According to the Shriver report, the rise of women in the workplace has been accompanied by a significant shift in social attitudes, including acceptance by men of women’s professional roles and support for the idea that women should be entitled to equal pay for equal work. Men are also more likely to agree that the challenge of meeting both economic needs and child-care responsibilities is a joint one, requiring the time and energy of both partners…

When women are treated as chattel, however, the symptoms of social and moral decay are almost certain to spread. A society that is not decent to women is not a decent society, and an indecent society is a dangerous one. Men who tyrannize women are prone, in time, to extend their despotism to social and political rivals of every description. In our 21st-century world, such societies ultimately pose the greatest threats to global security. In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s repression of women festered into a society that condoned terrorists who turned to violence against innocents as a form of political expression. They must not be allowed to succeed.