The research disclosed that the primary impediment to women’s rights was mentality. The mindset that restricts women’s rights is not just a phenomenon limited to economically underdeveloped regions....

....physical violence, four out of five women answered that, It is life, while one out of four said, It is man, he both beats and loves.

... were married against their will was 6 percent.. ..40 percent of women ...with mutual consent, and 55 percent ...their marriages were arranged.

......dropped out of school because their elders did not want them ... 25.3 percent.

..marriage restricts women’s freedom to go out without permission. Almost 40 percent of married women said they should get permission to go out.

.. 66 percent of women said women who live in their houses never wore swimming suits, while 47 percent never wore make up and 57 percent never wore sleeveless t-shirts while going out. 

Interesting reading..

Full article:

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/...ited-2009-09-03

Ahhh... mentality... I guess it all boils down to mentality at the end... similarly as men´s mentality that women are sex objects who are not to be respected as full human beings is part of the problem...

Ok... the issue of mentality is a very simple and interesting one..

In a country/culture that is dominated by one dominant group that holds the power (obviously), the rest of the population is subjected to the dominant ideology, which is put forth by the ´dominant power´. The group in power comes up with theories that they use to justify the oppression of the subordinate groups (like women), and they subject the entire population to these theories. They do not give access to public mass media to the subordinated groups because those would challenge the power structure which would be a threat, and might lead to abolishing those in power.. Therefore, because of the lack of voices of the weaker and subordinated, most people assume that they either don´t exist, or that they are happy with the way things are (or otherwise, we should hear about them, right?!).

When children first learn about the socity they live in in order to adjust to the standard norms, so that they are as successful as possible, they learn ONLY the dominant ideology.. and the values of the dominant groups. It is very hard to challenge tehse dominant theories, because those who challenge them are extremely villified by the power structure (example: feminists, atheists..). Those people are villified before they are even allowed to speak, in fact they are not allowed equal chance to explain what their positions on various issues are..

That is why, even when you put women in the positions of relative power, they will continue to govern according to the dominant ideology, because they are raised with the same values. That is on top of the fact that if these women did not accept the dominant ideology, they would not even be allowed in the dominant circles...

Add to it lack of access to education, physical and emotional abuse... and think how hard it possibly can be for such a person to stand up against the system, it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE.

I think you two pinned this issue down real well ...