Carter says faith still used against women

The abuse of women is “the most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation on Earth” and too often justified in the name of religion, former president Jimmy Carter said at a June 27–29 conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

Carter, a lifelong Baptist who withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention over the issue of women’s equality, said the subordination of women is directly contrary to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“I think it’s good for me to be reminded and for you to be reminded of the incompatibility between religious practices on the one hand as espoused by religious leaders that try to convince their own fellow worshipers that women are inferior in the eyes of God,” Carter told 60 human rights defenders, religious leaders and scholars from 15 countries gathered for the conference “Mobilizing Faith for Women.”