On April 7th, Arkansas’s House Bill 1701, which would allow Christian beliefs to be taught in schools, passed the House vote 72 to 21. The voting was strictly partisan, with Republicans having the majority. 

SHAME: The Arkansas House just passed an unconstitutional bill that allows public schools to teach the Christian theory of creationism as science. https://t.co/TV9vdwyEPy

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 22nd, a West Yorkshire school teacher showed his students a cartoon image depicting the prophet Muhammad to illustrate a lesson within the school’s curriculum. Within three days, at least 50 demonstrators gathered outside of Batley Grammar School to protest the teacher’s actions.

Police in Indonesia opened an investigation involving a woman’s peculiar case of bearing a child at the local clinic. Authorities are examining the odd details of her claim that she was impregnated only an hour earlier by a “gust of wind.” 

The young woman, Siti Zainah (age 25), recently gave birth to a baby girl in Cianjur, a town within Indonesia’s southern province of West Java. 

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