All cultures are not equal

Clearly they are not. However, it is worth noting that if you scratch the surface of a society such as our own, about which we may sometimes be somewhat self-satisfied and smug, whatever act we are criticising has a parallel not so long ago. Having said that, of course such an appalling sentence is horrifying even if the girl were guilty of a real offence and is especially grotesque in the light of what has been described. And many blinkered young women in Britain say that there is no longer any need for feminism.

I couldn't agree more with your comments, absent. It's enormously saddening.

It is astonishing to note that in the UK in my lifetime , young women were still being locked up in psychiatric units for being seen to be 'too promiscuous' - or just plain crazy - when in reality they had been sexually abused by members of the family.

Yes, and my further thoughts are that if there is anything we can do to persuade governments where such barbaric practices (both floggings and lockings up) take place to change the laws that allow them, then we should be doing it.

Could some foreign aid be used for such a 'diplomatic' purpose, I wonder?

Shouldn't think so Bags – but it can now be used for "defence" and we all know what defence means in politicspeak don't we?

But helping to provide education for girls is 'foreign aid', is it not? Sarah Brown seems to think it is the key to improving conditions for and attitudes towards women. I agree.

The VSO also 'umbrella' various Charities that lobby the UN Women's Commission, to engender financial support for the worldwide support of women's issues - primarily education, but also issues of sexual violence and the suppression of freedom generally. Education is, to my mind, at the root of where future cultural shifts can be made.

It's SO important to maintain the promotion of these International issues for girls and women.