TOKYO: A men-only island in Japan where women are banned and male visitors must bathe naked in the sea before visiting its shrine, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. The ban on female visitors specifically “has nothing to do with discrimination against women,” the official told Agence France-Presse by phone. It is considered dangerous for women to travel by sea to get to the island and the shrine will not change the centuries-old rule, he said. UNESCO’s World Heritage list includes over 1,000 sites, monuments and natural phenomena that are of “outstanding universal value” to humankind. It includes treasures such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the Taj Mahal in India, and the rock-carved city of Petra in modern-day Jordan.

Source: Manila Times July 10, 2017 09:45 UTC