women

Impunity for Rapists in India

January 23rd, 2013

Imagine being raped and then having to marry your rapist. That's a routine "resolution" offered up to rape victims in India, according to today's New York Times:

In many rape cases, the police spend more time seeking reconciliation between the attacker and the victim than investigating the facts.

The article also notes that beyond police urging victims to marry their attackers, women are at risk of sexual violence from the police themselves, who are not permitted to have women brought into the police stations at night for this very reason.

The tragic death of a 23-year-old gang rape victim in India has opened a desperately needed dialogue in the country on what amounts to an epidemic of virtually unchallenged sexual violence there. In the wake of all of the bad publicity, the Government of India responded with some hastily introduced measures, but the systemic issues remain, chief among them, a police force that is a foe rather than an ally to women. The article quoted...More >>

Upcoming Event: Women in Secularism Conference

January 21st, 2013

Women in Secularism 2: The Grand Conversation Continues May 17-19

The historic 2012 Women in Secularism conference brought together a powerful roster of some of the freethought movement’s smartest and most outspoken women, setting in motion a grand conversation about the many contributions women have made to the secular movement and the role of religion in the oppression of women, while critically examining both the successes and failures of secularism in addressing women's concerns.

That conversation never ended.

If anything, it has become more central to the secular community than ever. So join us in Washington, DC, May 17–19, 2013 for the Women in Secularism 2 conference, sponsored by the Center for Inquiry, and prepare to discuss, to debate, and to be enlightened and inspired – men and women alike!

Early Bird General Admission (rate increases March 15) for the three-day conference: $210
Early Bird CFI Member Discount Admission (rate increases March 15): $185 (Become a member!)
Saturday Night Dinner and Entertainment with performance by Shelley Segal: $85
Student Registration (limited quantities, rate increases March 15, must present ID): $35

SPEAKERS:
Lauren Becker, educator, organizer, director of marketing & promotions, Center...More >>

More Pacifist Fiction on Afghanistan

June 13th, 2012

Pat Kennelly, Associate Director of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, writes an astounding load of fiction posing as non-fiction on CommonDreams.org on June 6, claiming that NATO and US Forces in Afghanistan are the cause of all of the problems of Afghan women. For instance, Kennelly claims:

NATO operations have caused greater insecurity for women. They create countless widows, destroy homes, and foster a psychological terror that women are not safe and secure, even in their own homes.

He offers no evidence whatsoever to back this claim, and goes on to imply that the "occupation" is responsible for everything from self-immolation cases among women to maternal mortality.

It's also remarkable that in an article on the theme of what most plagues Afghan women, the word "Taliban" is not mentioned even once. Yet it's indisputably the Taliban who pose the greatest threat to the rights of women and the evidence I would offer is their well-established track record from 1994-2001 as the greatest misgynists the world has ever known.

Kennelly vaguely alludes to evidence from interviews in Afghanistan that would support his claims:

In recent visits to schools, orphanages, and Afghan NGOs, ordinary Afghans did not identify specific
...More >>

The Bored Ayatollahs

July 14th, 2011

One would think that suppressing a mass uprising that just won't seem to go away would keep Iran's theocrats awfully busy, but the ayatollahs have been more focused lately on skirt hems and hair-dos. Perhaps it's proscrastination, a make-work project to avoid having to get through all those tedious sham trials for the thousands of dissidents recently rounded up and imprisoned in these heady times. Whatever it is, there has been a steady output of late of new rules and updated regulations concerning personal attire in the Islamic Republic.

In June this year, the republic's "moral police" fanned out in a force of 70,000 to snuff out the fires of what the mullahs-on-high perceive to be a "western cultural invasion". New problems the police force have to deal with in this particular seasonal crackdown include men wearing necklaces, mullets and ponytails. The latter two are not found on the government's list of approved hairstyles (oh yes, there's a list). Long nails, tattoos, tooth gems (whatever those are), and body piercings are also now needing to be banned. This is on top of the perennial problem that Iranian women miraculously and persistently manage to make the shroud-look still come off sexily...More >>

Review of Farzana Hassan's "Islam, Women and the Challenges of Today"

March 16th, 2011

Farzana Hassan, former president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, set out to write a book that would, in her words, “challenge young Muslim minds”, urging a re-examination of “traditionally held views, often rooted in classical jurisprudence that have come to be part of the entrenched narrative of Islam.” Hassan has a lot of misgivings over this narrative, which she straightforwardly interrogates in her book, “Islam, Women and the Challenges of Today.”

This is probably the right moment to disclose what I suppose constitutes a bias in reviewing a book about faith, which would be my lack of it—of the Mohammedan brand or otherwise. And worse, my atheism is not just personal, but political in that I am convinced that religion is frequently ridiculous, and often dangerous. I tend to agree with Sam Harris that religion is easily “the most prolific source of violence in our history” (2004). I can’t take seriously something I’ve seen no evidence for, and I agree with those who point out that there is much in the Qu’ran that is pretty near impossible to interpret in kinder light no...More >>

Help Save the Afghan-Canadian Community Centre in Kandahar

February 9th, 2011

Canadian taxpayers can be proud that modest contributions from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) over the past few years have supported an exceptional school in the heart of southern Afghanistan, the Afghan Canadian Community Centre.

Tucked away behind unassuming but protective gates down a quiet street in Kandahar city, hundreds of young people bustle in and out of the small building every day. Women swell the ACCC's classrooms in the day, while young men come for their classes in the evenings. Operating much like a community college, Kandaharis can take computer, business, marketing and English classes here that allow them to land good jobs and earn good incomes. They take online classes with Canadian profs at places like the South Alberta Institute of Technology, making use of the benefits offered by free software like Skype and Canadian 'virtual volunteers' keen to pitch in where they can.

In this deeply conservative setting, access to education opportunities like those offered at the ACCC are hard to come by. Many international and Afghan NGOs have no interest in going anywhere near Kandahar given its precarious security situation, while it is the southern region that most needs more social...More >>