people and their customs. An explanation as to why you disagree with the culture of another country is helpful.
A person who is from a different culture and holding on to the ways of that culture will "feel" intuitively that his or her culture is right because things have always been that way. That does not make it right, but, if we believe that change should occur, we have to persuade people that the reasons to change are more compelling than the reasons to continue old ways, old customs.
The abolitionists were able to persuade many people that slavery was wrong because they showed that African-Americans were humans. The Civil Rights movement worked the same way. People had to ask for their rights and had to give good reasons for deserving them.
The problem in changing attitudes towards women, marriage, equal rights, etc. is to show that old ways actually harm people. It is very hard to persuade those who profit of benefit from old ideas and ways that it is not only in the general interest but in their own interest to change. It is hard to persuade people that the old ways are actually hurting, say families or children or women.
Outrage doesn't get very far. It just gets a defensive reaction. Patient conviction is the best way to achieve change.
As an older person, I remember how women were treated in the workplace years ago. You may have seen in the old movies a room full of typists. The men, the company directors, were all sequestered in their separate offices. That's the way it was. We've really come a long way. Do we still have a way to go? Yes. But we have to work at it patiently. Fortunately, my grown daughters have never known the reality I knew in my youth. They can't even imagine a world like the one I grew up in. So change comes -- slowly but surely.
There is no point in outrage. There is much to be achieved by persistently but respectfully pointing to the problems. The problem in France is very old attitudes. It's up to the French to change them.
And I would like to point out that in our culture, we accept divorce and remarriage as though it was just a matter of changing towels.
As long as there is a court-ordered divorce, we don't consider the damage done to children, families, our society. Personally, I think we should try to lower our own divorce rate before we criticize other cultures in which they handle problems differently.
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