Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, now a United Nations envoy for education, said the event would take place on Malala’s 16th birthday on 12 July.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Leo Igwe on humanist funerals in Nigeria
For humanists, a funeral ceremony is not a rite of passage for the deceased. A funeral is a celebration of a life lived, a life which has ended.
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Katha Pollitt on PBS documentary “Makers”
There are plenty of ads and articles and talk show clips to remind us of how trivialized women were, and how exhilarating were what seem today like very modest steps.
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Gaza marathon canceled because women not allowed to run
The UN Relief and Works Agency said it had taken the decision after “discussions with the authorities in Gaza who have insisted that no women should participate.”
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Father tortures daughter, age 6, as a “witch”
She was beaten by her father and locked up in a room with her hands, mouth and face bound for four days.
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Examples of ‘nasty pushback’ against some atheist/skeptic feminists
Michael Nugent documents the slyme pit’s way of talking about enemy women and asks a probing question.
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Cardinal says oops, sorry
He admitted his sexual conduct had “fallen beneath the standards expected of me” and asked forgiveness from those he had “offended.”
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EllenBeth Wachs on life as an atheist activist
“Two years ago today, I opened my front door to see a SWAT team standing there.”
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A feminist film critic defends the Onion’s tweet
“It seemed completely obvious to me that the butt of the joke here is people who say such things about women.”
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Dhaka: 5 arrested in murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haidar
All 5 are students at North South University and all confessed to involvement, police say.
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Anti-gay Muslim cleric’s Reading university talk cancelled
Adam Goodkin, of the Atheist Humanist Secularist Society at the university, which had planned to protest, said: “We’re firm believers in freedom of expression and free speech.”
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189 cases of measles reported in South Wales
“Measles is an illness that can kill, or leave patients with permanent complications including severe brain damage, and the only protection is two doses of the MMR vaccination.”
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Nick Cohen on Labour’s scuttling of libel reform
Labour is prepared to destroy the hopes of all those who want to use the freedom of the web to argue and publish without fear of disproportionate punishment.
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Irish PM apologizes for “national shame” of Magdalene Laundries
Enda Kenny apologized on Tuesday for the “national shame” of forcing thousands of women to work without pay at the Catholic Church’s notorious Magdalene Laundries.
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Taoiseach apologizes to survivors of Magdalene laundries
Now it’s time to grant them compensation.
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Waleed Al-Husseini organizing Council of Ex-Muslims of France
The Palestinian blogger and atheist is now in Paris, and is organising a Council of Ex-Muslims of France with the help of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain.
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Online gaming: women targeted for harassment 3x as much as men
While the conclusions are unsurprising to anyone who plays games online, the study provides evidence that women get disproportionate amount of verbal abuse.
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Senate renews Violence Against Women Act
The Senate voted 78-22 to reauthorize the 20 year old act that has shielded millions of women from abuse and helped reduce national rates of domestic violence.
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The battle to keep women in Tahrir Square
Rights activists believe the state may be behind the organised and coordinated attacks which are aimed at silencing women and excluding them from public spaces.
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CNN on branding children as witches
The reporter talks to Debbie Ariyo about the sources of witch-hunts against children.
