Joan Smith

Known for her human rights activism and writing on subjects such as atheism and feminism, Joan Smith is a columnist, critic and novelist. An Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a regular contributor to BBC radio, she has written five detective novels, two of which have been filmed by the BBC. Her latest novel, What Will Survive, was published in June 2007.

Joan Smith: Depression is more deadly in the male

In 2003, the German goalkeeper Robert Enke played a single match for the Turkish football club Fenerbahce. Enke was on loan from Barcelona for the opening match of the season, a home game against Istanbulspor. Fenerbahce lost 3-0 and furious fans rounded on the goalkeeper, hurling abuse, bottles and mobile phones. Clearly shocked, Enke left the club after only 13 days, protesting that he "had not deserved the hate they showed me". Despite this setback, Enke's star soon began to rise: he signed for Hanover and played for the German national team, raising expectations that he would represent his country at the world cup in South Africa next year. All that came to an end last week when he committed suicide by stepping in front of a train.

Recently by Joan Smith

Joan Smith: How can religion not have played a part?

Sunday, 8 November 2009

The slaughter of his fellow soldiers by Major Nidal Malik Hasan was the result of a clash between his profession and his faith.

Joan Smith: After Marlon King, kick sexism out of football

Sunday, 1 November 2009

Until last week, Marlon King was just another overpaid Premier League footballer. Now he's in prison after being found guilty of a brutal assault on a student, and he's been sacked by his club, Wigan Athletic. The footballer is 6ft 1in, his victim just over 5ft, and she's still recovering from her encounter with a man who clearly can't control himself around women.

Sex trafficking is real

Thursday, 29 October 2009

Joan Smith: The debate is between those stuck in the 1960s and those of us with a modern view of rights.

Joan Smith: First Blair's babes, now it's Dave's dolls

Sunday, 25 October 2009

Our writer mistrusts the Tory conversion to all-women shortlists

Joan Smith: Our 'don't ask' policy on torture demands some answers

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Shortly after the suicide bombings on the East Coast in the autumn of 2001, a debate began in the US about whether it could ever be right to use torture to thwart further terrorist attacks. Most Western liberals were horrified, but we should have been quicker to realise where it might lead: excessive eagerness by some Western security agencies to accept information obtained under torture, and a hard-right American administration signing off on rendition, water-boarding and internment at Guantanamo Bay. It's clear now that one of the unforeseen consequences of 9/11 was a degree of moral confusion at the very top about torture, and a reluctance to be open about it which continues to this day.

Joan Smith: Who benefits from hearing interviews with a paedophile?

Thursday, 15 October 2009

Earlier this week, excerpts from a series of extraordinary tape recordings were played on BBC TV and radio. They were clips from four police interviews with Vanessa George, the nursery worker convicted a couple of weeks ago of horrific offences against young children, and George could be heard initially appearing to co-operate with detectives. As the interviews progressed, George gradually became sullen, refusing pleas from detectives to reveal the identities of the infants she abused. She sounded cold and uncaring, but that's hardly surprising, given the nature of her crimes.

Joan Smith: French sexual tolerance is wearing thin

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Mitterrand: the minister who admits to using young prostitutes

Joan Smith: We stereotype sexual predators, and we get it wrong

Sunday, 4 October 2009

Vanessa, Colin and Angela: they sound like inoffensive neighbours whom you might invite round for a drink. In fact, they're three of the worst paedophiles ever convicted in this country.

Joan Smith: The soldiers who can't help bringing their work home

Sunday, 27 September 2009

The American army has various names for it: it's called "spousal aggression" or "intimate partner violence". These are posh terms for wife-beating, and it's a huge problem in the US military. In the year 2000, after three soldiers at Fort Campbell in Kentucky were charged with murdering their wives or girlfriends, Congress set up a task force to investigate domestic violence on military bases and make recommendations. One of the first places it visited was Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which became notorious only two years later when four army wives were killed by their husbands or ex-husbands in a six-week period; three of the cases involved Special Operations soldiers who had been in Afghanistan, and two of the perpetrators killed themselves as well. In all, there were 832 victims of domestic violence at the base between 2002 and 2004, according to the army's own figures.