This collective sense of honour and shame has for centuries confined our movement and freedom of choice, and restricted our autonomy.… Read the rest
Fashionable nonsense has been with us since the time that prehistoric man first transcribed Of Grammatology on to the walls of the Lascaux caves. Here we cast an eye back at some historical highlights.
Alabama senator says slavery was good for black people
Oct 8th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe bible says slavery is ok and the Southern slave plantations were fabulous for the slaves says State Senator Charles Davidson.… Read the rest
Saudi cleric tells women to wear one-eye niqab
Oct 7th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.… Read the rest
Tarek Fatah on death threats over free speech
May 12th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe celebrated and controversial Canadian author Irshad Manji received the first “Mansoor Hallaj Freedom of Speech Award” by the Muslim Canadian Congress.… Read the rest
The victimization of moderate Muslims
May 7th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere has been a concerted campaign by many Muslims to remove Usama Hasan from his post as Imam of Masjid al-Tawhid in Leyton because he is too liberal.… Read the rest
TED talk: Tony Porter: a call to men
Apr 23rd, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf a 12-year-old boy says it would destroy him to be called a girl, what are we then teaching him about girls?… Read the rest
Jim Wright on Ayn Rand
Dec 18th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonI’d rather be forced to sit with a hemorrhoidal badger in my lap through every single George W. Bush and/or Al Gore speech ever recorded than to have to read Atlas Shrugged ever again.… Read the rest
Kathryn Joyce on biblical battered wife syndrome
Aug 26th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAccording to Rick Warren’s Saddleback church, divorce is permitted only in cases of adultery or abandonment, and never for abuse. … Read the rest
Jonathan Danilowitz on Israel’s enemy within
Jul 24th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“Today’s Judaism as dictated by rabbis of various religious streams is vicious, divisive, discriminatory, cruel, oppressive, sexist, and anti-democratic.”
Naturalism v theology
Jul 5th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTom Clark explores the subject, so you don’t have to.… Read the rest
Ajita Kamal on women’s rights in India
May 8th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSuperstitions such as goddess worship are cultural impediments to realizing true gender equality.… Read the rest
Stalemate on ‘mahram’ condition continues
May 7th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSaudi women who win scholarships to study abroad can’t use them unless their male “guardian” goes with them for the duration.… Read the rest
Radio Sweden on “Hatar Gud Kvinnor?”
Apr 15th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTalks to OB and to Christer Sturmark.… Read the rest
David Koepsell on atheism and civil rights
Apr 13th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAs recently as the 1960s, in about a dozen states in the US, if you didn’t believe in a divine system of reward and punishment or if you denied the existence of a deity, you were actually denied civil rights.… Read the rest
Howard Jacobson on the revolutions
Mar 31st, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Godly are always there in the wings, waiting for the hour in which they can claim the victory as theirs and restore tyranny, only in their image.… Read the rest
Making “Lessons in Hate and Violence” for Dispatches
Mar 17th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“You’re not like the non-Muslims out there,” the teacher says. “All that evil you see in the streets, people not wearing the hijab properly, people smoking… you should hate it, you should hate walking down that street.”… Read the rest
Mohammed Hanif on Pakistan’s celebrity maulanas
Mar 7th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey are there on prime time TV, they thunder on FM radios between adverts for Pepsi and hair removing cream.… Read the rest
Child “witches” in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria
Jan 25th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“We had to leave the children where we found them.”… Read the rest
Sikivu Hutchinson on black infidels
Jan 22nd, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAs a pioneer of the African American freethought and Humanist traditions, Frederick Douglass actively challenged the moral hypocrisy of white Christianity.… Read the rest
Secret Service blamed Palin for spike in death threats
Jan 15th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere was a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling “terrorist” and “kill him.”… Read the rest