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– Discrimination against women because of male insecurity must stop in a world where all humans are recognized as equal.  Moreover, overpopulation is driven by problems that begin with women not having education, equal rights and the right of reproductive self-determination. We can no long afford cultures which keep women marginalized as a sop to institutionalized male domination and insecurity. How can we say it any plainer?

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Discrimination against women is holding back economic and social development across the Arab World, a report by the UN’s development agency says.

Arab women must be given greater access to education, employment, health care and public life, the report says.

The Arab Human Development Report is an annual overview compiled by Arab academics and experts in the field.

Islam is not to blame for the problem, the report says, but rather political inflexibility, male domination and war.

Disadvantaged

The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the Unite Nations Development Programme’s report, entitled Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World, reveals deep-seated discrimination against women across the region.

Maternal mortality rates remain unacceptably high and women suffer more overall ill-health than men.

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– The following article is about certain cultural practices which I believe are destructive to humanity’s future. But, before I get into the article itself, I want to discuss the conjunction of environmentalism, multiculturalism and tolerance that this article draws us to consider.

– There’s been a debate for some time between myself and some of the folks I correspond with over the subject of multiculturalism. In general, I have no objection to the idea and I believe that we should respect and preserve all the world’s cultures. But, I would qualify that by saying, “within reason“

– There are two obvious questions that follow a statement like that The first is, “What exactly do you mean, ‘within reason'”, and, “Who will decide such things, if you are suggesting limits?”

– Good questions and tough questions, both. To understand what I mean by ‘within reason’, you must understand first that I strongly believe humanity should adopt a new, conscious and intentional number one priority for itself if it intends to survive here without destroying itself and the biosphere. It is:

Humanity should adopt, as its number one priority, the goal of getting into a steady-state non-destructive balance with the biosphere so that we (and the other members of the planet’s biosphere) can survive here on Earth indefinitely.

– An associated and relevant idea is that basic logic tells us that we cannot have have two or more number one priorities.

– Therefore, when something comes into conflict with our chosen number one priority, we must choose against it.

– To make some crude but effective examples, if Abdul wants to wear a funny hat (funny to my eyes, perhaps) and decorate his camel with flowers and lead it in circles under the full moon chanting loves songs to his ancestors – I have no objections so long as none of it is destructive to our shared biosphere. But if Juan, in the Amazon rain forest, wants to slash and burn three square acres of forest, plant it and harvest crops on it for several years until the soil is depleted and then move on to the next patch of forest, then I say, “No, sorry, that’s just not consistent with what’s best for our joint survival – you are going to have to stop.”

– Of course, the problem arises when we ask the natural follow-on question, “Well, who is going to make these decisions about which cultural practices are benign and which are toxic to our joint futures?” And I wish I had a good answer but I don’t.

– I can tell you that the democratic process is breaking down here. The majority of people, either through lack of education or lack of intelligence, don’t care about such remote and abstract ideas so in those societies (which many of us consider to be our best societies) where our joint directions are suppose to be decided by democratic processes, it is obvious that not much is going to happen any time soon – to all of our detriments.

– Now with regard to this article, I believe that men and women are fundamentally equal and that any culture which practices discrimination against women is damaging to us all. But, aside from the obvious unfairness of such discrimination, it has been clearly shown that women with less education, with less economic power and with less control over their reproductive decisions contribute inordinately to the planet’s population problems which is itself a major driving force behind much of the coming Perfect Storm.

Imagine – requiring a woman reporting a rape to have to come up with four male witnesses to the crime, or face prosecution for adultery.

Press on dear readers … you comments are welcome.

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Pakistan’s six-party opposition Islamic alliance is threatening a campaign of countrywide protests over amendments to the country’s strict rape laws.

The MMA alliance says its members will resign from national and provincial assemblies after MPs voted that rape should no longer fall under Sharia law.

President Pervez Musharraf in a television speech said the Islamists were isolated on the issue.

The Sharia laws have been widely criticised by human rights groups.

The lower house of the parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to amend the controversial Sharia law that dates back to 1979.Until now, rape cases were dealt with in Sharia courts. Victims had to have four male witnesses to the crime – if not, they faced prosecution for adultery.More… ➡

1 in 4 girls in Cameroon suffer this abuse to protect against rape

Not long ago, on a private E-mail thread, several of us discussed cultures at length. I asserted that some cultural practices simply have no place in today’s world. Others defended Multiculturalism and said it was the height of arrogance that someone from one culture should be so brazen as to judge the practices of another.

This is, of course, a very slippery slope and it would be impossible to draw a line and assert that on this side are acceptable cultural practices and that on the other side are practices the world should do away with.

I don’t have the logical answers to resolve this debate – but I do believe that some practices are so repugnant that only those who have grown up steeped in them and invested in them as a normal part of their culture and their life could find them acceptable.

When you ask people of all spiritual faiths if they think there are any ethical universals, they will usually cite, “Thou shalt not kill.” I believe there are others. You may argue that I am just a product of my own culture and therefore as biased as anyone else. Perhaps – that’s a hard charge to defend against since none of us are free of cultural influences.

But to counter, I’d say that some of us have been thinking for some time about what a conscious intentional humanity might become if it looked long and hard in the mirror of introspection and questioned all of its behaviors and beliefs. Certainly, after such a review we would chose to retain some things and reject others.

Along this line, I think that men and women are equal and should have equal rights in all matters. My apologies to those who think differently – but I think you are wrong. And I believe that practices like female genital mutilation are wrong as well. This list could go on but this is not the time or place for such an enumeration.

The story, below, is another cultural practice that I think is utterly wrong. Read it and judge for yourself if all cultural practices should be equally defended.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Reuters) — Worried that her daughters’ budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started ‘ironing’ the girls’ bosoms with a heated stone.

“I did it to my two girls when they were eight years old. I would take the grinding stone, heat it in the fire and press it hard on the breasts,” Moungang said.

“They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good.”

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