Butterflies and Wheels update
Ophelia Benson
New in "Latest News"
Censorship of social media in India
A young woman was arrested in Bombay today for asking on Facebook why the city was observing a city-wide shut down to commemorate the death of Bal Thackeray
Filed: November 19, 2012
Iran considers law restricting women’s right to travel
The draft law stipulates that single women up to the age of 40 must receive official permission from their father or male guardian in order to obtain travel documents.
Filed: November 19, 2012
Details of Halappanavar inquiry team announced
The Government was fully aware of the anger and upset over the death of Ms Halappanavar seen during protest marches over the weekend.
Filed: November 19, 2012
The murder of Guinea’s treasury director Aissatou Boiro
She was investigating a high-level corruption case involving the alleged embezzlement of more than 13 billion Guinean francs (US$1.8 million) from public funds.
Filed: November 19, 2012
Ars Technica on the arrest of Mabus/Markuze
Among the conditions of his parole were that he stay off social networks. He didn't.
Filed: November 19, 2012
Anjem Choudary plans to “declare a fatwa” on Malala
It's not a death sentence, he says generously.
Filed: November 19, 2012
Kevin Clash resigns
Clash has played Elmo on “Sesame Street” for decades. He was profiled in a documentary last year, “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey.”
Filed: November 20, 2012
Mabus arrested and released
He was arrested for violating the terms of his release, and released after agreeing to a series of conditions. Do we detect a pattern here?
Filed: November 20, 2012
Acknowledge ‘Almighty God’ or go to jail
The law states, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."
Filed: November 21, 2012
BBC Newsday talks to Leo Igwe
African Humanists gather next week in Ghana to look at ways to promote an African "Enlightenment". BBC Newsday's Akwasi Sarpong spoke to Leo Igwe.
Filed: November 21, 2012
Why she voted “no” to women bishops
To be called to be a bishop is not to be called to be a CEO but to be a father to the church family. That's why.
Filed: November 22, 2012
Steven Moxon explains that women are incapable
He tells a parliamentary committee that women are biologically unfit to rise to the top in business.
Filed: November 22, 2012
Women in Ireland are third class citizens
Campaigners in Ireland have vowed to keep demonstrating until something concrete is done on this issue.
Filed: November 22, 2012
Saudi women are electronically tracked when they travel
Saudi women’s male guardians now receive text messages on their phones informing them when women in their custody leave the country.
Filed: November 22, 2012
Football, “corrective rape” and murder in South Africa
On November 9th, Sihle Sijoki, a female football player, was fatally speared in the chest. She was attacked because she was a lesbian.
Filed: November 22, 2012
Iranian blogger dies in police custody
Sattar Beheshti died after being held on charges of "actions against national security on social networks."
Filed: November 23, 2012
Muslim radio presenter says gay people should be tortured
Also that non-Muslims are "filth."
Filed: November 24, 2012
Stop Uganda’s kill the gays bill
No, they haven't dropped the "kill them" part. News reports on that got it wrong.
Filed: November 25, 2012
Ron Lindsay on shunning fellow atheists and skeptics
The list of individuals that CFI has been advised not to have any dealings with is long.
Filed: November 25, 2012
Catholic officials knew all about a teacher’s abuse
A nun walked in on a rape and simply reminded the teacher not to lock the door.
Filed: November 25, 2012
Nirupama Pathak wanted to marry a boy of a lower caste
She was found dead in her bedroom. The police have arrested her mother on suspicion of murder, while the family contends that the death was a suicide.
Filed: November 25, 2012
Manchester infant bled to death after circumcision
The court heard that up to three children a month are admitted to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital because of bleeding after home-based circumcisions.
Filed: November 26, 2012
Nick Cohen on the liberal press and Deeyah
Had her tormentors been Norwegian neo-Nazis or the BNP, Deeyah would have become an anti-racist hero. They are Islamists, so the liberal media said nothing.
Filed: November 28, 2012
Irish bishops issue statement on death of Savita Halappanavar
So sad. So so so so sad. Nothing to do with us. So so so sad.
Filed: November 28, 2012
Jen Gunter on the ignorance of the Irish bishops
The statement from the Irish Catholic Bishops is medically nonsensical, contradictory, and immoral.
Filed: November 28, 2012
Bristol University’s Christian Union bans women from speaking
Unless they are accompanied by their husbands.
Filed: December 4, 2012
Bristol University’s Christian Union is being investigated
"UBU has an equality policy which explains that we prohibit discrimination on grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership" and more.
Filed: December 5, 2012
Woman prevents her son from getting cancer treatment
"She wants to work with [the doctors] but the medical profession want to do it all their way," says her mother.
Filed: December 7, 2012
Kolkata man beheads his sister
He told police he had killed his sister for “running off with a lover and dishonouring the family”, say sources.
Filed: December 8, 2012
Infant male circumcision is genital mutilation
Just as we call sex without consent 'rape', circumcision without consent or reasonable justification should be called 'mutilation'.
Filed: December 8, 2012
Karachi: 12-year-old Mehzar Zehra shot by the Taliban/SSP
Mehzar Zehra was being driven by her father, a government servant, to her school a few miles away, when gunmen fired at them, killing her father and wounding her.
Filed: December 8, 2012
The long decline
The US now has the highest percentage of low-wage workers—those who earn less than two-thirds of the median wage—of any developed nation.
Filed: December 9, 2012
Haiti’s silenced victims
Despite new laws, few women will ever report a rape because of the prevailing social norms that blame victims for their own assault.
Filed: December 9, 2012
Harassing feminists into silence…in Pakistan
Any female professional in Pakistan who is active on Twitter will find herself vilified and harassed online simply because she is a woman who works.
Filed: December 9, 2012
Katha Pollitt on Ross Douthat
According to UNICEF, in France the child poverty rate is 8.8 percent; in Sweden it’s 7.3 percent. In the United States, by contrast, it’s a staggering 23.1 percent.
Filed: December 9, 2012
Silencing women’s rights activists in Turkey
Leading Turkish women’s rights activist and lawyer Canan Arin was unlawfully detained on 23 June 2012 for speaking out against child marriages.
Filed: December 10, 2012
Grand Rabbi Teitelbaum blames the victim
“A Jewish daughter has descended so low,” he said. “There hasn’t been such a disgusting saga in (the history of religious) Jewry.”
Filed: December 11, 2012
Nepal: girl, 16, set on fire for refusing marriage demand
Enragd by her rejection of his repeated proposal to elope with him for marriage, Babu Khan, 23, set Shiwa Hasmi on fire while she was asleep in her house. She died.
Filed: December 13, 2012
New in "Articles"
Mummy bloggers – the retail industry’s secret weapon?
By Aisha Isabel Ashraf
Discussion has taken place in Britain for some time now about the commercial sexualisation of children. Not just about the obvious things like underage Facebookers and kids accessing porn on the internet, but the altogether more stealthy marketing that panders to a child’s desire to appear adult.
Filed: November 27, 2012
Polk County Sheriff Investigating Cyberstalker of Atheist Activist
By John Kieffer
North Carolina laws make it a Class 2 misdemeanor “for a person to electronically mail or electronically communicate to another repeatedly for the purpose of abusing, annoying, threatening, terrifying, harassing, or embarrassing any person.”
Filed: December 7, 2012
The Necessity of Humanism in Africa
By Leo Igwe
Humanists can help Africans by providing a place and a space where they can think freely without the fear of god or fear of acts of god.
Filed: December 13, 2012
New in "Notes and Comment Blog"
- Monday morning
Filed: November 19, 2012 - Mtfo
Filed: November 19, 2012 - Permission
Filed: November 19, 2012 - 2 weeks in jail for liking a harmless Facebook post
Filed: November 19, 2012 - But it’s not just Ireland
Filed: November 19, 2012 - Mabus arrested again
Filed: November 19, 2012 - He has plans
Filed: November 19, 2012 - Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding blah blah blah
Filed: November 20, 2012 - He promised
Filed: November 20, 2012 - Not just Ireland
Filed: November 20, 2012 - Refusing to mtfo
Filed: November 20, 2012 - Mabus re-arrested and re-released
Filed: November 21, 2012 - Prioritizing agreement
Filed: November 21, 2012 - As set forth
Filed: November 21, 2012 - Ancient sexist notions
Filed: November 21, 2012 - For theological reasons
Filed: November 22, 2012 - Steve Moxon goes to Parliament
Filed: November 22, 2012 -
His wife had left the international airport
Filed: November 22, 2012 - Iago and Hippolytus
Filed: November 22, 2012 - Iago syndrome
Filed: November 23, 2012 - This cannot be revoked
Filed: November 23, 2012 - Very young real housewives of Malibu
Filed: November 23, 2012 - Those things that we all have in common
Filed: November 23, 2012 - Cognitive dissonance
Filed: November 24, 2012 - A mark of the beast
Filed: November 24, 2012 - In which I annoy everyone all at once
Filed: November 24, 2012 - Mushraks have no concept of cleanliness
Filed: November 24, 2012 - Uganda is still pushing that bill
Filed: November 25, 2012 - Back in Tahrir Square
Filed: November 25, 2012 - Shunning among the atheists
Filed: November 25, 2012 - How the Catholic church understands transparency
Filed: November 25, 2012 - Religion v health
Filed: November 26, 2012 - That’s an order?
Filed: November 26, 2012 - Why it’s a bad idea to snip your infant’s penis at home
Filed: November 26, 2012 - Petrified to go to school
Filed: November 26, 2012 - Anyone else reckon?
Filed: November 26, 2012 - Florida Humanists help the hungry
Filed: November 27, 2012 - Busted
Filed: November 27, 2012 - Exploding gifts from god
Filed: November 27, 2012 - When Carrie met Rocket
Filed: November 27, 2012 - Sorrowing bishops
Filed: November 28, 2012 - Every time
Filed: November 28, 2012 - The bishops really do mean it
Filed: November 28, 2012 - Spared again
Filed: November 29, 2012 - Crossing Lake Michigan
Filed: November 29, 2012 - Hello from Ottawa
Filed: November 29, 2012 - Women are persons
Filed: November 30, 2012 - Incident in Las Vegas
Filed: November 30, 2012 - Domestic architecture
Filed: November 30, 2012 - An afternoon well spent
Filed: November 30, 2012 - Morning note
Filed: December 1, 2012 - It’s a wrap
Filed: December 2, 2012 - I do like a good canal
Filed: December 2, 2012 - Stop faith-based bigotry
Filed: December 4, 2012 - Wull, if the bishops can, we can
Filed: December 4, 2012 - Lear in South Carolina
Filed: December 4, 2012 - Daughters and fathers
Filed: December 4, 2012 - Hank pictures Eschaton
Filed: December 4, 2012 - No husband no speak
Filed: December 5, 2012 - Review the arrangements
Filed: December 5, 2012 - No skeptics on the jury, thanks
Filed: December 5, 2012 - Friends in Ottawa
Filed: December 5, 2012 - Fight fiercely, bishops
Filed: December 6, 2012 - Shut up and obey
Filed: December 6, 2012 - An inspirational moment
Filed: December 6, 2012 - Because misogyny makes nothing happen
Filed: December 6, 2012 - Oh that’s adorable
Filed: December 7, 2012 - Martin Wagner and Tim Minchin sum it up
Filed: December 7, 2012 - So you’re not allowed to do that?
Filed: December 7, 2012 - Pimping its girls
Filed: December 7, 2012 - With one stroke of the sword
Filed: December 8, 2012 - Get consent
Filed: December 8, 2012 - An environment that is just too toxic and hostile to endure
Filed: December 8, 2012 - The gross crime against humanity of being born a woman
Filed: December 9, 2012 - How will billionaires be able to afford to buy politicians?
Filed: December 9, 2012 - “One individual has already been identified”
Filed: December 9, 2012 - That face is familiar
Filed: December 9, 2012 - Eschaton omnium gatherum
Filed: December 10, 2012 - Almost all the missing students are female
Filed: December 10, 2012 - Men against assholes & misogyny
Filed: December 10, 2012 - Nechemya Weberman found guilty of sexually abusing girl
Filed: December 10, 2012 - A “balanced” look at Female Genital “”"Mutilation”"”
Filed: December 11, 2012 - Come back a different person
Filed: December 11, 2012 - Women who
Filed: December 11, 2012 - Adult conversation
Filed: December 11, 2012 - Surgeries and modifications
Filed: December 11, 2012 - PUBLISH THIS COMMENT IF YOU DARE!!1
Filed: December 12, 2012 - Zuckerberg’s business card
Filed: December 12, 2012 - “It’s more of a guy thing”
Filed: December 12, 2012 - Part deux
Filed: December 12, 2012 - If we cannot have moral feelings against blueberries
Filed: December 12, 2012 - Morning clean-up
Filed: December 13, 2012 - Insulting prophets
Filed: December 13, 2012 - Needlepoint is a girl thing
Filed: December 13, 2012 - Vigilantes
Filed: December 13, 2012