by Heather Hastie | Aug 21, 2017 | Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, USA
As I said in my post on Charlottesville, the destruction of a statue is one I don’t agree with. I think that has a lot to do with my education in history, and perhaps also a general dislike for that sort of action. I suspect everyone here would agree with me...
by Heather Hastie | May 14, 2015 | Atheism, Democracy, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Religion
On 21 April, Bangladesh’s The Daily Star published an opinion article entitled The extent of freedom of expression. It was written by senior law lecturer Mirza Farzana Iqbal Chowdhury of Daffodil International University, a private university in the Bangladeshi...
by Heather Hastie | Mar 27, 2015 | Atheism, Freedom of Speech, Religion, Science & Nature
Yesterday (26 March) was Richard Dawkins’s 74th birthday. I’m a big fan of Dawkins – it was while watching one of his documentaries a few years ago that I realized that I was an atheist, and had been at least agnostic since I was a child. The God...
by Heather Hastie | Mar 18, 2015 | Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Religion
I wrote about New Zealander Philip Blackwood here in January when he was still awaiting trial after his arrest on 10 December last year. 10 December is International Human Rights Day, and so I thought it particularly ironic that he was arrested for his particular...
by Heather Hastie | Mar 7, 2015 | Democracy, Human Rights, Middle East, Religion, Women
Most of you have probably see the video below of Maajid Nawaz trying to get some of his fellow Muslims admit that some of the punishments in Sharia are inhumane. For whatever reason, they simply won’t say that punishments like stoning to death are wrong....
