World's women face great threats *cough*Islam*cough*

World's women face great threats, great progress:

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Top UN officials led global calls to end violence against women and girls Thursday as they marked International Women's Day.

...

In The Hague, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour turned the spotlight on what she called "rampant" sexual violence against women in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region.

There is a "very clear pattern of systematic recourse to gender violence. I see very little sign that there is any improvement," she noted.

She said the Khartoum government was not doing enough to stop the violence despite their pledge to set up their own warcrimes court.

A worrying trend is that rape of women is increasingly used as a weapon war, UN and human rights officials note.

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But in Turkey, a court charged 92 women over a women's day demonstration on Monday when they shouted slogans in favor of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of women filled a stadium in Goma, the capital of the eastern Nord-Kivu province, demanding an end to sexual violence.

In Pakistan, Mukhtaran Mai, who was gang-raped and left naked on the orders of a tribal council in 2002 as punishment for her brother's alleged affair with a woman from another tribe, led a march in Karachi for women's rights.

In Afghanistan, UN officials warned that unrest in the country was stifling efforts to improve the lives of women. They said violence meant health and education programs could not reach women and that the insurgent Taliban's burning of schools has undermined efforts to educate girls.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to discuss some of the finer aspects of the religion of peace.

In some parts of the Muslim world:

A woman may be raped by a man, then stoned to death for having sex out of wedlock.

A woman can "justifiably" be raped for not wearing a hajib

A woman can be stoned to death as a prostitute for appearing appearing in public without a male family member as an escort.

A woman can be murdered by a male family member in an "honor killings" for alleged transgressions that "bring dishonor" to the family.