My views on religion and its incompatibility with reason are far from a secret on this blog. Nevertheless, there are degrees of irrational behavior, and some religious practices are far more harmful to society than others. That's why I was happy to see the possibility for some progress in a brief story on Salon's broadsheet, which was reporting on a story by Yasmine Saleh in the Daily Star Egypt.
Egypt's Grand Mufti Aly Gomaa issued a fatwa declaring it religiously acceptable for a woman to have her hymen surgically reconstructed [...]. On the surface that might not seem grounds for celebration, but consider that in certain regions, an unmarried woman who loses her virginity might very well become the target of an "honor killing." Even better, though, is that Gomaa scoffed at the idea of considering a torn hymen as evidence that a woman has lost her virginity: "It is ...
