And, yes, it's true, women also buy into these practices, but what is the choice? Traditionally women have had no economic independence, so we survive on social capital. Saying NO means the risk of losing the only investment we have. Or, if women turn to prostitution to survive, saying NO to a client who doesn't want to use a condom means losing the only income we have. Men have really got to make a big effort here to change the way they behave.

Let's not forget, the International Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948. The 'softly-softly' approach doesn't really seem to be working, does it? Haven't we considered men's sensitivities long enough? Isn't it time to cut the cultural relativism and say, guys, this is simply unacceptable?

Sex discrimination is so enormous, it's simply part of the landscape: people don't see what they're doing, they don't hear what they're saying.

But the position of women is the single largest hindrance to development. How can it be considered normal, in the 21st century, that the majority of adult women in sub-Saharan Africa spend several hours a day pounding millet with a pestle and mortar? That young women are sold into marriage? That young girls are genitally mutilated? That wives have to ask permission to go outside the home? That the best option for an imaginative young woman is to sit in the bar of the Sofitel looking for a European passport out of a polygamous marriage?

Of course, they say we Greeks don't understand - for example, the myth about how 'the mother' is so highly respected in African culture. We say: show us some concrete examples. We say: give our sisters less respect and bring electricity into their village. We say: what self-respecting man would allow his mother / wife / daughter to live this way?