Fundamentalists want to impose a religious identity on all citizens, by virtue of their birth place rather than by choice, thus denying freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of consciousness.… Read the rest

Political change in Iran is necessary, but it must not be achieved by foreign intervention.… Read the rest

Countless women in DRC have been raped and mangled, then shunned.… Read the rest

To mark international women’s day 2004, International Pen Writers in Prison Committee focused on al-Huwaider.… Read the rest

Sura 40 says that those who reject the scriptures will have iron collars and chains placed around their necks, be dragged into scalding water and burnt in the fire.… Read the rest

Women in Algeria were slaughtered in the thousands by fundamentalist armed forces throughout the nineties, because they refused to be forcibly covered.… Read the rest

Tahir Aslam Gora suggests an outline for the new Islam.… Read the rest

Enlightenment 2.0 makes for a rather toothless, muddled kind of liberation. … Read the rest

‘There is no serious scientific doubt that evolution occurred or that natural selection is a major mechanism in its occurrence.’… Read the rest

Sexual behavior may compete with the time and resources required for other goals.… Read the rest

He has to reduce science to just another faith in order to salvage the “reasonableness” of religious belief.… Read the rest

Another demonstration that atheism is simply not permissible.… Read the rest

‘Historians are always making up figures,’ said Lyndall Ryan. Oh really?… Read the rest

Delegates from countries like Bangladesh, Iran, India and Sri Lanka – which have similar female suicide rates – discussed the problem at a conference in Afghanistan in November 2006.… Read the rest

Driven to desperation by forced marriages and abusive husbands, more and more are seeking release through self-immolation.… Read the rest

His book gives advice on wife-beating. Not too hard, not on the tender bits; do it right.… Read the rest

Islamic officials seized her 15-month-old daughter from her Hindu husband, Suresh Veerappan, last month and handed the child to Revathi’s Muslim mother.… Read the rest

Subjecting Hindu women to Sharia courts is not justice.… Read the rest

Government and military officials are suspected of plotting, ordering, or carrying out more than a quarter of journalist murders over the past 15 years, CPJ’s analysis shows.… Read the rest

Just look how she dresses, the bridge of her nose visible for all the world to see.’… Read the rest