A story from work

This story isn't about work so much as it's a comment about a situation that has had me thinking about it since I heard it. A person I work with (we'll call him R) went to Tunisia on vacation with his family. he said it was lovely, they had a great time. he also said the for an Islamic culture, women have many rights-they don't have to take the veil, they can drive, have jobs and meet with strange men on dates public-unheard of in a strict Muslim society. But in order to give them these rights, Tunisia is a police state. And as i told him at the time, I don't know how I feel about this whole situation. It would be a lovely world if a strict Muslim society could give women rights (and the Koran does NOT take away women's rights) but I don't see it happening. And as an American, I am deeply offended by the idea of a police state-and a police state to enforce rights seems like a contradiction, except is happened here in the US to enforce the rights of black children and students to go to integrated schools. Then everybody got used to it (for the most part) and we didn't really need them for that anymore. I don't know what it would be like to have to use the police to enforce what I thought I deserved, knowing that the merchant/teller/whoever did not want to work with me because I was a woman.
This situation disturbs me-and I still don't know how I feel about it.