|PIC1|The world’s major religions have a vital role to play in “correcting the scourge of violence and discrimination against women”, says Jimmy Carter.

The former US President told delegates at the Parliament of the World’s Religions on Tuesday that people of faith had a responsibility to acknowledge and address the “gross” acts of violence and discrimination affecting millions of women and girls every year.

He condemned the rape of women as a tactic of warfare, seen in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, the restriction of women in some Islamic nations, and the trend mostly in Asia of sex-selective abortion and the murder of young girls.

“At their most repugnant, the belief that women are inferior human beings in the eyes of God gives excuses to the husband who beats his wife, the soldier who rapes women, the employer who pays women less, the parents who abort a female embryo,” he said in a live link up with the parliament, meeting in Melbourne.

Mr Carter, a committed Baptist and member of The Elders group of religious leaders, went on to criticise the subjugation of women within religious settings, saying that it not only contradicted the UN Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings laid down by the founders of the world’s major faiths.

“It is ironic that women are now welcomed into all the major professions and other positions of authority but are branded as inferior and deprived of the equal right to serve God in positions of religious leadership,” he said.

“The plight of abused women is made more acceptable by the mandated subservience of women by religious leaders.”

He attacked male religious leaders in particular for interpreting the teachings of their faith in a way that subjugated women.

“Women are prevented from playing a full, equal role in many faiths, creating an environment in which violations against women are justified,” said Mr Carter, who split from the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000 after it ordained that women were inferior to men.

“The truth is that male traditional leaders have had and still have an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or to subjugate women.

“They have for their own selfish means overwhelmingly chosen the latter - subjugation.

“Their continuing choice provides a foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women around world.”

He concluded with a call to people of faith and influence to challenge such views and demand equal rights for women and men.