Are our perceptions of liberty distorted in the West?

When I first started writing this, I was thinking of all the media hype we hear about Muslim women being denied freedom. I was going to suggest that it is because our concept of liberty is too focussed on fashion and rights and not on quality of life and responsibilities that we infer some absence of freedom.

However, since reading Norma Khouri's Forbidden Love' I was so incensed by the way Jordanian law seems to protect those guilty of honour killings, and offers no protection for women, that I'm not so sure what to think; even more so since finding out that even the author's authenticity is now in doubt.

Islam teaches that women should have many rights including: personal respect, legitimacy and maintenance for children; the right to negotiate marriage terms of their choice and to refuse any marriage that does not please them; the right to obtain divorce, even on the grounds that they can't stand their husband; custody of their children after divorce; independent property of their own; the right and duty to obtain education; the right to work if they need or want it; the right to participate fully in public life and have their voices heard by those in power; and much more besides. In some Arab countries, culture has stripped women of these rights and yet the world sees that it is religion that shrouds their liberty.

In many British cities, including Lancaster and Preston, I rub shoulders with young women who choose to be completely covered by the veil. What may surprise some people is that many of these young British Muslims are opting to wear the veil because it gives them liberty. Where is the error in wanting boys to like them for their personality alone? These girls aren't under pressure to flaunt their bodies and, one thing's certain, the veil demands more respect than micro-minis, apple-green stilettos and melting midriff over-flow. Night clubs don't do much for advertising Western women as particularly free'; well, free with their flesh maybe.

On the face of it, Western culture, for women, is civilised. However, against the backdrop of scepticism about arranged marriages, and although we hear about honour killings in this country and in Arab countries, many Sikh, Hindu and Muslim girls I have chatted to are relieved that their parents take care of the huge task that is finding a good husband. With our current divorce problem, we are hardly in a position to cast judgement!

So, what are the parameters of true liberty? Does it sometimes only come with a certain level of restriction and an understanding that as well as rights, we have responsibilities? It was a French Muslim woman who, putting responsibilities ahead of rights, begged her government not to back down on the issue of headscarves, because Muslim women did not want their headscarves to be stained with the blood of two innocent men.

Perhaps true liberty relies on a balance between protecting our rights, fulfilling our responsibilities, and keeping an open mind.

Does Western culture have the monopoly on true liberty?