So modern and fabulous we think we are…

But it was the French philosopher of the Enlightenment period, Voltaire, who said, ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’

He died 245 years ago.

His fearless scholarship and his relentless pursuit against tyranny and bigotry, were considered by some as the social precursors to the French Revolution of 1789.

Why is it that 250 years on – in a first-world nation, in what we think to be a first-class society with first-class standards – can a woman be persecuted for having a view about women, and potentially...