I have thought about the issue of 'rights' and 'repression' for some time -
it seems to me that Westerners have a dangerous habbit of assuming that their democratic freedoms are desired by everyone on the planet, and that anyone not enjoying them is being 'repressed'.
I firmly believe that people grow up accepting their culture's customs as the way things are - certainly we do over here.
is it not possible therefore that Muslim women do not feel in the least 'repressed' by their culture, but simply accept it as normality, because it is the way things are where they live?
therefore, the notion that women need to be 'released from opression' becomes somewhat hollow, and redundant.
Apart from one or two posters on here, none of us have anything even approaching direct experience of daily life for Muslim women - who are we to say they are not happy with the way they live? We may not be happy with it, but that is not al all the same thing as saying that they are not happy, and need us to 'rescue' them.
Maybe we should accept that other cultures are different, not 'wrong' or 'oppressive', just different, and they are as entitled to live their way as we are to live ours.
It's food for thought for this debate.