not everyone realizes how horrid conditions for women are in some countries

yes, i firmly believe we are second class citizens even in america. if we are raped, some even think 'we were asking for it'. yet, in america we will NOT get stoned if we were raped. we will not be thrown in jail if we were raped. it is NOT like that in pakistan.

Pakistan Bid to End Abuse of Women Reporting Rape Hits Snag

By CARLOTTA GALL and SALMAN MASOOD
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 13 — The Pakistani government has run into difficulties in its efforts to pass a law to end the worst abuses suffered by women who report rape or are accused of adultery under an Islamic ordinance. The opposition comes from members of the governing coalition, as well as from Islamic parties.
President Pervez Musharraf has sought to use the measure, the Women’s Protection Bill, to burnish his credentials as a modern and moderate Islamic leader before his visit to the United States this month. But the opposition has, temporarily at least, disrupted his well-orchestrated campaign.
A vote on the bill was postponed Wednesday, as senior clerics representing the government and the Islamic opposition parties failed to resolve differences. At least one partner in the governing coalition said it would refuse to accept any amendments being demanded by a coalition of religious parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal.
Under the Hudood Ordinance, enacted in 1979 by Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, then the president, thousands of women, in particular the poor and illiterate, have been jailed for adultery on the flimsiest evidence, often when a former husband refuses to recognize a divorce, or even when a woman has reported being raped.
Muhammad Ali Durrani, the information minister, said that the government could win the vote, but that it preferred to try to bring the Islamic parties on board. “We are not under pressure,” he said, at a news briefing. “We have the majority. We can take it through any day.”...........