A girl of 14 was forced to marry an older man who raped her to conceive a child to make the marriage work.
Category: Latest News
Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.
We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.
A note about links
Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.
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Celebrities Making Fewer Mistakes on Science
Sense About Science launched a drive for celebrities to check the facts before making claims.
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A C Grayling on the Importance of Autonomy
Are individuals capable of overcoming limitations to achieve by will and endeavour what they identify as good?
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Jeff Weintraub on the Hijab and Social Pressure
Many Turkish secularists foresee a situation in which social pressure will force women to wear hijab.
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Chicago Man Accused of Killing Pregnant Daughter
And her husband and child. The husband ‘belonged to a lower caste.’
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Why Saudi Women Attempt Suicide
Disregarding a woman’s free will and her right to choose her life can simply lead her to desperation.
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‘Give Ken a Third Term’
Because the undersigned say it is ‘in the best interest of the Muslim communities of London.’
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Two Women Attacked by Mob in Mumbai
The women were teased and harassed by a crowd of men outside a hotel.
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Hijab: Freedom or Coercion?
If everyone is free to wear the hijab, is anyone free not to wear it?
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Cover Your Hair or We’ll Kill You
‘Next time I want to see you wearing a hijab or I swear to God the three of you will be killed immediately.’
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133 Women Killed in Basra Last Year
Murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for violating Islamic teachings.
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Who Are We to Lecture Them?
Sainthood should not be a criterion for speaking up for human rights.
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Simon Jenkins Rebukes Colonialist Tutting
Tut tut at Musharraf; tut tut at Kenya; who do we think we are?
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Kenyans Want an End to Violence
‘All we want is a return to peace. But all we have seen here in Eldoret is terrible violence.’
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Horrible Echoes of Rwanda
Odinga’s supporters accused of ethnic cleansing; Kibaki’s camp accused of genocide.
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Seeing People Killed Is as Bad as it Gets
Several hundred Kikuyu people sheltered in the church; 30 were burned to death.
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Startling, Fresh, New Insight on ‘New’ Atheism
It’s god-bashing, shrill, screechy, intolerant, hectoring. Wo! Haven’t heard that before.
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Persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan
‘Militants’ have stamped thousands of rupee notes imploring believers to ‘put them to death.’
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Assassinated Because She Was a Woman
The fear of women, of women’s freedom, runs through Islamism. It is a large part of Islamist hatred of the West.
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Archaeology, Middle East Studies, Tenure
El-Haj case among several involving Middle East scholars that have set off debates on academic freedom.