Why is there still slavery in the world?

What provoked the below "rant" was yet another instance of an "honor killing" in Pakistan, and the generally deplorable treatment of women in most Moslem countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afganistan, and the genital mutilaton that women in Africa are subject to.

The most dangerous, morally reprehensible and inhumane concept the human race has ever devised is the idea that some people are somehow "more" than other people -- more important, more powerful, more valuable, more "holy," etc., -- because that automatically makes other people "less." Accepting this concept gives one tacit permission to treat people differently, depending on whether they are viewed as "more" or "less." It is the concept at the root of that most pernicious of human ills, Slavery. Slavery is the ultimate "less" in that it denies people their personhood, demotes them from living, thinking, feeling beings with inate rights to objects that can be owned and manipulated at will and without compunction.

All human beings have the inate and inalienable right to equal representation and equal protection under the law. Any social or moral system that refuses to recognize and incorporate that concept in practice as well as in theory is essentially condoning slavery. Any legal system that incorporates laws that treat some people differently than others on the basis of race, sex, religion or any other criterion is essentially condoning and perpetuating slavery. Women will never be truly free of the institutionalized legal, religious, social and moral slavery we have suffered since the dawn of time until all human beings understand this concept.

It is only when people understand and accept the idea that all human beings are and should be equal in the eyes of the law and each other, can they see the crime of rape for what it really is. Rape is not about sex, but about power. The crime of rape is a form of "armed" robbery in that sex is used as a weapon to rob the victim of his or her personhood,and turn them into an object. An object has no feelings, so you can do what you like to it without remorse or guilt. An object has no rights, so you do not need to ask permission first. An object has no power.

Governments, cultures and religions that condone and practice arranged marriages in which the bride can be married without her consent to someone she has not freely chosen and without legal recourse on her part are practicing institutionalized slavery. Governments, cultures and religions that allow, condone or permit violence against children by their fathers or male relatives or against women by their husbands or male relatives are practicing institutionalized slavery.

You who work for equal rights and equal protection for all humans under the law, let your slogan be, "How can you let this happen?" The world will never be a better place than it is now until so many people demand an answer to that question that they can no longer be ignored.