Butterflies and Wheels update
Ophelia Benson
New in "Latest News"
Sudan: girl sentenced to death by stoning for “adultery”
The judgment came after an “admission of guilt” plea following torture and brutal beatings by Sharif’s brother.
Filed: May 22, 2012
Women “sequestered” at campaign event in Egypt
They had to be stuck in a corner because, as one campaign worker explained, "There are Salafists everywhere."
Filed: May 22, 2012
No Olympics for you, women of Saudi Arabia
Because you're whores, that's why.
Filed: May 22, 2012
Malawi: police join celebration of women’s empowerment
All the three groups met at Chididi Bridge carrying banners and singing songs which were advocating for equality and empowerment of women.
Filed: May 23, 2012
Thailand: slave labor in the seafood industry
A typical work day amounts to 18-20 hours of manning nets and sorting catch.
Filed: May 23, 2012
Ron Lindsay on why another WiS conference is needed
Wanting to obtain more input from women doesn’t imply we think women have special “intuition” or have “emotional knowledge” unavailable to men.
Filed: May 23, 2012
Catholic church to everyone: no contraception for you
“This lawsuit is about one of America’s most cherished freedoms: the freedom to practice one’s religion without government interference,” opens the Notre Dame suit.
Filed: May 23, 2012
Egypt: women try to resist their disappearance
“Everything in the past was inappropriate for women to do, now it is not only inappropriate, it is haram or a sin."
Filed: May 23, 2012
40,000 Haredi men gather to protest the Internet
Women were not allowed to attend, because they're women.
Filed: May 23, 2012
Austin Dacey on Alexander Aan and blasphemy law
The Indonesian legal system is designed for unequal treatment of unbelievers. The constitution stipulates that every citizen must believe in a supreme being.
Filed: May 25, 2012
Mayim Bialik PhD should know better
Than to evangelize for anti-vaxxing.
Filed: May 25, 2012
Suspicious fire at Georgia clinic
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused a fire at an obstetrics and gynecology clinic — the second suspicious fire at a Georgia reproductive clinic this week.
Filed: May 25, 2012
Charles Freeman on the shroud of Turin
What Ian Wilson has done is to follow in the steps of medieval chroniclers and create a legendary account of the origins of a relic cult.
Filed: May 25, 2012
Jesus and Mo ponder the moon
They are not impressed.
Filed: May 25, 2012
The expansion of Steiner schools in the UK
It's much harder to make up lost ground in physics or maths than it is in the humanities.
Filed: May 25, 2012
Egypt: leading presidential candidate promises sharia
The Muslim Brotherhood candidate who came first in the opening round of the Egyptian presidential election is "promising" to implement sharia.
Filed: May 25, 2012
“Alternative therapy” for farm animals
Christine Lees says she talked with farmers and vets who were using homeopathy but not really knowing what they were doing.
Filed: May 26, 2012
Malaysia bans and confiscates Irshad Manji book
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop condemned the book for being blasphemous to Islam and Prophet Muhammad in a statement released yesterday.
Filed: May 26, 2012
Malaysia bans potential confusion
The Home Ministry has banned the controversial book by liberal Muslim activist Irshad Manji as it could cause confusion among Muslims.
Filed: May 26, 2012
“Take Back the Flour” banned from Rothamsted site
St Albans District Council's executive leader said it had taken action to stop a demonstration on Rothamsted Research's land that might "put historic crop trials at risk".
Filed: May 27, 2012
Lady Gaga concert canceled after Islamist protests
The Islamist FPI had threatened violence if the concert went ahead, calling Lady Gaga a "devil's messenger".
Filed: May 27, 2012
Vatican publishes rules for apparitions of Mary
Because there are totally rules about it.
Filed: May 27, 2012
Mali Tuareg and Islamist rebels agree on Islamist state
The Islamist group Ansar Dine, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has already begun to impose Sharia in towns such as Timbuktu.
Filed: May 27, 2012
Catcalls, whistles, groping: sexual harassment in London
Nearly half of young women in London were sexually harassed in public last year, with many forced to endure unwanted male attention on buses and trains, a new study shows.
Filed: May 27, 2012
David Gorski on “Miracle Mineral Solution” and autism
It's bleach. People give it to children with autism. Bleach.
Filed: May 28, 2012
Woman convicted in faith-healing death of son
In relying on prayer to heal her diabetic son, Grady, a member of the Church of the Firstborn, told police, “I didn’t want to be weak in my faith and disappoint God.”
Filed: May 29, 2012
Morocco: more than 30,000 children employed as servants
The “little maids” are for the most part “badly paid and submitted to physical and economic violence.”
Filed: May 29, 2012
Italy: bishops ‘not obliged’ to report sexual abuse to police
The Italian Bishop’s Conference (CIE) has issued guidelines on child protection that inform its bishops that they are ‘not obliged to report illicit facts’ of child abuse to the police.
Filed: May 29, 2012
US states that ban atheists from holding public office
Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas. "No religious test...other than a declaration of belief in the existence of God"!
Filed: May 29, 2012
Opponents of this crop trial are blind to the food crisis
Preventing experiments such as this, where there is clearly a public benefit if it works, will do nothing to solve the coming food crisis of the 21st century.
Filed: May 29, 2012
Egypt: women’s rights are shrinking day by day
Men shout at hijabless women, "Just you wait, those who will cover you up and make you stay at home are coming, and then there will no more of this lewdness."
Filed: May 30, 2012
World Health Assembly discusses child marriage
The WHO finds that complications in pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death in girls aged 15-19 in the developing world.
Filed: May 30, 2012
Sentenced to death for singing and dancing at a wedding
"The local clerics issued a decree to kill all four women and two men shown in the video," district police officer Abdul Majeed Afridi said.
Filed: May 30, 2012
The angel Jibril speaks
And Jesus doesn't get to choose what's for dinner.
Filed: May 30, 2012
Witch-hunts: The darkness that won’t go away
Children who are accused of being witches by their families are often chased out of their homes. These abandoned children can fall prey to child trafficking and abuse.
Filed: May 30, 2012
160 girls poisoned at Afghan school
Last week, more than 120 girls and three teachers were admitted to a hospital after a similar suspected poisoning.
Filed: May 30, 2012
New in "Articles"
Eroding Feminism
By Lauryn Oates
I still have faith in feminism, because I’m fortunate enough to interact with real feminists every day—women in Afghanistan who aren’t willing to compromise on their demand for rights in the name of culture or identity—and who risk their lives every day to express their belief in the idea that human rights are universal.
Filed: May 26, 2012
Atheism and Human Rights Abuses in Africa
By Leo Igwe
I have yet to hear it proclaimed at the UN, or at our regional and national human rights bodies, that the rights of atheists, agnostics and freethinkers are human rights.
Filed: May 28, 2012
New in "Notes and Comment Blog"
- Unsafe
Filed: May 22, 2012 - A moment
Filed: May 22, 2012 - Under the rug
Filed: May 22, 2012 - Sport is unWomanly
Filed: May 22, 2012 - What then is to be done?
Filed: May 23, 2012 - Phase 2
Filed: May 23, 2012 - Viewing parties
Filed: May 23, 2012 - Why is Google Blogger still giving Greek Nazis a platform?
Filed: May 23, 2012 - Deep rifts!
Filed: May 24, 2012 - How to make baseless accusations become true via repetition
Filed: May 24, 2012 - Avicenna says
Filed: May 24, 2012 - From Sile Lane, about Rothamsted this Sunday
Filed: May 24, 2012 - You are not the boss of me
Filed: May 25, 2012 - Pro-life arson
Filed: May 25, 2012 - Suck out that moisture
Filed: May 25, 2012 - It’s not all about you
Filed: May 25, 2012 - Keep the harlots occupied
Filed: May 25, 2012 - Alternative therapy for farm animals
Filed: May 26, 2012 - Banned as it contradicted the Quran and Hadith
Filed: May 26, 2012 - Note for anyone thinking of going to Rothamsted tomorrow
Filed: May 26, 2012 - ‘Cause baby look at you now
Filed: May 26, 2012 - I’m suddenly a fan of Lady Gaga
Filed: May 27, 2012 - Publishing the norms
Filed: May 27, 2012 - Sharia for Timbuktu
Filed: May 27, 2012 - Life on the streets
Filed: May 27, 2012 - The “ignore and it will go away” myth
Filed: May 27, 2012 - So you’re saying gay people are only born of other gay people?
Filed: May 27, 2012 - Sara Azmeh Rasmussen
Filed: May 27, 2012 - Which political ideals and which customs?
Filed: May 28, 2012 - I get options
Filed: May 28, 2012 - One of these things is not like the other
Filed: May 28, 2012 - Bleaching away the autism
Filed: May 28, 2012 - The Taliban comes to Foggy Bottom
Filed: May 28, 2012 - Go, and report child rape no more
Filed: May 29, 2012 - No religious test except for this one tiny thing
Filed: May 29, 2012 - The Take the Flour Back group did not have enough support
Filed: May 29, 2012 - Not ready for the flood
Filed: May 29, 2012 - The myriad other ways the comparison to the Taliban doesn’t fit
Filed: May 29, 2012 - The sacking of a library in the middle of the night
Filed: May 29, 2012 - It was a joke, huh huh huh
Filed: May 29, 2012 - Something that is actually like the Taliban
Filed: May 30, 2012 - The girls complained of headaches, dizziness and vomiting
Filed: May 30, 2012 - Do you at least agree with the principle?
Filed: May 30, 2012 - Homicide: life in Seattle
Filed: May 30, 2012 - Shooting the messenger
Filed: May 30, 2012
Ophelia Benson
New in "Latest News"
Tarek Fatah and Irshad Manji talk about multiculturalism
The two authors discuss culture and racism, what values Western society has allowed for modern society, and the practice of democracy.
Filed: May 31, 2012
Dolan authorized payments to rapist priests
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of NY authorized payments of up to $20k to sexually abusive priests as an incentive to leave priesthood when he was archbish of Milwaukee.
Filed: May 31, 2012
Woman sentenced to death by stoning in Sudan
Intisar Sharif Abdalla is being held near Khartoum, shackled in prison with her baby son.
Filed: June 1, 2012
Rick Warren was only joking
When he tweeted "If they're cute, it's flirting. If they're ugly, it's harassment." Amen.
Filed: June 1, 2012
A skeptic does the Dr Phil show
The show gives the appearance of a serious look at a question, “Do psychic powers really exist?”, but it isn't one.
Filed: June 2, 2012
The Vatican may crumble into dust
The Holy See is an absolute monarchy run by squabbling old, male, celibate courtiers dominated by one nationality.
Filed: June 3, 2012
Turkish women protest plans to curb abortion
Erdogan has called abortion "murder," and his government is reportedly working on legislation to ban it after 4 weeks from conception, except in emergencies.
Filed: June 3, 2012
Annual report of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
At least 943 women were killed in the name of honor, of whom 93 were minors. Nearly 4,500 cases of domestic violence against women were reported.
Filed: June 3, 2012
Spanish artist faces prison over film made in 1978
Javier Krahe has been taken to court by a Catholic legal association for "offending religious feelings" – a little-known offence. The law has never before been applied.
Filed: June 3, 2012
Nonbelievers who aren’t atheists
If we refuse to identify as atheist even though the term, objectively applied, would accurately describe us, then we should at least be honest about the reasons.
Filed: June 5, 2012
N Dakota considers “religious liberty” amendment
Measure 3 is worded this way: "Government may not burden a person's or religious organization's religious liberty." Uh oh.
Filed: June 5, 2012
Turkey: pianist charged with “insulting Islam”
Fazil Say is accused of “publicly insulting religious values that are adopted by a part of the nation,” and faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted.
Filed: June 6, 2012
Westboro Baptist to picket Seattle shooting victim’s funeral
St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle has been told that members of the anti-gay church plan to be present at the funeral of Gloria Koch Leonidas on Thursday.
Filed: June 6, 2012
No review for woman charged with “feticide” in suicide attempt
Despite amicus briefs from eighty respected experts, the state of Indiana will do its best to send Shuai to prison. Potential sentence: 45 to 65 years.
Filed: June 6, 2012
Pakistan: 4 women who “sang at wedding” killed
4 women and 2 men were sentenced to death by a jirga for singing and dancing at a wedding. The men managed to flee but the women were all killed.
Filed: June 6, 2012
Bail denied for Sanal Edamaruku
He could be picked up at any time, and his lawyers are advising him to leave the country for a bit. Spread the word, donate if you can.
Filed: June 6, 2012
New in "Notes and Comment Blog"
- Irresponsible messaging
Filed: May 31, 2012 - At the Café Racer
Filed: May 31, 2012 - A disgrace to the good name of Seneca
Filed: May 31, 2012 -
Good bye DOMA
Filed: May 31, 2012 - Rebecca explains
Filed: June 1, 2012 - Wait – that was last year…
Filed: June 1, 2012 - Words, actions, or attitudes
Filed: June 1, 2012 - Skepticism gone wild
Filed: June 2, 2012 - Degodwinization
Filed: June 3, 2012 - It’s only a ruddy cooking lesson
Filed: June 3, 2012 - Reporting harassment and naming names
Filed: June 4, 2012 - Welcome to Dickensian London
Filed: June 4, 2012 - Kill them all, children
Filed: June 4, 2012 - Well there’s still South Dakota
Filed: June 5, 2012 - Do atheists lean left?
Filed: June 5, 2012 - It’s almost like going to law school
Filed: June 5, 2012 -
Report all the things
Filed: June 5, 2012 - Attention whores unite
Filed: June 5, 2012 - Stairs to no end
Filed: June 6, 2012 - Insulting Islamic values in Twitter messages
Filed: June 6, 2012 - Singing dancing sluts killed for singing and dancing
Filed: June 6, 2012 - More light
Filed: June 6, 2012 - Punish and repunish
Filed: June 6, 2012