Department of Redundancy Department: Muslim Women 'Face Crisis Over Violence'

Sure, they can complain all they want bu nobody will do anything until they admit the obvious: Islam is a religion or misogyny and enslavement. You complain and you catch a beating. You file for divorce and it's off with your head. And these are the people who lecture us about human rights and tolerance.

MUSLIM women around the world are facing a "growing crisis" as Islamic governments fail to honour commitments to end inequality and violence against them, a senior UN official has warned.

Yakin Erturk, the UN's rapporteur on violence against women, said that women must demand their governments carry out pledges to grant equal rights and ensure their safety.

"There is no time left to lose any more as this is a growing crisis," she said after a speech which dealt with the issue at an international conference on "Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family."

"Women must demand that their governments implement agreements on women's equality, rights and an end to violence against women, which have been signed but have yet to be carried out," she said.

"In these countries, those who speak on behalf of Islam still justify things like stoning or killing a woman for this or that reason as being part of their religion. I have heard this at the most official of levels," Erturk said without specifying which countries were to blame.

"Of course violence against women is not limited to Islamic countries but Islamic countries have become stigmatised as being mysogynist societies which are inherently anti-women."

There we go with the excuse-making again about violence not limited to Muslim countries. Sure, but in other countries it's not codified as part of their religion and laws, either. In most other countries on the planet violence against women is treated seriously.

In some Muslim countries, however, women are subjected to prison and lashes for being gang-raped.

A little bit of a difference.