Good news from Pakistan. The Punjab government has issued an ordinance effective immediately, setting the minimum marriage age for both boys and girls at 18. Violations of the law are now classified as prosecutable, non-bailable, and non-reconcilable offenses. The law applies to all Pakistanis, both Muslims and non-Muslims. The intent is to eliminate the barbaric practice of conversions and forced marriages perpetrated by Muslims to which young women (often minors who are still children) belonging to Christian and Hindu minorities are subjected.

On October 28, 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses who pray in groups are not committing a crime and therefore cannot be prosecuted, opening a loophole in Article 282.2 of the controversial Yarovaya Law. Now, the Russian political party New People, founded in January 2020 and considered “liberal,” has proposed draft laws in 2024 and 2025 aimed at restricting religious services, rites, and ceremonies within residential and non-residential buildings, thus limiting several inalienable freedoms, as illustrated in the following article by Human Rights Without Frontiers.

This innovative volume (Religion in Modern Education: Conflict, Economics, and Politics) explores the socio-political intersection of education with religion in modern society. The chapters of the book cover a range of case studies including Christian education, Jewish education, Islamic and Asian religious perspectives, as well as their interaction with a variety of ideological and political concerns.

Reports are emerging of an ongoing, massive campaign by Chinese police to crack down and arrest hundreds of Chinese house church members in Taishun County, Wenzhou City, in Zhejiang Province.

The latest crackdown on China’s house churches occurred between Dec. 13-18. Local witnesses reported via social media and other networks of multiple checkpoints, roving police patrols, and cash rewards being posted for the capture of house church leaders.