Category: News
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The bloody decade
There’s an International People’s Court hearing on the crimes against humanity committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran during 18-22 June 2012 in London. The hearing is a culmination of the work of Iran Tribunal, a campaign initiated in September 2007 by a group of the families and relatives of victims along with survivors of the mass…
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I’m back from the dead
Well I’m sort of back from the dead. I haven’t blogged for a few days because I have been in a dark room with a massive migraine. But the pounding in my head has stopped and I am as good as new – at least for now. I’ll be blogging again today after I go through the…
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I’m the other type of apostate
Here’s an Egyptian cleric talking about apostates. He says: There are two types of apostates. The first is the one who hides his apostasy and he doesn’t do anything against Islamic teachings. We have nothing to do with that kind… we only judge people by what they show and the rest is up to allah.…
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Do you remember Gulnaz?
Remember Gulnaz? She was the woman who was raped and imprisoned in Afghanistan and then ‘pardoned’ to marry her rapist. Below is a programme on her case and the film, ‘Injustice’, which had been commissioned and then censored by the EU. The programme has Persian subtitles, and some important bits in English, including an interview with…
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Interview with Alex Aan, Indonesian in prison for ‘insulting’ Islam
Rafiq Mahmood visited Alex Aan on Thursday. Alex is the 30 year old Indonesian civil servant who has been charged with ‘insulting’ Islam in an atheist group in Facebook. Aan is in the early stages of his trial – the exchange of lawyers submissions. Up until Thursday Alex was being held in the court cells.…
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Nightmare week
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…