U.N.: Asia-Pacific lags on women's rights

If, as they say,

Seven countries—India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, South Korea and Nepal—were studied.

why do they also say that their results include

wealthy countries such as Japan

Eh? No sense in it, especially as India, China, Pakistan and South Korea make up a total of 92.3 million of the 96 million total, meaning that Iran, Bangladesh and Nepal make up the other 3.7 million. That leaves no room for Japan at all, and I really don't know why they've lumped Japan in with them in the first part of the article. Japan doesn't bother with gender-selective abortions because girls seem to be appreciated as much as boys. More in some cases. Girls are unlikely to suffer malnutrition in greater numbers than boys. And health care is available equally to both genders. And certainly education is available to all females and they're just as likely to be able to read and write as males.

So again, apart from making this viable for the JT site, what was the point of including Japan? Politics aren't the be-all and end-all, and many women don't want to be in politics as it's not exactly a desirable career. (Not sexy, can't dress the way you want. If you get high up the money's good, but you could spend your life rushing about being insulted by everyone. That happens to a lot of men in politics and it would be silly to assume it would be different for women.)

The only possibly relevant point would be the domestic violence paragraph I suppose. But given that there are no exact figures, and that non-Asia-Pacific parts of the world also have shocking rates and police indifference, I still don't know whether it makes it worth including Japan in the article.

And don't forget, India accounted for about 43 million of those “missing” women in 2007, so why is it a good thing that India’s parliament was debating a law Monday that would reserve one-third of its parliamentary seats for women? Perhaps just because there are still some women left?

Nearly 100 million women across Asia have “disappeared” because of a huge and growing gender gap that has fatally deprived them of access to health care and food and has led to widespread abortions of female fetuses, according to a U.N. report released Monday.

But China, India and Japan all have nationalised health care...

96 million human beings destroyed - 'disappeared' - because they were the wrong gender.

Something the 'pro-choice' ppl need to think about.