The French government has unveiled new measures to promote both secular values and religious tolerance in its schools. Children will now be taught about the separation of church and state, the differences and similarities between the major religions, and asked to sign a charter banning racist and sexist behaviour, and disrespect “for any religion (sic) …
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Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston is head of the commission created to advise Pope Francis on how to tackle clerical sex abuse of minors and make bishops accountable for cover-ups and failure to prevent abuse. “Obviously,” he said, “there has to be consequences and there needs to be procedures that will allow these cases to …
463 cases of female genital mutilation are identified in English hospitals every month. (The Sunday Times) Despite the fact that it is illegal, it has been estimated that over 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the UK each year, and that 66,000 women in the …
38% of British women believe in God, compared to just 24% of men. 61% of women and 35% of men think there is an afterlife. (1970 British Cohort Study/The Daily Telegraph)
Human Rights Watch is calling on Indonesia to scrap “virginity tests” given to female police recruits. Apparently, female recruits are subjected to the “two-finger test” to determine if they are virgins. Unsurprisingly, it is described it as painful and traumatic. Senior police officials have claimed the practice has been discontinued. But the test is listed as …
