zoo Forced to Post Creationist Signs
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Zoo employees, others said religion shouldn’t be part of scientific institution.… Read the rest
Excerpt from Foucault and the Iranian Revolution
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘By “Islamic government,” nobody in Iran means a political regime in which the clerics would have a role of supervision or control.’… Read the rest
Foucault and the Ayatollah
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Foucault’s search for an alternative that was absolutely other to liberal democracy. … Read the rest
Victim Locked Up While Rapists Walk Free
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘This tactic of silencing the awkward truth is nothing new.’… Read the rest
Mukhtaran Bibi on ‘Exit Control List’
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Human rights activists accuse government of trying to avoid bad publicity. … Read the rest
Mukhtaran Bibi Kidnapped and Silenced
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Gang-rape victim arrested to prevent trip to US.… Read the rest
George Szirtes on Andrey Platonov
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The only utopianism worth anything is that of the suffering, the kindly, the saintly. … Read the rest
Jerry Springer’s Guests Get All Existential
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Can Todd and Ursula reconcile post-Enlightenment meta-narrative with – stay tuned.… Read the rest
Hitchens Argues on Late Night Live
Jun 14th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Stellar Australian radio programme pits Hitch against Robert Manne.… Read the rest
Blessings Upon Them, and Upon Their Typing Hands
Jun 14th, 2005 2:30 am | By Ophelia BensonMay the god of the atheists shine its everlasting light on Polly Toynbee. Wait. May the – oh never mind, you know what I mean.
At least she hasn’t swapped her brain for a fleece.
It would be entirely reasonable for secular Labour MPs to plead conscience on this, just as the religious are excused the whip on matters that trespass on their faith. This touches on freedom of thought and ideas, with far-reaching consequences for the values of the Enlightenment that are under growing threat from a collective softening of the brain on faith and superstitions of all kinds.
Yep. And you need to watch out for that collective softening of the brain stuff. It can creep up on … Read the rest