This week I have been dealing with a number of really heart-wrenching cases. Apart from the asylum cases that need support, and desperate emails and calls from people living under Islamism who fear for their lives and want to flee, I am also working on a case of a young woman (under 18 and a …
Monthly Archive: April 2012
Apr 10 2012
Every morning I wake up on the wrong side of capitalism
There’s been a call for a general strike on May 1 – International Workers Day. No work, no school, no shopping, no banking, no trading. Just protest. I’m in. To find out more on what you can do on the day, click here. Here’s one Facebook page you can join. The call has been translated …
Apr 09 2012
Update on Alex Aan and Hamza Kashgari: We must keep the pressure on
ALEX AAN If you recall, I had told you about the case of 30 year old atheist Alex Aan, the civil servant who had been beaten and arrested in Indonesia because his postings on Facebook ‘insulted Islam’. In an update on his case, it’s reported that he has been indicted on three counts. The report …
Apr 09 2012
Afghanistan’s female banksy
Have you seen the graffiti work of 24 year old Shamsia Hassani, an associate professor of Sculpture at Kabul University in Afghanistan and a founding member of a contemporary art collective, Roshd (which means development/growth)? Things of beauty… A lot of her work features women in burqas, but with a modern silhouette, with hips and …
Apr 08 2012
For sweet Du’a
Deeyah just reminded me that yesterday was the anniversary of Du’a Khalil’s stoning in Iraqi Kurdistan. Here’s my speech marking her murder at a conference some time ago: And here’s sweet 17 year old Du’a last moments – brutally murdered in the name of honour by a mob whilst police stand by merely for loving …
Apr 08 2012
The wonders of HarassMap
Have you all heard of Harassmap? It’s a fantastic application for mobile phones in Egypt, which allows for reporting of incidences of sexual harassment via SMS messaging. It gives women a way to anonymously report sexual harassment as soon as they happen, using a simple text message from their mobile phone. You can see the …
Apr 08 2012
Taslima and the Burqa
Taslima Nasrin has joined us on Freethoughtblogs! Can things get any better? If you haven’t visited her blog yet, please do. Her post today is called ‘Let’s Burn the Burqa’. Oh, yes please. And while we are at it can we ban it too? Oh and before the post-modernist left and defenders of multi-culturalism and religion …
Apr 07 2012
I’d love to do this in a mosque
Two young women, Maria Alyokhin and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, have been arrested as part of an investigation into an all-female band of activists called Pussy Riot that staged an ‘obscene’ ‘punk prayer service’ at the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow as part of a protest against the election campaign. (By the …
Apr 07 2012
Err, Happy Easter?
9 Catholics in the Philippines marked Good Friday by reenacting Jesus’ crucifixion FOR REAL. You can see the repulsive video here. Once you watch the whole thing (I couldn’t), it does make you wonder what they will do for the resurrection? Err, Happy Easter?
Apr 06 2012
A cartoon is offensive?
Have you heard about the two young Tunisians, Jabeur Mejri and Ghazi Beji, who have been sentenced to seven years in prison for posting cartoons of Mohammad, Islam’s prophet, on Facebook? Seven years… And yet we keep hearing how cartoons are offensive!?! Oh boo hoo. For those of you who keep worrying about how cartoons offend …
Apr 06 2012
An Islamist’s wet dream
An Islamist’s wet dream (and I am referring to the very last photo in case you live under a rock): (Photo via Aliaa Magda Elmahdy)
Apr 05 2012
A ‘different culture’ doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when one is stoned
In September 2011, Mina Ahadi was invited to give a speech at the TEDxESPM conference in São Paulo, Brazil on her campaign against stoning and execution. In her speech she talks about her work and the campaign to save Iran stoning case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Mina’s first husband was executed in the same prison …
Apr 05 2012
Stop safeguarding traditional values over women’s rights
For the first time in its history, the 56th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)–a global policy-making body meant to promote women’s rights–ended with no agreed conclusions. Not since Beijing (4th World Conference on Women in 1995) has there been such a stalemate between women’s rights advocates and religious/conservative forces. Once more, culture and …
Apr 05 2012
What I may do with my body
Greta Christina has responded to Azar Majedi’s absurd attack on the Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar. If you recall, I responded to her recently as well. She says: Now. It is certainly the case that my choice to participate in this calendar was made in the context of a sexist culture: a culture that treats women …
Apr 03 2012
I am an Afghan
Afghans living in Isfahan, Iran were banned from the city’s mountainous park called Sofheh on April 1 or the 13th day of Norouz (Iranian New Year) – a day people are meant to spend outdoors – in order ‘to ensure citizens’ security and welfare’, according to the Travel Committee’s police department. This is just the latest …
Apr 02 2012
April 2012
April 2012 is here – the first month of the Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar. The photo is of mother and daughter Anne Baker and Poppy Wilson St. James. Mother Anne Baker says she joined the ‘scream’ and Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar because ‘men in frocks constrain, control and intimidate women the world over in the …
Apr 01 2012
What Next? Calendar of Veiled Women?
UPDATE: Err, April Fools! Oh no. I feel really guilty. Biodork has left FreethoughtBlogs because of me. If you recall, she blogged positively about the Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar but her ‘socialized shame about nakedness’ was too much to bear when she received her copy in the post. She has now left so she can …
Apr 01 2012
Nudity is freedom
I just got back from yesterday’s brilliant FEMEN Paris action in support of women in the Middle East and North Africa. Most certainly, nudity is freedom… Censored Femen: Paris Nudite – Liberte manifesto… by TECHNOLOGOS In addition to FEMEN Activists and I, other protestors included popular Lebanese actress Darina Al Jondy and well-known French women’s …
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