I am curious about something....

[Minionman]

What I wonder is: is it necessary for the "rights" of women in Islamic societies to change? 

Does anyone blame the leadership of Islamic societies for being violentlly bitter about what they see as coercive attempts to upset their social order?  I won't say I agree with their cultural set up, I don't, but I do understand their emotional reaction to what they see as outsiders messing with their way of life.

I note that we had a vicious civil war over something along those lines.  The culture war between "modernism" and "traditional Islam" and even "traditional Hindu" culture is hardly over.  And it is very much a war.
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There's a difference between keeping a culture because its useful for something, and keeping it just to be spiteful. These countries, and people in them, seems to be loosing out long term from parts of its culture. These reactions are more along the lines of keeping a thousand or so year old grudge and holding on to traditions because they're there, rather than keeping cultural traditions because they are useful for something. In my view, neither of those reasons gets respect.

About the U.S. civil war, I have a pretty similar opinion. The powerful southern guys had been loosing out in a number of ways over a number of years, and could tell for awhile that they were, but didn't use the power they had to make useful changes to the economy, slavery, and such, and instead stuck on to traditions just to stick to traditions. Either of those situations I see also as one group of people not adapting when they needed too, and trying to drag other groups down with them.