Hey, Readers!

You know I love yas, right? And you know how I do my absolute best to come up with interesting things for you to read? And you know all the conversations we have here about feminism and social justice and secularism and all of that  really juicy, interesting stuff? I’ve got something you’ll be interested in. And I’ve got a favour to ask.

Empowering Women Through Secularism

This June, Atheist Ireland will be hosting the country’s first ever Empowering Women Through Secularism conference. They’ve got a fascinating lineup of speakers both from ’round these parts and internationally. From Ireland, we’re talking people like:

• Senator Ivana Bacik
• Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly from Atheist Ireland and Teach Don’t Preach
• Journalist and reproductive rights activist Anthea McTiernan
• Mairin de Burca from Right to Die Ireland

And they’ll be bringing in the likes of this lot from overseas:

• Skepchick Rebecca Watson
• Ophelia Benson of Butterflies and Wheels
• Maryam Namazie from the Council of Ex-Muslims in Britain
• Carlos Diaz, the Argentinian President of the Atheist Alliance International
• No Country for Women’s Taslima Nasreen
• And of course, PZ, who needs no introduction and does tend to show up at these things
• …and a shedload more.

From the conference page, here’s the kind of topics that’ll be discussed:

Topics will include

• How religions discriminate against women
• How religiously-influenced laws discriminate against women
• The history of women in atheist and secular activism
• Healthcare, sexuality and reproductive rights
• Education, careers, and social policy
• Combatting violence against women
• Political strategies, media and building coalitions
• The future of women in atheist and secular activism
• Declaration on Empowering Women Through Secularism

If you’re in Dublin and have any interest in feminism and secularism from a gloriously international perspective? You gotta sign up for this.

Help me get there!

Here’s the bit where I ask you a favour. As some of you know, I’m not exactly Scrooge McDucking my way through my vault of eurodollarpounds. I am, in fact, a broke-ass intern. Registration for the conference is still going at an early bird price of just €100 for the weekend, but even that is beyond my means right now. I would really, really love to get to this conference, but I can’t do it on my own.

This is where my readers come in. Help me raise the €£$ to get to the conference, and I’ll blog my little heart out at it. Have a speaker you’ve always wanted to ask a burning question to? I’ll ask them! I’ll livetweet sessions. I’ll barely sleep for the weekend and actually make it to the early morning talks and panels and I’ll recap every damn thing I go to. If you won’t be able to make it to Dublin that weekend, this is your chance to get real-time info ‘n’ updates on what promises to be one hell of a fascinating conference.

I would really love to get to this. I can’t make it on my own. Give a brokeass blogger a hand?

EDITED TO ADD THAT YOU ARE ALL AMAZING GODDAMN PEOPLE WHO HAVE GONE AND RAISED ME THE MONEY TO GET TO THE CONFERENCE IN A MATTER OF HOURS. Thank you SO much for the donations and the RTs and shares and, most of all, for the wonderful support. I’m gonna do my damnedest to cover the hell out of this conference for you lot. Hopefully I’ll see a bunch of you there!

Related articles

• Empowering Women Through Secularism (godextinguisher.wordpress.com)
• Irish Catholics continue to flee the church (irishsociology.wordpress.com)
• My dance card is going to be full (freethoughtblogs.com)
• When will the Secularists Come Out? (jeffpeel.net)