It seems that most people confuse religion with a combination of culture and fundamentalism.

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country whose former PM was a woman and I never once saw her in a burkha.

All countries whose governments are controlled by religious zealots are repressive.

As for the Biblical references against women here are a few to start -

Corinthians 14:34-35 : (women should not speak in Church. They should ask their husbands to explain things to them)

Timothy 2:11-14 (Women should not be teachers)

Colossians 3:18 and Ephesians 5:22-24 - (Women should always obey their husbands)

Leviticus 27:1-7 - (Men are worth more than women)

Timothy 5:5-6 - (Widows should pray all day and all night)

Timothy 2:9 and Corinthians 11:15 (Women should dress modestly and have long hair)

Ecclesiastes 7:26 and Numbers 30:12 (You can't trust a woman's promises)

Deuteronomy 22:23-27 and Leviticus 19:20 (Being raped is not punishable by death unless the woman is a slave or if it occurs outside the city)

Deuteronomy 20:13-16 and 21:10-13 (In war, women can be taken as slaves except in places the Lord gives His chosen people as an inheritance, where they are to be killed along with every other living thing.)

Timothy 5:9-15 (You should only help a widow under certain circumstances)

Luke 2:23 (Males are holy to God, not females)

Proverbs 7:5-27 (A woman that seduces a man is evil -- the man is just an innocent victim)

Exodus 21:7-10 (Rules for selling your daughter into slavery)

And so on.

The problem for women in places such as Afghanistan come from the implementation of social structures that are based primarily on religious interpretation rather than along humanist values.

It wasn't always the case in the Middle East. The concept of chivalry was introduced to the West by knights returning from the Crusades, who saw how much better the Muslims treated women.

I wonder when it all started to go wrong?

The Americans are blamed for all the failures in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Imagine the prevailing conditions in these countries if the Americans stood back with the rest of us and did nothing. It would be nice if we could retreat to the time when the Russians were in Afghanistan and have the US support the Russians rather than undermine them by supporting the Tali ban and its precursor the Mujahadeen.

What we seem to have are two destabilised countries on either side of a fanatical and crazed Iran with nuclear ambition and zeal to cleanse the world with their great firestick.

If Mariam and her RAWA group can bring some positives to this mess they deserve support.

SILLE,
Since the Americans were using the Mujahadeen to fight and bankrupt the Russians on their behalf it's unlikely they would have supported the Russians.
It was the US betrayal of the Afghans after the war plus the continuing military presence of the USA in Saudi Arabia (plus some Fundamentist thinking) that are the main cause of Islamic terrorism.
Imagine if the Russians used the same UN WMD excuse to invade Iraq before the Americans. I don't think they would be cheering them on from the sidelines.

Fundamentalism got a foothold in Iran when the USA, who put the Shah back into power and kept him there so long after his use-by date that by the time he left he had literally killed off all the moderate opposition. The only ones left to fill the void were the Ayatolla Khomeini and his buddies.
Strangely, while the Ayatolla was living in exile in France (after Saddam kicked him out of Iraq) his rent was being paid by the CIA.

The resulting weapons-for-hostages crisis gave encouragement to some of the other Arab states with a grudge against the US to try it on.

I think all this trouble is the result of the USA meddling in the affairs of other countries (from Central America to the Middle East) for their own self-interest.

Terrorism is now used as the excuse to implement their global strategy.

Sadly, everybody now suffers the consequences, including Afghani women.

wobbles: You know as much about pagan islam as you do about the Holy Bible. It's one thing being ignorant but to exhibit your ignorance is a little silly. numbat

I don't know about the ideological connection to which Irfan refers above, however, I think his is a valid comment because he is raising one of a variety of international agendas or sympathies possibly at play over there.

All these men who know it all wow. I was actually at Mariam's talk and actually heard her and saw her and watched her video of horrors being inflicted on Afghan women even today.

Here is the thing for all the chauvinists who think they know better - an Afghan family has just been "arrested" in the Torres Strait seeking protection in Australia. They have been told they will be shipped off to Nauru to be "processed" - there is a woman and a 9 year old child and to send them to Nauru will actually break Australian law.

Australia locked up hundreds of Afghan women in places like Woomera, forced them to beg for sanitary ware, forced them to answer to adult white men which is not something they had ever done before, they had never even seen white men before except as Russian soldiers.

I can tell you that Mariam is passionate, decent, caring and commendable - and I am a woman who actually knows dozens of Afghan women. Imagine sitting on the floor talking to a woman who was sold at the age of 12 and then locked up in Woomera and think about Roqia Bakhtiyari sold to her much older cousin at 15 - and then sent back with three girls aged 7, 10 and 13.