Acid Attack Men Captured

In some parts of Afghanistan no amount of sexism is ever enough. Earlier this month the hatred of women stooped to a new low when a gang of masked motorcyclists attacked some girls heading to school to receive a basic education. The group, allegedly connected with the Taliban, sprayed acid in the girls faces to teach them to stay home, and to frighten other girls into not attempting to get an education.

This despicable act was of course condemned world wide.

But in some surprising news, ten men were arrested recently and some have confessed to carrying out the attack. There are calls for these Taliban insurgents from Pakistan to be put to death in a public execution. Let's hope it is slow and painful.

The saddest thing of all is that societies like these will never progress until they start treating women as equals. When you have religious fundamentalists in a society that believe that women should wear burkas, and girls who seek an education deserve to be disfigured for life, you have a scary place indeed.

It's hard to imagine that here as we approach the year 2009, there are parts of the world where this kind of mentality still exists. But once again fundamentalist religion has provided a safe haven for monumental stupidity and cruelty.