Q&A: "More Activism From Women Would Be a Significant Stimulus to the Abolition Cause"

Professor Sahar Mahdi Al Yassiri is a well-known writer on death penalty abolition in the Islamic world. Al Yassiri, a lawyer by trade, is also a member of several human rights NGOs, including the Right to Life Centre for Death Penalty Abolition in North Africa and the Middle East. In an interview with Abderrahim El Ouali, IPS correspondent in the region, she explains why it is crucial that women play a more active role in the abolition movement:

Q&A: “If It Is Globalisation, It Must Be Everybody’s”

The "war on terror" is not everybody's language, nor for that matter is "globalisation", says Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen. Nor is anyone right to think that religious radicalism is really an Islamic problem, he says.

POLITICS-EGYPT: Al Qaeda Faction Alters Course

The ideology al Qaeda rests on to justify its activities suffered a major blow this week.

RELIGION-BALKANS: Bishop May Be Retried For Sexual Abuse

The Supreme Court of Serbia recently announced that a local court in the southern city of Nis did not play strictly by legal rules when it pronounced a bishop of the influential Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) innocent in a sexual abuse case brought by four young men last year.

RIGHTS-US: “Hindu-Phobia” Thrives in Dark Corners of the Web

Last July, a 35-year-old Indian American financial services executive was visiting Lake Tahoe in the San Francisco Bay Area with his fiancée and her cousin. As the group walked along the beach, a couple approached and called the women "Indian sluts and whores".

MEXICO: Ex Crackhead Cop Says God Can Heal Addicts

Miguel Fernández was a police officer in the Mexican capital who used and sold cocaine and crack for 18 years in collusion with his superiors and colleagues. Now he runs a small rehabilitation centre for addicts, where the Bible and God’s healing power are the treatment of choice.

POLITICS-US: The World According to Pat

In a two-week span that saw several conservative Christian evangelical leaders finally climb down off the fence and begin spreading their endorsements across the field of Republican Party presidential candidates, it was the unexpected endorsement by one of Christian conservatism's longtime leaders that garnered the most media attention.

RELIGION-THAILAND: ‘Monks With Traits of a Crow’

Few would have thought that a painting would have the power to shake the foundations of modern-day temple life in Thailand, a country which prides itself as the centre of Buddhism.

CZECH REPUBLIC: The March that Never Was

A failed neo-Nazi march in Prague's old Jewish town has been the object of hyped media attention at a time of growing interest in right-wing extremism in formerly communist Central and Eastern Europe.

MIDEAST-US: New Scholars Group Seen as Close to White House

A small group of Middle East and African studies scholars in the United States has announced the creation of a new professional association to change the direction of scholarship in the field.

IRAQ: A Tale of One City, Now Two

The separation of religious groups in the face of sectarian violence has brought some semblance of relative calm to Baghdad. But many Iraqis see this as the uncertain consequence of a divide and rule policy.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Muslim Youth&#39s Death May Cost Communists Dear

On a narrow lane in this city’s Muslim ghetto of Park Circus lives Kishar Jahan - a frail woman whose cry for justice following the suspected murder of her son who dared marry the daughter of a wealthy Hindu family, has caught West Bengal state’s ruling communists on the back foot.

CUBA: Churches Tackle Divisions by Discussing Ethics, Not Doctrine

A group of Christian denominations and ecumenical organisations in Cuba have launched an ethical dialogue aimed at smoothing over their historical differences and fomenting mutual understanding, knowledge, and openness to debate.

RIGHTS-COTE D&#39IVOIRE: Fighting FGM From Mosque and Pulpit

In certain parts of Africa, female genital mutilation (FGM) has been linked to religion, with Muslim communities mistakenly believing that the practice is a religious requirement. But in Côte d'Ivoire, religion is also being put at the service of fighting FGM.

IRAQ: Millions Trapped in Their Own Country

At least five million Iraqis have fled their homes due to the violence under the U.S.-led occupation, but half of them are unable to leave the country, according to well-informed estimates.

NICARAGUA: At-Risk Pregnancy Means Death or Prison

Nearly 90 women have died in Nicaragua as a direct or indirect result of the repeal, one year ago, of the legislation permitting abortion in cases of risk to the mother’s health, according to women’s and human rights groups.

CUBA: A Church Embraces Those Who Have Lost Their Way

In the heart of Balcón Arimao, a poor barrio on the fringes of the Cuban capital, a small evangelical church combines spirituality and community work, combating alcoholism, prostitution, crime and family breakdown.

COLOMBIA: A Painful Pilgrimage

"Father Antún! Father Antún is back!" were the happy, surprised shouts heard by the IPS news team accompanying Catholic priest Antún Ramos as he returned to his former parish in the village of Bellavista in northwestern Colombia.

RIGHTS-ASIA: &#39Fundamentalism Plays Out on Women&#39s Bodies&#39

They twisted it, turned it and tore it apart, but the term ‘religious fundamentalism’ defied definition. But they were certain that it worked against women’s rights.

POLITICS: Desmond Tutu Likens Israeli Actions to Apartheid

South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu compared conditions in Palestine to those of South Africa under apartheid, and called on Israelis to try and change them, while speaking in Boston Saturday at historic Old South Church.

POLITICS-US: Welcome to "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week"

Right-wing pundit David Horowitz was in rare form during a tightly controlled "public speech" at the George Washington University on Thursday night, decrying the U.S. academic Left as a hateful "lynch mob" who act as apologists for the impending threat of the "Islamo- fascist" jihad.