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Now this brings us to the sorts of moves that people are apt to make in the moral sphere.

Consider the great problem of women's bodies.

What to do about them.

Well this is one thing you can do about them. You can cover them up.

Now it is the position generally speaking of our intellectual community that

well we might not like this.

We might think of this as wrong in Boston or Palo Alto.

Who are we to say that the proud denizens of an ancient culture are wrong to force their wives and daughters to live in cloth bags?

Who are we to say even that they're wrong to beat them with lengths of steel cable

or throw battery acid in their faces if they decline the privilege of being smothered in this way?

Who are we not to say this?

Who are we to pretend that we know so little about human well-being that we have to be non-judgmental about a practice like this?

I'm not talking about voluntary wearing of a veil.

Women should be able to wear whatever they want as far as I'm concerned.

So what does voluntary mean in a community where when a girl gets raped,

her father's first impulse rather often is to murder her out of shame.

Just let that fact detonate in your brain for a minute.

Your daughter gets raped and what you want to do is kill her.

...