Seeing the recent flogging of a young woman in Pakistan for being in public with a man not of her family and the potential law in Afghanistan legalizing forced sex (upon the woman of course) in marriage I was reminded of a story about General Charles Napier (1782-1853).
Upon being told of the practice of "suttee", a wicked tradition in India of burning windows on the funeral pyres of their husbands, Napier said:
"You say it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom; when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your customs. And then we will follow ours."
There are some things that are not acceptable, regardless of tradition.
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