The state cannot protect women and ensure that they can go about their work safely. … Read the rest

Shukria Barakzai, founder and editor of a newspaper for Afghan women, was named Worldpress.org’s 2004 International Editor of the Year. … Read the rest

‘If the pupils are looking up, the demons in possession are scorpions. If looking down, they are serpents.’… Read the rest

against the publishers of Jewish Free Press and the Western Standards for sighting [sic]hate against Muslims… Read the rest

She was to be mutilated at the behest of a man who wanted to make her his fourth wife.… Read the rest

Despite evidence that contradicts the story of a prelapsarian gynecocracy, and a glaring lack of evidence to support it, many people continue to subscribe to it. … Read the rest

The Inca were imperialists too, and the treatment of such peasant children may have served to instil fear and facilitate social control over remote mountain areas.… Read the rest

Gay rights are part of the Orientalist project.… Read the rest

The documents leave uncertain the degree of involvement of Benazir Bhutto but they trace the pervasive role of her husband.… Read the rest

In their hearts these people were with us, but they were scared to show this. … Read the rest

The use of cultural evidence risks a dangerous balkanization of the criminal law.… Read the rest

Across rural India, it’s easy to find people who revere sati as the ultimate demonstration of womanly honour, devotion and piety. … Read the rest

It is estimated that as many as 74,000 women in the UK have had FGM and that every year a further 7,000 are at risk. … Read the rest

Reasons not to talk about stampedes where “several” poor Third-World Muslims died.… Read the rest

“Every day women are sacrificed for their family or tribe,” Nilab Mobarez tells me angrily. … Read the rest

What is so good about having faith when you don’t have evidence? What is the real advantage to that? Why is this something that we want to encourage?… Read the rest

Emboldened by their growing political power, religious conservatives are once again storming the barricades of science education. … Read the rest

We Have No Orders To Save You.… Read the rest

The scientific evidence is overwhelming and has been published in peer-reviewed medical journals, the way science is supposed to be done. … Read the rest

AIDS denial plays a corrosive role in the health policies of many countries, but nowhere has the damage been as extreme or as enduring as in South Africa.… Read the rest