by Heather Hastie | Jan 4, 2016 | Asia, Atheism, Auē a Tau Kē, Freedom of Speech, NZ Politics
The Murder of Atheist Bloggers in Bangladesh On 14 May 2015 I posted Bangladesh: Another Atheist Blogger Hacked to Death. This post was mainly about the murder two days earlier of Ananta Bijoy Das, the fourth atheist blogger hacked to death in the streets of...
by Heather Hastie | Dec 8, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Middle East
I’ve written about the appalling justice system in Saudi Arabia before in The Injustice of Sharia in Saudi Arabia and also specifically about the case of Raif Badawi, a blogger serving a sentence of ten years and 1,000 lashes simply for disagreeing with the type...
by Heather Hastie | Nov 1, 2015 | Asia, Atheism, Freedom of Speech, Winners and Worries
For the fifth time this year, I’ve woken to news that another person associated with the tiny atheist community in Bangladesh has been brutally murdered via machete. In February it was author and atheist blogger Dr Avijit Roy, who was murdered in the street in a...
by Heather Hastie | Nov 1, 2015 | Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Middle East, Winners and Worries
It was announced on Thursday that Raif Badawi won the European Union’s Sakharov human rights prize. The Guardian reports : Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger and activist sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, has won the EU’s Sakharov...
by Heather Hastie | Aug 9, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, New Zealand, Religion, Winners and Worries
It’s a good thing I thought of a saint this week before I watched the rugby last night. Australia beat the All Blacks, and I have to be honest – Australia deserved the win. It’s all a bit depressing. Later this afternoon New Zealand time it’s...
by Heather Hastie | May 28, 2015 | Freedom of Speech
I’ve finally done what I’ve been resisting for years and joined Facebook yesterday. It wasn’t all bad – the first thing I saw when I “found a friend” was a photo of my niece on her first day at pre-school. That was pretty cool. Then...
