Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Sentenced to Be Raped” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/opinion/29kris.html?hp”>The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Sentenced to Be Raped By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

So although I did not find Osama, I did encounter a much more ubiquitous form of evil and terror: a culture, stretching across about half the globe, that chews up women and spits them out.

We in the West could help chip away at that oppression, with health and literacy programs and by simply speaking out against it, just as we once stood up against slavery and totalitarianism. But instead of standing beside fighters like Ms. Mukhtaran, we’re still sitting on the fence.

A dreadful, shocking, monstrous injustice. These are our allies? mjh