The lives of most women in the industrialized world have improved enormously over the past hundred years, and especially so, in social, cultural, political, and human rights terms, over the past forty. But in the rest of the world, a great many women lead lives of misery and sometimes of plain horror. They are often considered and treated as the property of men: as children they are seen as burdens, to be married off as soon as possible, and as adults they are sex tools, reproductive machines, and domestic labour. When things go wrong – when sexual rumours are floating around, when the crops fail, when a child falls ill – they are scapegoats to be punished, often ferociously. They … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Win a Copy of Stephen Law’s Book 
May 9th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Who can find the most irritating, sinister or downright funny use of ‘atheism is a faith position too’?… Read the rest
The Video Makes Woman-murder Okay
May 9th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘As the cell phone video of Do’a Khalil’s killing spread, the number of honor killings increased.’… Read the rest
More on Vigil for Du’a
May 9th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women of IKWRO remember Du’a.… Read the rest
IKWRO Seminar in Memory of Du’a Khalil Aswad
May 9th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Discuss plan to pressure Kurdish authorities to protect women from killing and stoning.… Read the rest
Vigil for Du’a Khalil Aswad in Trafalgar Square
May 9th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
There will be a public seminar to discuss further action on the 18th May. All are welcome. … Read the rest
Ruling in Irish Abortion Case
May 9th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The High Court has ruled that Miss D can travel outside of the country for an abortion.… Read the rest
Misogyny’s last hideout
May 9th, 2007 11:25 am | By Ophelia BensonIt’s hard not to suspect that the real reason abortion is such a hot issue in some places is that it offers what looks like a respectable or decent pretext or excuse for pushing women around and telling them what to do, when none of the other pretexts for doing that retain a shred of respectability. Abortion is the one ‘reason’ for bossing and controlling and confining women; for, in short, taking away their autonomy. It’s the last resort – it’s what’s left when all the old ‘traditional’ unreasonable ones have been shown up and knocked down and got rid of. When they can’t be defended any more, there is one last way: abortion. Hooray hooray, there is still one … Read the rest
Objection
May 8th, 2007 12:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonUpdate. I tweaked this a little to make it clearer that it was the idea behind the law I was criticising and not the lawyer.
Irrelevant? Really?
The right to life of Miss D’s unborn child continues until it is dead, the High Court heard yesterday. The courts cannot engage in “a measuring exercise” about the capacity of the child prior to birth, a lawyer representing the unborn said. “This is a live foetus, that is the beginning and end of it, and the fact it has no brain and cannot survive after birth is irrelevant,” James Connolly, SC, said.
He’s the lawyer who is arguing for that side, so he has to say something, but the idea behind … Read the rest
Mukhtar Mai Harassed by Feudal Lords
May 8th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Pakistani authorities are harassing Mukhtar, trying to break her organisation.… Read the rest
Updates on Irish Abortion Case
May 8th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘This is a live foetus, and the fact it has no brain and cannot survive after birth is irrelevant.’… Read the rest
The Epistemology of the IPCC
May 8th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We can only consider arguments we understand, and not many people do understand.… Read the rest
The Missouri Bill
May 8th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mandates meetings to ask students if they think they are getting ‘a sound and respectful education.’… Read the rest
Missouri Law Mandates ‘Intellectual Diversity’
May 8th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Shall include but not be limited to the protection of religious freedom including the viewpoint that the Bible is inerrant.’… Read the rest
Worry Over ‘Disdain’ for Evangelicals in Classroom
May 8th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Rational or cognitive disagreement viewed as ‘bias and prejudice.’… Read the rest
Get the Facts Right
May 8th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mark Oppenheimer on a glaring mistake in Hitchens’s God is Not Great.… Read the rest
May Day in Iran
May 7th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In Sanandaj the security forces crushed the workers’ main rally, beating up a number of workers.… Read the rest
Atheists Waking Up in Godbothering US
May 7th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Now there’s atheist summer camp. Yee-ha.… Read the rest
Woman ‘So Offended’ by Starbucks Cup
May 7th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Coffee addict forced to read something she didn’t agree with. World grinds to halt.… Read the rest
Salman Rushdie Rebuts Yusuf Islam
May 7th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
However much he may wish to rewrite his past, he was neither misunderstood nor misquoted on the fatwa.… Read the rest
