Do you read Azar Nafisi? This post reminded me of her article in the Atlantic. And a point she's brought up in many interviews about "the customs and mores of other countries":

...I would like to say how much I resent people who say of the Islamic Republic that this is our culture— as if women like to be stoned to death, or as if they like to be married at the age of nine. No one thinks that American culture is about burning witches.