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How threats of hellfire helped keep 'immodest' women in their place – from the ancient world to 'My Unorthodox Life'

  • Written by Meghan Henning, Associate Professor of Christian Origins, University of Dayton
imageFor centuries, societies have used visions of the afterlife to discipline people's behavior.DEA / G. Nimatallah/De Agostini via Getty Images

In the opening of Netflix’s popular new show “My Unorthodox Life,” fashion mogul Julia Haart explains that she grew up thinking that dressing provocatively had eternal consequences:

“It...

Read more: How threats of hellfire helped keep 'immodest' women in their place – from the ancient world to...

Who is Mullah Hasan Akhund? What does the Taliban's choice of interim prime minister mean for Afghanistan?

  • Written by Ali A. Olomi, Assistant Professor of History, Penn State
imageMullah Hasan Akhund, foreground, has been part of the Taliban leadership since the 1990s, when he served as foreign minister.AP Photo/B.K. Bangash

The Taliban announced on Sept. 7, 2021, that Mullah Hasan Akhund has been appointed interim prime minister of Afghanistan. The decision comes more than two weeks after the militant Islamist group seized...

Read more: Who is Mullah Hasan Akhund? What does the Taliban's choice of interim prime minister mean for...

Wildfire burn scars can intensify and even create thunderstorms that lead to catastrophic flooding – here's how it works

  • Written by William R. Cotton, Professor Emeritus of Meteorology, Colorado State University
imageParts of Lake Elsinore, California, were overrun with muddy floodwater after a storm hit the Holy Fire burn scar in 2018.Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/Digital First Media/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images

Wildfires burn millions of acres of land every year, leaving changed landscapes that are prone to flooding. Less well known is that these...

Read more: Wildfire burn scars can intensify and even create thunderstorms that lead to catastrophic flooding...

How someone becomes a torturer

  • Written by Christopher Justin Einolf, Associate Professor of Sociology, Northern Illinois University
imageAt the Amna Suraka museum in Iraq, exhibits show the torture that was carried out in the cells.Hélène Veilleux/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

Every day, thousands of people are tortured in police stations, security offices and prisons around the world. Human rights organizations protest torture and advocate for survivors, but neither they nor...

Read more: How someone becomes a torturer

Wildfire burn scars can intensify and even trigger thunderstorms, leading to catastrophic flooding – here's how

  • Written by William R. Cotton, Professor Emeritus of Meteorology, Colorado State University
imageParts of Lake Elsinore, California, were overrun with muddy floodwater after a storm hit the Holy Fire burn scar in 2018.Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/Digital First Media/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images

Wildfires burn millions of acres of land every year, leaving changed landscapes that are prone to flooding. Less well known is that these...

Read more: Wildfire burn scars can intensify and even trigger thunderstorms, leading to catastrophic flooding...

Removing urban highways can improve neighborhoods blighted by decades of racist policies

  • Written by Joan Fitzgerald, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University
imageInterstate 980 cuts off West Oakland, Calif., at top, from other Oakland neighborhoods.Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images

The US$1.2 trillion infrastructure bill now moving through Congress will bring money to cities for much-needed investments in roads, bridges, public transit networks, water infrastructure, electric...

Read more: Removing urban highways can improve neighborhoods blighted by decades of racist policies

Why are planets round?

  • Written by James Webb, Professor and Director, Stocker AstroScience Center for Physics; Stocker AstroScience Center, Florida International University
imageThe Earth is round.Alistair Berg/DigitalVision via Getty Imagesimage

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why are planets round? – Daniel B., La Crosse, Wisconsin

The ancient Greeks proved over 2,000 years ago that the Earth was...

Read more: Why are planets round?

Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot raises serious concerns – but probably not the ones you think

  • Written by Andrew Maynard, Associate Dean, College of Global Futures, Arizona State University

Elon Musk announced a humanoid robot designed to help with those repetitive, boring tasks people hate doing. Musk suggested it could run to the grocery store for you, but presumably it would handle any number of tasks involving manual labor.

Predictably, social media filled with references to a string of dystopian sci-fi movies about robots where...

Read more: Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot raises serious concerns – but probably not the ones you think

Women face motherhood penalty in STEM careers long before they actually become mothers

  • Written by Sarah Thebaud, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of California Santa Barbara
imageWomen in Ph.D STEM programs say they were told they had to choose between family and career. janiecbros/E+ via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

Unfounded assumptions about how motherhood affects worker productivity can harm women’s careers in science, technology, engineering and math...

Read more: Women face motherhood penalty in STEM careers long before they actually become mothers

Netflix’s 'My Unorthodox Life' spurred ultra-Orthodox Jewish women to talk publicly about their lives

  • Written by Jessica Roda, Assistant Professor Jewish Civilization (Anthropologist/Ethnomusicologist), Georgetown University
imageUltra-Orthodox Jewish women have started telling their own stories via social media, challenging television's sometimes one-sided depictions of their lives.rfranca/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

Over the past four years, Netflix has released several shows related to people leaving the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. These shows include...

Read more: Netflix’s 'My Unorthodox Life' spurred ultra-Orthodox Jewish women to talk publicly about their...

More Articles ...

  1. When does life begin? There’s more than one religious view
  2. Medicine is an imperfect science – but you can still trust its process
  3. What young kids say worked -- and didn't work -- for them during virtual learning
  4. The women who appear in Dante's 'Divine Comedy' are finally getting their due, 700 years later
  5. The next attack on the Affordable Care Act may cost you free preventive health care
  6. Pandemic hardship is about to get a lot worse for millions of out-of-work Americans
  7. Can burying power lines protect storm-wracked electric grids? Not always
  8. At the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, ancient Greece and Rome can tell us a lot about the links between collective trauma and going to war
  9. How memories of Japanese American imprisonment during WWII guided the US response to 9/11
  10. Tattoos have a long history going back to the ancient world – and also to colonialism
  11. Slavery was the ultimate labor distortion – empowering workers today would be a form of reparations
  12. Al-Qaida, Islamic State group struggle for recruits
  13. Will having so many disasters happening at the same time affect donations? We asked an expert
  14. 5 reasons video games should be more widely used in school
  15. Dance and movement therapy holds promise for treating anxiety and depression, as well as deeper psychological wounds
  16. A subway flood expert explains what needs to be done to stop underground station deluges
  17. Hurricane Ida: 2 reasons for its record-shattering rainfall in NYC and the Northeast long after the winds weakened
  18. 'Get out now' – inside the White House on 9/11, according to the staffers who were there
  19. How Arctic warming can trigger extreme cold waves like the Texas freeze – a new study makes the connection
  20. Bitcoin will soon be 'legal tender' in El Salvador – here's what that means
  21. Bitcoin is now 'legal tender' in El Salvador – here's what that means
  22. Researchers trained mice to control seemingly random bursts of dopamine in their brains, challenging theories of reward and learning
  23. 'Work with hope' – a poet and classics scholar on facing the flood of bad news
  24. An entire generation of Americans has no idea how easy air travel used to be
  25. As Texas ban on abortion goes into effect, a religion scholar explains that pre-modern Christian attitudes on marriage and reproductive rights were quite different
  26. Education debates are rife with references to war – but have they gone too far?
  27. At my hospital, over 95% of COVID-19 patients share one thing in common: They’re unvaccinated
  28. When human life begins is a question of politics – not biology
  29. How the Purdue opioid settlement could help the public understand the roots of the drug crisis
  30. 20 years of 'forever' wars have left a toll on US veterans returning to the question: 'Did you kill?'
  31. Feds are increasing use of facial recognition systems – despite calls for a moratorium
  32. Zinc-infused proteins are the secret that allows scorpions, spiders and ants to puncture tough skin
  33. What's on the agenda when Ukraine president meets Biden?
  34. What are the Jewish High Holy Days? A look at Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and a month of celebrating renewal and moral responsibility
  35. State efforts to ban mask mandates in schools mirror resistance to integration
  36. Calculating the costs of the Afghanistan War in lives, dollars and years
  37. Hurricane Ida turned into a monster thanks to a giant warm patch in the Gulf of Mexico – here’s what happened
  38. Even with the eviction moratorium, landlords continued to find ways to kick renters out
  39. Afghanistan has vast mineral wealth but faces steep challenges to tap it
  40. Microeconomics explains why people can never have enough of what they want and how that influences policies
  41. Refugees after the American Revolution needed money, homes and acceptance
  42. Do US teens have the right to be vaccinated against their parents' will? It depends on where they live
  43. Bilingual people with language loss due to stroke can pose a treatment challenge – computational modeling may help clinicians treat them
  44. Lessons about 9/11 often provoke harassment of Muslim students
  45. New gene therapies may soon treat dozens of rare diseases, but million-dollar price tags will put them out of reach for many
  46. Autonomous drones could speed up search and rescue after flash floods, hurricanes and other disasters
  47. What do Muslims believe and do? Understanding the 5 pillars of Islam
  48. Understanding Islam - a brief introduction to its past and present in the United States
  49. Why some Muslim women feel empowered wearing hijab, a headscarf
  50. Islam's deep traditions of art and science have had a global influence