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....
by Heather Hastie | Jan 31, 2015 | Human Rights, Religion, Women
Since 2013, 1 February has been World Hijab Day. It was started by a New York woman, Nazma Khan. Khan moved to New York from Bangladesh with her parents at the age of eleven. She was the only child at her school wearing the hijab and was bullied. It seems from her...
by Heather Hastie | Jan 6, 2015 | History, New Zealand, Women
This article is the first in an occasional series I will be writing on New Zealand women. Shortly, there will be a new page on my website, New Zealand Women, celebrating some of the amazing, or just well-known, women New Zealand has produced. I’m currently...
by Heather Hastie | Oct 25, 2014 | US Politics, Women
Anyone speaking English (or American!) on Twitter will have seen tweets, especially around election time, of the US Democratic Party accusing the US Republican Party of waging a War on Women. The phrase is so common it’s become capitalized. So is it a fair accusation?...
by Heather Hastie | Oct 12, 2014 | Health, Human Rights, Religion, Women
There was a window when Reza Aslan had my sympathy. At the end of July Fox News reporter Lauren Green interviewed him about his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Green’s opinion seemed to be that as a Muslim, Aslan had no right to write a book...