Teresa Watanabe

About the author: Teresa Watanabe, winner of the James O. Supple Contest for Religion Writer of the Year in 2000, is a religion writer for the Los Angeles Times.

Many women suffer human rights abuses in Muslim countries—in Afghanistan women are denied jobs and education, and in Saudi Arabia women are forbidden to drive—but the misogyny stems from cultural factors rather than from Islam. In fact, the Koran advocates equality of the sexes and humanitarian treatment of women. Men who violate women's rights in Muslim countries misinterpret the egalitarian teachings of the Koran.

It seems a paradox: Muslim women are denied jobs and schooling in Afghanistan, cannot drive in Saudi Arabia and are murdered by relatives for suspected sexual indiscretions in "honor killings" in places...