Wolfgang, my problem with the kind of posts that the majority of people are putting on this thread, and even refreshing it over and over after it has gone dorment is that it is taking only one group of people and hammering them repeatedly for things that are not done by them exclusively, while at the same time ignoreing the same or similar behaviors of other groups, has the result of promoting hatred towards that one group.   John 'Giok' MacKenzie has suggested that he thinks the world would be better off without Muslims. That's a recipe for genocide if ever I saw one.

Again, I say... if you want to discuss violations of human rights against women, let's discuss that. But let's also include some of the other horrific things that are being done to women by other groups around the world. We need to do more of that. But let's not use this issue as a part of a hate campaign aimed only at one group of people.

My line of reasoning in bringing up Pakistan is this: the problem of honor killings and other kinds of crimes against women of that nature (including dowry bride burning by Hindus in India, female excision by various peoples, including Muslims, but also including many peoples who are not Muslim, and the sex slave trade which is as much of a problem in "Western" cultures as it is in non-Western ones, and is responsible for the forced captivity, rape, beatings, and even death of hundreds of thousands of non-Muslim women every year), these problems are not remedied by fostering a climate of hate against entire groups of people. They are remedied by stronger laws against these crimes. Pakistan has taken that very important step in protecting women.

Only a few decades ago, here in the US, men were allowed by law to beat their wives. As long as they were allowed to do it, women had no legal recourse to end the beatings. Even when it became illegal to beat your wife in the US, for a long time, the problem was not taken very seriously and women still didn't have much legal recourse to end the beatings. Now, it is taken much more seriously, and while domestic violence against women is still a very big problem in this country, and many women are killed each year by their (non-Muslim) spouses/partners, women now have many more resources at their disposal to end the abuse then they ever did before. In Pakistan, they have taken that first step. They have made laws to help protect women. If the courts enforce those laws effectively, the lives of women in Pakistan will be greatly improved.

If you want to help end these practices, lobby your government for stricter laws against these crimes, and lobby your government for more pro-active help for women who find themselves in these situations. Do you know what your country does with women who are held captive as sex slaves and who manage to escape from their captors? In most countries, they are held in prisons until they can be deported to their home countries. Instead of just ragging on and on about Muslims, if you really care about Womens' rights, find out what is being done to women in your country... all women, not just Muslim women, and do something to help.