- female circumcision;
- arranged marriages;
- bondage of children for family debt;
- multiple wives;
- dowries;
- fetus sex determination for the purpose of aborting female fetuses;
- killing female infants;
- letting cows wander the streets;
- beggars with bosses;
- "banking" in Muslim countries;
- the power of Imams in controlling the people;
- elections with 1 person on the ballot;
- child labour;
- common 'property' (i.e. not owned by someone);
- legally killing females who 'dishonour' the family;

Good point.

In my book, the concept of protecting individual rights is an irreducible primary. It doesn't matter to me what part of the world we're talking about. So any system that recognizes an individual life as a standard of value doesn't need to hear reasons or rationalizations from other mindsets in the name of "cultural relativism".

Many of the items above (involving murder and mutilation) are clear violations of individual rights, some (1-man ballot, dictatorships, slavery) are the politico-economic corollary of such, and others are cultural by-products (arranged marriages).

Now for things like dowries, multiple wives, cows wandering in the street, I don't agree with them, but they're a little further down the chain. It would be fantastic if that were all we had to debate!

Kevin