I suggest you look at this complete article. This is an interesting Japanese case of human rights. See you on Tuesday. Clark
OPINION
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Women, heritage and holy places
Imagine if women were not allowed to set foot on Mount Fuji or Kyoto's Mount Hiei. It's hard to envisage, isn't it? Women are as natural a sight there now as birds or stones -- or men. But little more than a century ago, it would have been hard to imagine them even approaching such places. A scholar at Kansai University's Institute of Human Rights Studies was quoted in this newspaper recently as saying that, before 1872, numerous sacred sites throughout Japan were off-limits to women, not just those two famous peaks. Yet since most such prohibitions were lifted by government fiat, women have done more than approach these venerable sites. They have walked and climbed and prayed there right along with men -- and behold, the sky has not fallen.
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ed20040516a1.htm