In the highly acclaimed bestselling A Call to Action, President
Jimmy Carter addresses the world's most serious, pervasive, and ignored
violation of basic human rights: the ongoing discrimination and violence
against women and girls.
President Carter was encouraged to write this book by a wide coalition
of leaders of all faiths. His urgent report covers a system of
discrimination that extends to every nation. Women are deprived of equal
opportunity in wealthier nations and "owned" by men in others, forced to
suffer servitude, child marriage, and genital cutting. The most
vulnerable and their children are trapped in war and violence.
A Call to Action addresses the suffering inflicted upon women by a
false interpretation of carefully selected religious texts and a growing
tolerance of violence and warfare. Key verses are often omitted or
quoted out of context by male religious leaders to exalt the status of
men and exclude women. And in nations that accept or even glorify
violence, this perceived inequality becomes the basis for abuse.
Carter draws upon his own experiences and the testimony of courageous
women from all regions and all major religions to demonstrate that women
around the world, more than half of all human beings, are being denied
equal rights. This is an informed and passionate charge about a
devastating effect on economic prosperity and unconscionable human
suffering. It affects us all.
