On Friday, March 4, a controversial bill was proposed in Haryana's state assembly, triggering opposition members' outcry. Haryana, a state in northern India, has a state legislative assembly dominated by the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
France has announced a plan to ban two Palestinian advocacy groups based in the country. Gerald Darmanin, France’s Minister of the Interior, on February 24 tweeted that he would disband Collectif Palestine Vaincra (Palestine Will Win) and Comité Palestine Action (Palestine Action Committee).
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has recalled the ambassador to the United Kingdom over a controversial video of a ceremony hosted by the embassy. Mohsen Baharvand, Tehran’s ambassador to London, hosted the 43rd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, allowing unveiled women in attendance.
New Zealand's parliament passed a bill that will ban conversion therapy on Tuesday, February 15. Introduced in August 2021, the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill passed its third reading with a massive offset of 112 to 8.
When enacted, the bill will "prohibit conversion practices that seek to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression."
A recently opened Holocaust museum in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province is causing an outcry from conservative Muslims and Islamic scholar groups. The groups are demanding that the permanent exhibition and museum dedicated to the horrors of the Holocaust be closed.
Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, head of foreign relations and international cooperation of the country's Indonesian Ulema Council, said they demanded that the exhibition stop and cancel the museum.
Outrage and scores of protests are erupting in India's Karnataka state after a group of Hindus heckled a young Muslim girl. In a video posted on Twitter on February 8, a Muslim girl wearing a burqa was bullied by a mob of militant far-right Hindus. Muskan Khan, a college student, can be seen fighting back the protesters in the video.
Rob Standridge, a Republican Senator from Oklahoma, has introduced a stupefyingly callous, religiously inspired bill to the Oklahoma senate. Known as the Students' Religious Belief Protection Act, the bill seeks to penalize educators who oppose students' "closely held religious beliefs."
On February 1, 2022, the Egyptian parliament discussed increasing the penalty for wife-beating proposed by a female lawmaker, Amal Salama. Salama stated that she did not believe the current penal code provided “appropriate penalties” for domestic violence.
As it stands, women are unprotected as no law specifically criminalizes domestic abuse against women. Salama’s proposal details imprisonment of up to five years for men who beat their wives.
On January 29, a gathering of Sadhus, a holy person in Hinduism, passed a resolution that calls for Prime Minister Modi’s Indian government and the government of Uttar Pradesh to declare India a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State). The group also laid out other demands, including capital punishment for religious conversions and the release of Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati and Waseem Rizvi.
