Samira Ahmed

3 weeks ago | newhumanist.org.uk | Samira Ahmed

I am in a Paris museum looking at thick bronze plates full of crushed parchment. The bronze is an engraved “Declaration Of The Rights of Man And Of The Citizen” from 1789 and the paper, a copy of the 1791 new French constitution.

Jan 22, 2025 | humanists.uk | Samira Ahmed

Dr Emma Byrne will deliver the Rosalind Franklin Lecture 2025, taking place on 6 March, in the week of International Women’s Day. The event, a highlight of the humanist calendar, will be chaired by Samira Ahmed. Early bird tickets are on sale now. Often censored, always emotive, swearing is the part of language that speaks when other words fail us. In the Rosalind Franklin Lecture 2025, Emma Byrne will unpack the power of strong language.

Jan 8, 2025 | newhumanist.org.uk | Samira Ahmed

“Why late love is so much better than young love”; “The midlifers who found love on a dating show”; “The truth about dating in your 50s”. These are a sample of recent headlines from just one British newspaper, The Times, which seems to be mining endless clickbait on the topic of midlife dating. Some readers might sneer, but I marvel at the victory they represent.

Dec 6, 2024 | samiraahmed.blog | Samira Ahmed

It’s had rave reviews, notably from men who’ve never read the book. And many female fans who have. But I felt really unsettled by this new production. Last year’s The Witches, wittily inverted Dahl’s misogyny, by making the witches aliens, who disguise themselves as those most ignore of humans – older women. This production actually ends up reinforcing some stereotypes in its attempt to modernise the book, as I’ll explain.

Aug 28, 2024 | newhumanist.org.uk | Samira Ahmed

Year: 1943. Somewhere in occupied Europe a brave band of brothers are trying to sabotage Nazi infrastructure. Well, actually, it’s 1975 in a south London park. My teenage brother and his friends are making a war film on their little cine-camera. My sister and I have been allowed to tag along and watch. The resulting footage is a strange mix of live action shoot-outs and deaths dripping with fake blood, alongside cutaways of plastic tanks and toy soldiers melting slowly in flames.