France’s move to outlaw wearing the hijab in public places for girls under age 18 was proposed under France’s “Separatist Bill” and approved by Members of Parliament (MP) on February 16th. The French Senate decided in favor of the bill on March 30th.
On March 26th, Arkansas’s Governor, Asa Hutchinson (R), enacted Senate Bill 289 (Medical Ethics and Diversity Act,” into law.This legislation will allow doctors and medical professionals to refuse treatment that conflicts with their religious or moral beliefs. Opponents say this legislation will give providers an easy path to deny LGBTQ patients the medical treatment they need.
On March 14th, the Vatican office that manages doctrine announced that the Catholic Church is not authorized to bless same-sex unions.
A former priest in Argentina, Andrés Gioeni, formally disavowed his Catholicism after the Vatican’s decree. In recent years, Gioeni became an LGBTQ activist lobbying for a more open Catholic Church. He has blessed same-sex unions in Argentina, where Pope Francis was born and initially became part of the Catholic Church.
Several studies in recent decades found that being religious correlates with good health. New studies have challenged the finding that being an atheist correlates with poor health!
Believers who attend church services regularly are less likely to smoke, use drugs or become obese. They may live longer than those who do not attend any religious church services. Some have been led to conclude, according to those findings, that if religion is good for you, then being an atheist must be bad for your health.
Nabeel Masih, a 16-year-old Christian, was accused by Akhtar Ali on September 18, 2016, of committing blasphemy in a Facebook post. Ali claimed the post “defamed and disrespected” the Kaaba in Mecca. Ali also claimed that he and some friends discovered a picture on Masih’s timeline depicting a pig on top of the Kaaba.
As it sought dismissal of the petitions to recognize same-sex marriages within existing laws, the Centre told the Delhi High Court (HC) that marriage in India depends on “age-old customs, rituals, practices, cultural ethos and societal values.” In the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 377 that covers homosexuality, the Supreme Court only decriminalized “a particular human behavior,” but it did not legitimize the human conduct in question.
On February 25th, a gay Malaysian man won a breakthrough court battle against Salengor’s Islamic ban on sex “against the order of nature,” drawing the LGBTQ community one step closer to wider acceptance of gay rights in a predominantly Muslim country.
West Virginia Legislature introduced a controversial bill on February 10th, 2021, to remove essential teachings from public schools.
House Bill 2157 proposes eliminating any teachings of sexuality and forbids displays meant to promote understanding among all students related to such instructions in public schools. Although it doesn’t specify any particular group or sexuality in written form, it is widely known as an attempt to ban any mention of the LGBTQ+ community.
On January 31st, the Statistical Center of Iran reported that approximately 9,058 girls between ages 10 and 14 were married in 2020.
Officials who enact marriage laws based on the Islamic constitution often cite the eighth-century Muslim scholar Imam Sadiq, who stated that a 'happy father' does not permit his daughter to menstruate in his house. Today, the basis of Iran’s matrimonial laws is formed from this specific interpretation of Islam.
Over 9,000 10–14 year-old girls married in 3 months
