da Sage

I feel that you hear me saying
"1. Middle Eastern people are uniformly against women's (general and individual) rights,
2. the lives of all women in the Middle East are miserable,
3. Middle Eastern and Muslim women should not wear head scarves, and
4. there is something terribly wrong with wrong with Islam."

That is not what I am saying at all! Nor is it what I believe.

I am saying that
1. many Middle Eastern and majority-Muslim countries have laws that are outright biased against women, or their enforcement is biased against women, so as to make the laws irrelevant,
2. many women who are miserable in the Middle East, either because of cultural-specific reasons, or universal reasons, have fewer options to solve their problems because of culture-related legal restrictions on women, and practical restrictions on women.
3. Wearing head-gear (or not) should be a personal choice, unless you are on a construction site, or operating a vehicle.
4. There is something terribly wrong with the way that certain people wish to force everyone else to adhere to their own interpretation of Islam

EDIT: This post was in response to Charity.