The State must act as an agent of change as regards women's place in cultural and family life, by fostering and creating a culture free of all forms of discrimination against women. A transformative approach to women and girls' status in the family is crucial. There needs to be awareness that, in the past, a patriarchal concept of family pervaded all secular, religious, customary and indigenous laws and institutions and that some States and groups are now trying, in a retrograde manner, to subject women to the most oppressive forms of patriarchy, particularly in the context of religious fanaticism. It should also be understood that the transition towards equality between women and men, and girls and boys, in the culture and in the family is a prerequisite for a decent society.