Female genital mutilation: asylum seeker fights deportation to the Gambia

Female genital mutilation is illegal in the UK, but an asylum seeker fears it will be forced on her daughter if they are deported

Gareth Henry: ‘I saw my friends killed … There’s no safe place in this country’

Ex-leader of Jamaican gay and lesbian group J-Flag explains why police death threats forced him to seek asylum in Canada

Spirituality is not just another health tonic

Mark Vernon: The effect of religious practices on our wellbeing is of growing interest. But in looking at the links, we must not confuse the two

Young blood can reverse some effects of ageing, study finds

Blood from young mice improved learning and memory in older mice, and increased connections between their brain cells

Bodyform’s bloodless snark attack

Arwa Mahdawi: The sanitary pad brand's response to a Facebook comment is funny, but it remains within the conventions it's satirising

Kat Banyard: ‘We were sold a lie on an almighty scale, that equality had been won, the battle was over’

Britain's leading young feminist talks about the global exploitation of pornography, women's right to an abortion, and the mass lobby of parliament she is leading

Germany to introduce circumcision law

Move to appease Jewish and Muslim communities comes after a German court ruled circumcision was tantamount to bodily harm

Thomas Szasz obituary

Psychiatrist who fought coercion and denied the existence of mental illness

Population: the future is caring

Danny Dorling: Don't panic. An ageing population is good news for the environment, for growth and for childcare

The cost of contraception is dwarfed by that of unplanned pregnancy

Sarah Ditum: Don't believe the US hype that contraception is too expensive – it's a long-term cost saving and enables women's economic freedom