Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) is a straight-up badass. Under her traditional Saudi Arabian garb, the 10-year-old girl rocks Chuck Taylors, and her cassette player (yeah, she's that cool) screams indie rock from Grouplove.  All Wadjda wants is a bike, so she can race her friend Abdullah (Abdullrahman Al Gohandi), a boy from the neighborhood. Despite being constantly reminded that "girls don't ride bikes," Wadjda hustles money left and ... Read More

In a recent interview with British journalist Cathy Newman, the Dalai Lama said he would be pleased if his successor was a female. “Now we are 21st century…female have more potential so should take more active role regarding promotion of human compassion," he told Newman. His Holiness went on to say he believes females have more potential in actively promoting love and affection than men. But before we can count a win for the ... Read More

Several Christian institutions have notoriously severe punishments for sexual activity, but none seem quite as cruel as the case of San Diego Christian College employee Teri James. After the school discovered she was pregnant with a co-worker's child, they not only fired her, but offered her partner a job. The school claims they fired James for the act of premarital sex, but they were well aware that her now-husband Brandon James was the ... Read More

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed is making history by opening Europe’s first feminist and gay-friendly mosque. This mosque, situated east of Paris, welcomes the LGBTQ community and encourages women to lead prayer. So-called “inclusive” mosques exist in the U.S., Canada, and South Africa; but this is a first for the European continent. In 2010, Zahed helped establish Homosexual Muslims of France, a society that seeks to defend LGBTQ ... Read More

A Reddit user recently posted a surreptitious photo of a woman tagged under "/r/funny". Apparently, the reason that user european_douchebag (yep) found the woman, Balpreet Kaur, Reddit-worthy was that she gasp! has facial hair--and, as it turns out, isn’t ashamed by it in the slightest.     When Balpreet’s friends found the photograph, under a post titled “I’m not sure what to conclude from this,” she ... Read More

    Behind every great man there’s a great woman.  And who is considered amongst the best of men, but Jesus Christ?  Well, evidence has surfaced this past week that indicates the big J.C. had a wife! A small piece of papyrus has been discovered by a private collector and presented to Karen L. King, a scholar on early Christianity.  The artifact, measuring only 1 ½ by 3 inches in size, has writing on it ... Read More

  Though he's one of the leading critics of conservative politicians, comedy news anchor Stephen Colbert is a devout Catholic--and he "loves his Church, warts and all." This past Friday, Colbert met with the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, to engage in a dialogue on “Humor, Joy, and the Spiritual Life" at Fordham University. Father James Martin, a Jesuit Catholic priest and author, moderated the ... Read More

If you follow world news at all, you probably know that things look pretty bleak in Syria these days. The violence there is bloody and ongoing, and the international community seems unsure of the best way to restore a sense of stability. But a new documentary shows that there is another, more positive, revolution taking place in Syria, at least in regards to one woman’s efforts to educate young girls and to change attitudes about ... Read More

We’ve already learned that it’s pretty tough to be a woman in Michigan these days. But it turns out that vaginas aren’t the only thing that makes state lawmakers clutch their Bibles at night. Last week, Michigan legislators were hard at work passing House Bill 5040, also known as “First Do Harm”. The bill would excuse religious students in the state from providing psychological services to those who ... Read More

Remember when the Vatican blasted the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (aka about 80 percent of American sisters) for focusing on the poor and hungry instead of railing against reproductive rights and gay people? Well, those “radical feminist” gals haven’t taken the criticism lying down. And with public support behind them, The New York Times reports that sisters from Network, a liberal-leaning ... Read More