When I look at photos of women in the streets of Iran years ago, in the 1970’s perhaps, the women look like those of any Western country and they seemed to have very public voices– gathering with their faces showing to protest this or that. I am not saying that everyone needs to be “Western” in their dress or thinking, it is important that we question other cultures and cultural behaviors so that we do not fall into the pitfall of cultural relativism thinking every way is on par with any other.

Once I loved the Japanese culture so much that I tried to become the best Japanese wife I could. In doing so, I altered my mannerism and my thinking changed. But it was not in a good way. It was not good for me, and ultimately I realized there was a serious problem with the way women in Japan were behaving in their relationships with men. It goes very deep.

So while I believe in the right of the woman to practice her culture where she was born and anywhere else, I would openly challenge anything that seems detrimental to her humanity, children and her womanhood. We should think through and not blindly accept. Maybe the old Swiss men are trying to say that they see something critically wrong, but are going about it in a rather unkind way.