d raping the women." From Afghanistan to Iran and China, womens cries are heard and felt by those who appreciate the severity of the attack on womens freedom. On August 10, 1994, in the city of Arak, Iran, a woman was sentenced to death by stoning. According to the ruling of the religious judge, her husband and two children were forced to attend the execution. The woman urged her husband to take the children away, but to no avail. A truck full of stones was shipped in to arm those responsible for her demise. In the middle of the stoning, although her eyes had been gouged out, the victim was able to escape from the ditch and started running away, but the regime's guards recaptured her and shot her to death. A woman member of Chinas Revolutionary Committee was introduced as a veteran worker. Upon inquiry it was learned that she was indeed only 34 years old, but that she had toiled in the mill for twenty-six years, having begun this job as an 8-year old child. These three incidents reflect typical crimes and injustices against women in the Third World countries. Crimes against women include abuse, slavery, false imprisonment, murder and rape. In these countries, women are considered to be inferior to men and are not granted equal rights or protection under the laws. The governments, religions and cultures of these countries support the inequalities, thus allowing vicious crimes against women to continue without any recourse by the victims. The phrase women's rights refers to the basic human rights that are withheld from women simply because they are women. Womens rights promote political, social and economic equality for women in a society that traditionally confers more status and freedom to men. A basic right is for girls to grow up to be women: today twelve percent of the females born worldwide are missing, many of them victims of infanticide. Other womens rights include: the right to live free of physical abuse, the right to live fre...
