In our opinion: Religious freedom empowers women

The world needs to secure women’s rights as well as religious liberty. What’s often overlooked is the ways in which the two fundamental freedoms act in tandem to bring about an elevated quality of life. The general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day…

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Doctor in genital cutting case freed on a $4.5M bond

Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, the lead defendant in an historic genital cutting trial, was freed Tuesday on a $4.5 million bond, secured by generous friends. After seven months in jail, a doctor charged with cutting the genitals of numerous minor girls as part of a religious tradition was freed Tuesday after16 ofher friends offered…

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FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION HAPPENING TO AN ALARMING NUMBER OF U.S. GIRLS

Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone. Those African nations are notoriously associated with the gruesome ritual of female genital mutilation—but it also occurs in the U.S. where an alarming number of women and girls are subjected to such torture that Immigration and Customs Enforcement pledged to stop it, according to an announcement Monday. It’s estimated more than…

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ICE fights to protect girls and women from mutilation and abuse

More than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation, or cutting (FGM/C). FGM/C refers to cutting and other procedures that injure the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. FGM/C exists as a cultural practice that is carried out with disturbing regularity. The average age of victims ranges…

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Michigan attorney takes on high-profile sex cases

Bloomfield Hills — Michigan attorney Shannon Smith only defends people accused of Michigan’s most serious sex crimes. That’s on purpose. “I like the stakes being high,” Smith said in an interview at her office in Bloomfield Hills, surrounded by pictures of her husband and four children. She turns away 90 percent…

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How much is a life worth, ask activists fighting slavery?

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – From $7 for a Rohingya refugee to $750 for a North Korean “slave wife”, human rights activists have voiced concerns that it is becoming increasingly easy to enslave another human being as the cost plummets. The average modern-day slave is sold for $90-100 compared to…

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Michigan Attorney Takes on Notorious Sex Cases

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Michigan attorney Shannon Smith only defends people accused of Michigan’s most serious sex crimes. That’s on purpose. “I like the stakes being high,” Smith said in a September interview at her office in Bloomfield Hills, surrounded by pictures of her husband and four children. She turns away…

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