Butterflies and Wheels update
Ophelia Benson
New in "Latest News"
Parents of Shafilea Ahmed jailed for life for her murder
The judge told them: "Your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than the love of your child."
Filed: August 3, 2012
Soraya Chemaly on teenage girls, anger, and depression
Girls, like boys, feel fully human, but culture tells them that they are not.
Filed: August 3, 2012
Leo Igwe asks: Who is afraid of new atheism?
Yes, the new atheists have rejected their traditional role of keeping silent in the face of religious oppression.
Filed: August 3, 2012
Somalia: famous comedian murdered
Abdi Jeylani Marshale used to make people laugh by impersonating Islamist fighters. He was threatened by al-Shabab last year.
Filed: August 4, 2012
Jesus and Mo protest the Colorado shootings
In their own way.
Filed: August 4, 2012
Sharia4Belgium says Peeters “dresses like a whore”
It's not that men are harassing her, it's that she is goading men.
Filed: August 5, 2012
Pakistan: cops force couple to parade naked in public
The man had reportedly been holding drink and dance parties during Ramadan.
Filed: August 5, 2012
Colombia: acid attacks on women on the rise
“The violence here may be different, but it emanates from the same place. This is a culture where machismo reigns, where men do what they want to do.”
Filed: August 5, 2012
Lawyer kills his sister for marrying a man
It was a love match, without the family's permission, so bang, she's dead.
Filed: August 5, 2012
UK: schools deny girls HPV vax on religious grounds
"Pupils follow strict Christian principles, marry within their own community and do not practise sex outside marriage."
Filed: August 5, 2012
Two historians check the work of Orlando Figes
"Historians are obliged to be especially meticulous in using generally inaccessible archive materials, but Figes cannot be fully trusted even with open sources."
Filed: August 6, 2012
Report on constitutions of majority-Muslim countries
Approximately 44% of the world’s Muslim population live in 23 majority Muslim countries that have declared Islam to be the state religion.
Filed: August 6, 2012
NASA safely lands Mars rover Curiosity
The spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars.
Filed: August 6, 2012
Florida preacher “heals” people by kicking them
In one interview, Bentley claims that the "Holy Spirit" told him to kick an ill elderly woman in the face with his biker boot.
Filed: August 6, 2012
Mali Islamists tell people to lump it
"People must accept that we will impose Sharia whether they like it or not," a spokesman said.
Filed: August 6, 2012
Robert Hughes 1938-2012
You didn't need to know much about painting to enjoy the elegance, wit and pugnacity of Hughes' writing.
Filed: August 7, 2012
Russians uncomfortable with activist women
A case that should pivot on a specific legal question (“Does a violation of church protocol rise to the level of religious hatred?”) instead hangs entirely on emotions.
Filed: August 8, 2012
Men call Wojdan Shaherkani things on Twitter
"You do not represent the chaste Muslim woman," tweeted Mohammed al-Barrak, a lecturer at Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca.
Filed: August 8, 2012
Two Saudi women compete in the Olympics
But Saudi Arabia forces them to dress "in compliance with Sharia."
Filed: August 8, 2012
Talk of the Nation discusses harassment in gaming
"These are less and less isolated incidents."
Filed: August 8, 2012
Russia: police raid sect living underground
Ages 1 to 17, the children rarely saw the light of day and had never left the property, attended school or been seen by a doctor, officials said.
Filed: August 9, 2012
Father, brother detained on charges of beating woman
They were released on bail on July 18, and on July 21 she was dead. What a coincidence.
Filed: August 9, 2012
Saudi cleric lists things forbidden to women in sport
Mixing with men, or men watching her run or fall down or laugh or cry or quarrel with another female athlete, or mount a horse, or practice gymnastics or wrestling.
Filed: August 9, 2012
New human species identified from Kenya fossils
The discoveries suggests that at least three distinct species of humans co-existed in Africa.
Filed: August 9, 2012
Abstract of Nature article on fossils from Koobi Fora
The new fossils confirm the presence of two contemporary species of early Homo, in addition to Homo erectus, in the early Pleistocene of eastern Africa.
Filed: August 9, 2012
Russian Orthodox church says it’s totally right
Church attendance is declining, therefore it's ok to punish Pussy Riot.
Filed: August 11, 2012
Author Heidi Holland found dead at S. Africa home
She chronicled the rise of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe from freedom fighter to power-obsessed leader.
Filed: August 11, 2012
Jon Wiener on David Rakoff
He was funny and smart about many things, including politics in America.
Filed: August 11, 2012
David Rakoff interviews on Fresh Air
"I had a beautiful childhood and a lovely childhood. I just didn't like being a child. I didn't like the rank injustice of not being listened to."
Filed: August 11, 2012
The Gore Vidal interview that Variety didn’t publish
"I'm very belligerent and I've not had it. I'm ready to lead a crusade against the Party of God."
Filed: August 12, 2012
Why homeopathy doesn’t work
The 200C dilution would require 10^320 universes or so just to find one active particle.
Filed: August 12, 2012
Drug company suing academic over a paper in NEJM
A large German pharmaceutical company is threatening a Danish academic with libel over a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Filed: August 13, 2012
Mars rover makes first colour panorama
It's low resolution, but pretty enough and interesting enough to share, Mike Malin explains.
Filed: August 13, 2012
Mars rover makes detailed crater image
This is the first view scientists have had of a fluvial system from the surface of Mars.
Filed: August 13, 2012
Morocco: Should pre-marital sex be legal?
Should a cleric issue a fatwa saying a newspaper editor should die for saying yes to that question?
Filed: August 13, 2012
The pope has a butler
Who will go on trial for leaking papers out of a desire to combat "evil and corruption everywhere in the Church," according to a prosecutor in the case.
Filed: August 13, 2012
New study doubts interbreeding with Neanderthals
Similarities between the DNA of modern people and Neanderthals are more likely to have arisen from shared ancestry than interbreeding, the study reports.
Filed: August 13, 2012
Thousands rally in Tunisia for women’s rights
Thousands rallied on Monday to protest a push by the Islamist-led government for constitutional changes that would degrade women's status.
Filed: August 13, 2012
Witchcraft child abuse in London is under-reported
Tim Loughton, the children’s minister, said that a “wall of silence” is obscuring the full scale of cruelty where beliefs in evil spirits is common.
Filed: August 14, 2012
Herb Silverman on secularism and harassment
People don't say hooray for sexual harassment, but they do argue over what it is.
Filed: August 14, 2012
Jonathon Narvey on court-ordered religion
The judge could have told the child, "You are free to choose your religion, or no religion. You can be a Jew or a Christian. You can choose to worship no deity at all."
Filed: August 14, 2012
Amateur doctor found guilty and fined
David Geier is the son in a father-son team which ran a clinic purporting to treat autism through chelation and lupron. He has no qualifications in medicine.
Filed: August 14, 2012
Parents who believe in miracles ‘torturing’ dying children
Parents who trust in divine intervention, even after doctors say there is no hope of survival, put their children through aggressive but futile treatments, they said.
Filed: August 14, 2012
Turkey: violence leading cause of death for women 15-44
The number of women between 15 and 44 who lose their lives to gender-based violence outstrips deaths due to traffic accidents, malaria, cancer and war
Filed: August 14, 2012
Make us do the math
Jennifer Ouellette says why just giving up on teaching algebra is a very bad (and anti-democratic) idea.
Filed: August 14, 2012
Somalia: new constitution bans FGM
The provisional constitution says FGM is "a cruel and degrading customary practice, and is tantamount to torture. The circumcision of girls is prohibited."
Filed: August 15, 2012
Atheist billboards target candidates’ religions
You get Romney's god as a space alien in magic underwear, and Obama's sadistic god who promotes hate and calls it love.
Filed: August 15, 2012
UK: action plan on child abuse linked to witchcraft
"We must never forget this is about child cruelty not culture and we cannot afford to wait until another child is murdered before decisive action is taken."
Filed: August 16, 2012
Raymond Tallis on the case for assisted dying
Unbearable suffering, prolonged by medical care, and inflicted on a dying patient against their will, is an unequivocal evil.
Filed: August 16, 2012
“Almost comatose” woman forcibly married
Judge says the forced marriage of a Bangladeshi woman with learning difficulties should be annulled.
Filed: August 16, 2012
Pussy Riot sentenced to two years in prison
"The girls' actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church's rules," Judge Marina Syrova told the court.
Filed: August 17, 2012
Pussy Riot as enemies of Russia and church
A chance for Putin to paint his opponents as obscene, disrespectful, rabble-rousing liberal urbanites backed by the West.
Filed: August 17, 2012
Pregnant Dominican teenager dies of leukemia
Doctors refused to give her chemo because she was 9 weeks pregnant. They waited 20 days before allowing the treatment. Too late.
Filed: August 17, 2012
Pussy Riot jail terms condemned
The US and EU said the sentences were disproportionate. Amnesty International said they must be overturned.
Filed: August 17, 2012
The Guardian talks to E O Wilson
His new book takes in language and the arts in its bold attempt to demonstrate that generosity, as mandated by group selection, is humanity's secret ingredient.
Filed: August 18, 2012
Gay pride marches banned in Moscow for 100 years
Moscow city government claims the parade would cause public disorder and that most Muscovites do not support it.
Filed: August 18, 2012
Russian Orthodox Church “forgives” Pussy Riot
"We did forgive them from the very start. But such actions should be cut short by society and authorities."
Filed: August 18, 2012
Pakistan: 11-year-old Xian girl accused of blasphemy
Reports say that she has Down syndrome and that she and her mother were beaten by a mob.
Filed: August 18, 2012
Assange should go to Sweden to face the allegations
Assange is a rape suspect who skipped bail. Yet some of his supporters have made arguments that they would never make about anybody else.
Filed: August 19, 2012
Cardinal stops meddling with Scottish government
Cardinal Keith O'Brien has turned down an invitation to discuss same-sex marriage, leaving any talks to officials, just as he ought.
Filed: August 19, 2012
Iran bans women from 77 BA and BSc courses
Mullahs are concerned about the social side-effects of rising educational standards among women, including declining birth and marriage rates.
Filed: August 20, 2012
Austria Freedom Party condemned for Nazi-like cartoon
A caricature of a banker with a hooked nose, wearing Star of David cufflinks? Yes, that's Nazi-like.
Filed: August 20, 2012
Republican party tries to back away from Akin
No money for the Senate campaign, he is told.
Filed: August 20, 2012
Soraya Chemaly on Todd Akin
Akin's statement and philosophy are consistent with conservative's deep mistrust of women.
Filed: August 20, 2012
New in "Notes and Comment Blog"
- Telegraph columnist calls Times columnist snobbish
Filed: August 3, 2012 - Girls, like boys, feel fully human
Filed: August 3, 2012 -
The pir was an expert in evicting djinns
Filed: August 3, 2012 - Salope
Filed: August 3, 2012 - The dog that didn’t bark
Filed: August 4, 2012 - Surely it’s just a coincidence
Filed: August 4, 2012 - Not ob.vi.ous at all
Filed: August 4, 2012 - Can a middle aged white guy be a feminist?
Filed: August 4, 2012 - She walks the streets half-naked
Filed: August 5, 2012 - Parties during Ramadan
Filed: August 5, 2012 - A little jaunt
Filed: August 5, 2012 - The truth is life is too hard
Filed: August 5, 2012 - Strong but dainty
Filed: August 5, 2012 - They did it!
Filed: August 5, 2012 - Touchdown confirmed
Filed: August 6, 2012 - We can easily become desensitized to abuse
Filed: August 6, 2012 - Canary Pete
Filed: August 6, 2012 - Metamorphoses
Filed: August 6, 2012 - Betraying the readers
Filed: August 6, 2012 - People must accept that we will impose Sharia whether they like it or not
Filed: August 6, 2012 - The view from Curious Rover
Filed: August 6, 2012 - The simple and sheer amazingness
Filed: August 6, 2012 - Their indelible and putrid stench
Filed: August 7, 2012 - Entire galleries devoted to her “bitch face”
Filed: August 7, 2012 - Justice for Nigar Rahim
Filed: August 7, 2012 - Swear words in a church
Filed: August 7, 2012 - Uncomfortable with activist women
Filed: August 8, 2012 - Sport will lead to corrupt morals
Filed: August 8, 2012 -
How to cope with eternal bliss
Filed: August 8, 2012 - Not even a hint
Filed: August 8, 2012 - Children were born
Filed: August 9, 2012 - Police made her father sign a “pledge”
Filed: August 9, 2012 - Two
Filed: August 9, 2012 - How not to creep
Filed: August 9, 2012 - Sleaze
Filed: August 10, 2012 - Take one for the team
Filed: August 10, 2012 - Putting the knife in
Filed: August 10, 2012 - It’s OK, we’re on the 10th floor
Filed: August 10, 2012 - Collateral damage
Filed: August 10, 2012 - Bullies, is it?
Filed: August 10, 2012 - David Rakoff
Filed: August 11, 2012 - The BBC explains
Filed: August 11, 2012 - What you think it means
Filed: August 11, 2012 - Next year in Austin
Filed: August 11, 2012 - And who shall ‘scape whipping?
Filed: August 11, 2012 - Au pied du chameau
Filed: August 12, 2012 - Greater vigor of character
Filed: August 12, 2012 - Chris Rodda has accepted the challenge
Filed: August 12, 2012 - Olympic fervour
Filed: August 12, 2012 - We get the good ones
Filed: August 12, 2012 - Should eating a peach be legal?
Filed: August 13, 2012 - Vocal and unabashed
Filed: August 13, 2012 - Half full or half empty? Lemonade or dishwater?
Filed: August 13, 2012 - For whom?
Filed: August 13, 2012 - A poem for Gabby Douglas
Filed: August 13, 2012 - Woman iz associate to man, can haz some rites
Filed: August 13, 2012 - Nuns pushing back
Filed: August 14, 2012 - Atoms in motion, or just atoms in motion?
Filed: August 14, 2012 - Remembering that we can be wrong
Filed: August 14, 2012 - Underwear on toast
Filed: August 15, 2012 - A one-way trip to hell and that lifelong bunsen burner
Filed: August 15, 2012 - To combat a nefarious “other”
Filed: August 15, 2012 - On ‘A Plea in Law for Equal Marriage’
Filed: August 15, 2012 - A city in a ditch
Filed: August 15, 2012 - You’re back!
Filed: August 16, 2012 - An unequivocal evil
Filed: August 16, 2012 - Trolls call me things
Filed: August 16, 2012 - No Gynopolis after all
Filed: August 16, 2012 - Seven years and seven minutes
Filed: August 16, 2012 - Two years in the slammer
Filed: August 17, 2012 - Shmanctity
Filed: August 17, 2012 - A full 20 days
Filed: August 17, 2012 - A couple of buttons
Filed: August 17, 2012 - Your Nasty, Nerdy Sexism Isn’t Cute
Filed: August 17, 2012 - Nice people
Filed: August 18, 2012 - We did forgive them from the very start
Filed: August 18, 2012 - What’s so wrong with men beating up women, really?
Filed: August 18, 2012 - AGs behaving badly
Filed: August 18, 2012 - “Satan’s representative” on the Michigan Student Assembly
Filed: August 18, 2012 - Bishop Paglia blamed the pursuit of individual rights
Filed: August 18, 2012 - The cardinal snubs the government
Filed: August 19, 2012 - A new dawn
Filed: August 19, 2012 - Legitimate rape
Filed: August 19, 2012 - Underneath it all
Filed: August 19, 2012 - There will be unicorns in Ecuador next
Filed: August 20, 2012 - If women have choices
Filed: August 20, 2012 - What we say when the temperature goes up
Filed: August 20, 2012 - Rape, legitimate and illegitimate
Filed: August 20, 2012 -
Prior to each insertion
Filed: August 20, 2012