E/CN.4/1999/58 page 27 2. Violations of the principle of tolerance in matters of religion and belief 106. They reveal the following characteristics: policies, practices and acts of religious intolerance on the part of the State and society, particularly of communities in matters pertaining to religion and belief, of politico-religious groups and other non-State groups, the most marked manifestations of which are connected with the problem of religious extremism (inter- and intra-religious). Mention should also be made of the role of the media in propagating a climate of intolerance. 3. Violations of freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief 107. This type of violation takes the following forms: policies, laws and regulations, practices and acts contrary to the principle of conscientious objection and the freedom to change and keep one's religion and belief. 4. Violations of the freedom to manifest one's religion or belief 108. The fourth category of violations comprises policies, laws and regulations, practices and acts constituting controls, interference, prohibitions and restrictions on freedom to manifest one's religion or belief. 5. Violations of the freedom to dispose of religious property 109. These violations display the following characteristics: policies, practices and acts that impair the freedom to dispose of religious property in the form of non-restitution of confiscated religious property; refusal of access to places of worship (obstacles to, and even banning of, construction or rental; restrictions on the number of followers); attacks against and closure and destruction of places of worship, cemeteries and denominational schools, and confiscation of religious property (including religious works). 6. Violations of physical integrity and health of persons (religious figures and the faithful) 110. The sixth category comprises policies, practices and acts in the form of threats, ill-treatment (including slavery and rape), arrests and detentions, forced disappearances, and even death sentences, executions and killings. 7. Violations affecting women 111. This last category embraces the previous six categories of violations. The most tragic illustration is the Taliban's anti-feminine policy in Afghanistan: it is tantamount to veritable apartheid against women, as women, and on the basis of specious interpretations of Islam. This obscurantism, the product of religious extremism combining religion and politics in the interests of power, excludes women from society and consigns them to a grey area where they enjoy neither citizenship nor rights and where their submission to the all-powerful man in the name of Allah is the order of the day. Such aberrations are also overt in India among communities close to the Talibans, who publicly declare that an unveiled Muslim woman's vote runs