Sochi Olympics: Russia Says No Discrimination for Gay Athletes

BBC: Russian officials say gay athletes competing in next year's winter Olympics will not face discrimination despite a controversial new law on gay propaganda, Russian media reported.

Such concerns were "completely unfounded", the interior ministry said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

Olympic committee chief Jacques Rogge recently asked Russia to clarify how the law might affect the Sochi games.

The law prescribes fines for providing information on homosexuality to minors.

Critics say its loose interpretation effectively hinders any kind of public gay rights event in Russia.

The ministry said that officials would act during the games - as at any other time - to protect children "from the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations".

But it added that there would be no issue with "people who adhere to non-traditional sexual orientation but do not engage in these activities, nor stage any provocations, and take part peacefully in Olympic events together with everyone else".

The ministry said concerns over discrimination towards gay athletes at the games were "completely unfounded and unsubstantiated". » | Monday, August 12, 2013

'My Body, My Choice': Exiled Iranian Women Pose Nude for Video in Protest against Sexual Oppression in Their Native Country

MAIL ONLINE: Defiant call for equality as world marks International Women's Day today
A group of Iranian women have stripped off for a new video in a protest against sexual oppression in their native country.

The ladies, who are living in exile in Europe, pose naked in front of the camera as they each deliver a defiant message.

Their slogans include 'I believe in the equality of women and men' and 'my thoughts, my body, my choice'.

They have produced the video in the hope of boosting sales of the Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar, which has been released today to coincide with International Women's Day.

The calendar has been dedicated to an Egyptian activist who posted a full-length photo of herself on her blog last year in a stand against sexual discrimination in Islam. » | Simon Tomlinson | Thursday, March 08, 2012

Related video »

RT: Freedom unveiled: Iranian women strip to slam repression » | Friday, March 09, 2012

Harvard Sells Its Soul for Petrodollars; Shari'ah Comes to Harvard
BOSTON HERALD: What can a 19-year-old guy in jogging shorts do at Harvard that a rich Saudi sheik who sponsors terrorism can’t?

Get banned from the building.

Six times a week, Harvard kicks all the guys out of the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center at the request of the Harvard Islamic Society. This is to accommodate those female Muslim students whose faith won’t let them work out in front of men.

In the old days, Harvard would have laughed if some Catholic or evangelical mother urged “girls-only” campus workouts in the name of modesty. Today, Harvard happily implements Sharia swim times in the name of Mohammed.

At Harvard, that’s called progress.

When I asked Harvard spokesman Bob Mitchell about this new Sharia-friendly policy, he denied that they were banning anyone.

“No, no,” he told me, “we’re permitting women to work out in an environment that accommodates their religion.”

By banning all men from the facility, right?

“It’s not ‘banning,’ ” he insisted. “We’re allowing, we’re accommodating people.”

The Harvard story, broken by the intrepid staff at Boston University’s Daily Free Press, is sadly par for the liberal campus course. U-Cal Berkeley is working on a joint program with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, which practices religious and sexual discrimination. The Archbishop (and arch-liberal) of Canterbury has called for Britain to accommodate Sharia law. An exercise in discrimination at Harvard >>> By Michael Graham

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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