As companies and corporations worldwide prepare to celebrate Pride Month this June, Malaysian authorities crack down on what they perceive as LGBTQIA+ “agenda” by confiscating watches from a popular Swiss company for having elements associated with the LGBTQIA+ community.
After a group of women’s rights associations in Morocco united and launched a campaign called “It's Time to Change the Law" to fight for equal rights, Islamic clerics and conservative social media influencers also banded together to oppose this campaign.
On May 2, 2023, several women’s rights activists and organizations unveiled the campaign to call for changes in Morocco’s laws, notably its Family Code and Family Law, to align with the country’s constitution and international obligations regarding women’s rights.
A young Hindu man from Bangladesh was arrested and convicted for allegedly insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad through a social media post around six years ago.
On May 23rd, a court in the city of Rangpur in northwestern Bangladesh convicted a man named Titu Roy for making derogatory, anti-Islam remarks on Facebook, sentencing him to ten years in prison.
After an incident in a coastal city in southern Lebanon where a woman was allegedly harassed for reportedly wearing an “indecent” bathing suit, activists staged a protest at a beach on May 21st.
Dozens of female protesters defied a ban imposed by the conservative, Sunni Muslim-majority city of Sidon regarding the bathing suit incident. They rallied against it, according to a reporter from Agence-France Presse (AFP).
A man in San Antonio was officially exonerated after being wrongfully imprisoned for eight years during the Satanic Panic in the United States, where thousands of unsubstantiated cases were made.
"San Antonio man wrongfully convicted in 1991 has charges dismissed in Satanic Panic case": https://t.co/JovSyIvCrk
Three men in Iran accused of killing three members of the country’s security forces were executed by the Islamic Republic on May 19th, sparking massive protests across the country and drawing condemnation from various governments and human rights organizations.
The Tasnim news agency and the website of Iran’s judiciary confirmed the executions of 30-year-old Majid Kazemi, 36-year-old Saleh Mirhashemi, and 37-year-old Saeed Yaqoubi on the dawn of May 19th at the Dastgerd prison in the city of Isfahan, located in central Iran.
After receiving backlash from Catholic leaders and conservative politicians, the Los Angeles Dodgers decided to call off its invitation to a group of drag nun performers for its LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th.
LA Dodgers abandon plan to host drag group "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" after Catholic backlashhttps://t.co/36S2b9qmVW
Iranian authorities announced that two men accused of blasphemy were hanged amidst a rising number of executions since the protests that rocked the country following the death of Mahsa Amini under police custody in September 2022.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense caused a stir among Indian netizens after tweeting a photo portraying the Indian goddess Kali morphed over a blast fume on April 30th, deeming it “Hinduphobic” and “disrespectful.”
The official Twitter account of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense posted the image showing Kali superimposed over the fumes. The picture depicted the Hindu goddess of war and destruction posing awkwardly with her tongue sticking out and having a Marilyn Monroe-like upskirt moment, with a wreath of skulls around her neck.
Months after cow vigilante and Hindu nationalist influencer Monu Manesar became notorious on social media after being accused of murder and posting his exploits against cow traders and smugglers, another Hindu nationalist figure went from obscurity to superstar-like fame, thanks to social media giants frequently ignoring their own moderation rules and community guidelines.
