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@#1

Oppression of women is more widespread and violent in many Muslim societies than in it is in any other religious society. Whitewashing that fact for the sake of PC does nothing to help the victims and only emboldens the victimizers.

Nicholas Kristoff is an outstanding journalist... he practices socially relevant journalism... he deserves a Nobel Prize and not just a Pulitzer Prize

He has an expansive worldview

Nicholas Kristoff is the practice of journalism par excellence... and there is no Britney Spears, Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole Smith there!

Most sincerely,

Paul I. Adujie
New York, United States

So in the 3rd world:
Men get into financial trouble = men's fault.
Women get into financial trouble = men's fault.

Why can't men's spending on alcohol and cigarette's be the result of cultural oppression too?

This casual anti-male sentiment is really disturbing. You can back up the same sorts of things by race (how certain races spend money poorly). But that would be wrong. And who would suggest that more money should go to the races who spend better?

Women in developed nations do better than men on almost all counts of quality of life including education, life expectancy, etc. Women in developing nations need help, no doubt. But to casually suggest that part of the solution is to keep economic means out of the hands of third world men is plain sexist - the very definition.

i'm tired of well-meaning (capital "L") Liberal americans thinking they should swoop down and help those "poor," "downtrodden" women in foreign countries. it's so presumptuous to think you know best and that you're the solution.

I agree absolutely that women are an underused and abused resource for humanity. I worry, though, that by focusing on the "superiority" of women in terms of development and aid, that we will ignore the many complicated and legitimate problems that men suffer. For instance, why are so many men failing at school?

What do the guests think about the government offering asylum to abused women abroad?

Also, what can average Americans do to help women around the world?

While I applaud the thesis of your book (which I have not read), I wonder why you think anyone will listen now when they didn't listen in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, or even more recently, to radical feminists like Marilyn French (The War on Women), Andrea Dworkin (Woman Hating), or Catharine MacKinnon (Are Women Human? and Women's Lives, Men's Laws) all of whom (plus many others) have argued for decades that there is a global war on women going on. Do you think it is just the 'pocketbook' aspect of your argument that might achieve what US feminism has not?

Yeah treating religion as either the cause or remedy is a wrong statement. It's much bigger than that.

I'm glad such a book was written because this s subject that needs a spotlight put on it. The countries in the world with the best economies and strong legal and social institutions are those that allow women to participate at all levels and protect and strengthen their status. Oppression from men in countries like Afghanistan [where it's now legal for a man to starve his wife if she refuses him] and Mali [where islamoramuses are fighting a law that will make child pedophilia marriages illegal] these are the men who oppress woman in the name of culture and religion to the detriment of human development.

I think that it's very unfair that you portray oppression of women as only within the Muslim world. Even here at home women suffer much, from economic, gender, and environmental, discrimination. Add color and misconception and it doubles as with class, and language barriers. Women have it really hard here and for the most part without the protection of their families.

I have found it that women in other parts of the world suffer most from poverty and the fact that they are with men to help them. I have seen Hindu women in India working as laborers carring bricks on their heads that would make Hulk Hogan's knees buckle.

In this recent sub prime crisis, if you check you will see that many women suffered and their aspirations to be homeowners were crushed and their homes lost.

So, perhaps you should show a panorama of women who suffer. Even women like Hilary Clinton and other politician wives.