Every Culture Is Equally Valid...

A charming wedding photo...


The girl in this picture is 11 years old.

A dowry was paid for the girl. The dowry is part of the cultural fabric of the clan-based society. As producers of newborns, women are valuable possessions. A woman can bear sons and fighters, who will defend the family and its honor. Men are only charged with protecting them against kidnappers and thieves, and women need only accept the power of the male members of the family -- "for their own benefit."

...Our eyes behold an abomination. Our eyes have learned to see the world from the perspective of a slowly acquired sense for humanity. And although more and more voices tell us that we -- the former colonialists and imperialists -- have lost the right to judge other cultures, we know just as well as this girl that this marriage is wrong.

Don't ever, ever let anyone insult your intelligence, or this child, by telling you that all cultures are equally valid or equally deserving of respect and admiration. That is a lie. Told by people who live in a society so removed from the horrors of the human condition that they can actually talk themselves into believing that what they claim.

This is why we fight.