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Cherie to demand women's rights Cherie: No excuses for inequality
(about 4 hours later)
Cherie Blair will argue there is a need for greater rights for women when she delivers a lecture later. Culture and religion cannot be used as an excuse for discriminating against women, Cherie Blair has argued.
Ahead of her speech, the lawyer and wife of ex-prime minister Tony Blair said she blamed culture and religion for creating barriers to equality. Mrs Blair, ex-PM Tony Blair's wife and high-flying human rights lawyer, told the BBC: "Women and men are equal human beings and deserving of equal respect."
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that religion was only as good as the people who operate it. But she said there was a "long way to go" internationally, citing issues like divorce law in countries like Egypt.
The lecture is organised by Today and Chatham House, home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Mrs Blair, a Catholic, also said she could not claim British society was perfect, citing the gender pay gap.
Low status She is to set out her views in a lecture on Wednesday, organised by the BBC's Today programme and Chatham House, home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan said Cherie Blair had long been known for her outspoken support for women's rights. 'Fallible' interpretation
But while criticising divorce law in some Islamic countries, she avoided any negative comments of Saudi Arabia where women suffer pervasive discrimination, including being banned from driving, our correspondent added. Speaking head of it to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mrs Blair said: "Religion, like everything else, is subject to interpretation. Religion is only as good as the people who operate the religion.
When asked about the state visit by King Abdullah, she said it was important to engage with the country, adding there had been some progress towards greater equality. "And in the course of that fallible human beings, mainly men, will make judgements which aren't necessarily true to the principle, that basic principle, that men and women are of equal value."
"The number of women who run their own businesses in Saudi Arabia is quite astonishing," said Mrs Blair. I think we have to be careful about judging people by their appearances Cherie Blair
"There are more girls graduating out of the universities in Saudi Arabia than there are boys." In her speech she will also mention orthodox Jewish communities, but asked whether gender inequality was a particular problem in Islamic countries, she replied: "I think the facts speak for themselves."
Full veil She said divorce law and laws relating to custody of children were "unfavourable to women" in many Islamic countries.
Our correspondent also said Mrs Blair blames inequality on what she calls the twin distortions of culture and religion, which help perpetuate women's low status across the world. Dialogue 'important'
On the sensitive subject of Islamic veils, she appears to back the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and questions whether covering the whole face really acknowledges a woman as a person in her own right. But she said she had given a speech on women's rights in Saudi Arabia - where women are banned from driving - and refused to support the Lib Dems' boycott of the visit of Saudi King Abdullah, saying it was important to engage in dialogue and exchange views to "find cultural change".
In a similar event last year, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a lecture on liberal democracy. It came amid her two-day visit to the north-west of England which was marked by protests. On Islamic veils she pointed out she had been brought up by Catholic nuns who wore veils and had no problem with women covering their heads.
But on full-face veils she added: "I think however, that if you get to the stage where a woman is not able to express her personality because we cannot see her face, then we do have to ask whether this is something that is actually acknowledging the woman's right to be a person."
She said people could get "very hung up about women's clothes" and the question was about honouring religious beliefs, "provided they are freely undertaken".
"I think we have to be careful about judging people by their appearances," she added.