The Afghan parliament recently passed a law that appears to legalize rape within Shiite marriages. Aghan President Hamid Karzai, responding to the hail of criticism that has followed:

If there is anything that is of concern to us, then we will definitely take action in consultation with our [religious clerics] and send it back to the parliament. You be assured of that. This is something that we’re also serious about and should not allow.

Were it not for religion, we may have matured past the issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, and evolution. Americans have long since moved past this former “right to choose” from a legal perspective, but religious dogma continues to hold us back in many other ways.