E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 27 96. Son preference is in fact a transcultural phenomenon, whose expression and intensity nonetheless vary from one culture to another.103 It may be that such preference does not have a basis in religion, especially when expressed in criminal acts or in nutritional or occupational discrimination. It has been recognized that in Asia the practice is not based on religion, Buddhism being cited as one example in that regard.104 Also, other monotheistic religions have attempted to put an end to criminal manifestations of preference for male children and to mitigate its most harmful aspects.105 Generally speaking, there are many reasons to account for such preference: economic considerations, including men’s traditional role in agriculture and as landowners, misinterpretation of religion, where, for example, women may not perform certain religious functions or ceremonies, the existence of patriarchal systems and the absence or low level of women’s representation in professional spheres or public life in general.106 With religious extremism, son preference means the total denial of women’s rights. 3. Religious extremism 97. What different forms of extremism and religious fundamentalism in particular have in common, irrespective of the religion concerned, is the negation of gender equality, often by violent means.107 Extremism can be seen in the action of groups or, in some instances, of the State itself. In Afghanistan, for example, discrimination against women has become institutionalized by the Taliban with the introduction of what is in fact a system of apartheid against women based on the Taliban’s own interpretation of Islam: the exclusion of women from society, employment and schools, the obligation for women to wear the burqa in public and restrictions on travel. Women are barred from society and consigned to an area where they enjoy neither citizenship nor rights and where their total submission to the all-powerful man in the name of Allah is the rule.108 98. The distinctive feature of extremism, in particular when it involves the State, is the institutionalization of discrimination against women. In Iran, for example, especially in the first years of the Islamic revolution, women were reportedly barred from certain functions or activities, notably in schools but also outside the education system.109 In that country, according to one author, women are political pawns and often the main victims of failed reforms and extremist interpretation of religion.110 99. In other countries, ruling parties, although committed to tolerance, play into the hands of extremists by employing women’s status (the veil, etc.) in their electoral campaigns and are thereby ensnared by a purely electoral strategy of incorporating religion into the political sphere.111 The State is thus rendered powerless or at least weakened in its efforts to combat religious extremism, to the detriment of women in particular. In other countries exposed to extremism, women appear to be one of the main targets of fatwas declared against them, threatening their security and lives or entailing punishments of flogging or social ostracism.112 100. In this and other cases, crimes against women are used by States, rebel groups, militias, etc. to achieve political ends. For example, in extreme situations of conflict or unrest, extremists employ the rape of women as a weapon of war with the aim of terrorizing the people as part of a strategy to destabilize the ruling power. This is especially true of armed Islamic groups in Algeria, whose many acts have mainly harmed innocent women. In genocide situations, the intention to suppress part of the population or an ethnic and/or religious minority affects women primarily (mass rape, forced pregnancy, etc.). Crimes against women are thus part of crimes of