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

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