Originally Posted by towny

Your apologism for a 'culture' whose 'belief values' regards it as acceptable to make women into second-class citizens is really quite sad. Afghan women make up broadly half of the population of the country, so how can you regard oppression of women as a legitimate 'cultural' value when it is only subscribed to by, at most, half of the culture? (In fact, many Afghan men considered the Taleban rule to be extreme, but were powerless to do anything about it). This set-up fails my proposed definition of freedom because as the Taleban exercised its freedom to deny women education and careers, many women were thereby denied the freedom they desired to be educated, or have a job. Remember that many Afghan women previously had these freedoms, even during the Soviet occupation.