Again, people have been led to believe that Saudi Arabia is a representative example of Islam.  It isn't.  The fundamentalist variant of Islam practised there is only a stone's throw (no pun intended) from the Taleban regime.

Any fundamentalist take on Islam, Christianity or Judaism will be oppressive to women.  I'm less familiar with Judaism but the Cathloic Church in particular doesn't have a particularly good record where women are concerned.  Catholic views on divorce are hardly "enlightened" and the Vatican stance on contraception and, in particular, abortion rights is undisputably oppressive to women.

I never said it had been created by the west.  I said that the western media judge everything about Islam by their own narrow minded view of what is right without any understanding of the cultural context that might put things into perspective.  Regarding women's voting rights, you'd find many men in the West who wouldn't want their women to vote.  It was less than 100 years ago that women were first allowed the vote in the UK, and then only from the age of 30 (compared to 21 for men).  It was much more recently that women were allowed the vote in all Swiss cantons.

Michael.