Thanks for the links, Freda, I had not seen them before posting.
And the same belated thank to you Carol for the Muqtedar Khan link. I have read more from him yesterday and he is in comparison to a fundamentalist Muslim what for instance Joe Offer is in comparison to a right-wing fundamentalist Christian.

One more remark: I think it could be argued that the patriarchal element is even more than religion what decides how a country deals with women rights. When searching for 'honour killings' yesterday I saw an interesting site comparing worldwide different law system whether male or family honour is explicitely mentioned as a reason for a milder sentence. Most of the countries listed were Muslim countries and those listed were most of the Muslim countries, but, interestingly (and fitting in my prejudice about 'machismo'), nearly all other countries mentioned were Latin American. I remember only one country that was neither Muslim nor Latin-American: Israel.

Wolfgang