Editor's Note: NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, who has worked extensively in the Latin America and the Middle East, recently compared the sexism she found in both places. You can read her original essay here. It sparked a strong response from readers, and she wanted to address a number of those issues.
A man throws acid on a woman's face. A mother is killed because her partner believes she slept with another man.
Latin America or the Middle East?
There's been a lot of discussion surrounding the article I wrote comparing my times as a Middle East correspondent in some of the most conservative societies in that region and my experience here in Brazil.
My simple observation was that sexism manifests itself in many forms and that often we don't notice it because it's less obvious. In some countries in the Middle East, as some readers have pointed out, it is codified into law. In Latin America, it often hides under the guise of "a celebration of the female form."
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Parallels
Which Place Is More Sexist: The Middle East Or Latin America?