The controversy over a woman nursing her baby on a crowded Beijing subway shows many people are ignorant of women's breastfeeding rights. And breastfeeding in public is an issue that reflects how much respect members of a society have for women.

Beijing Tale, a non-government organization, sparked controversy recently by saying breastfeeding on the subway was the same as "exposing sexual organs". But the breast is not a reproductive organ. If it were, it would certainly be indecent to expose it in public. No civilized person would consider the breast a sexual organ when a woman is nursing her baby. That some people perceive it otherwise only exposes their dirty minds.

What should a lactating mother do if she cannot find a secluded spot in a public place to nurse her baby? Let the child suffer until she reaches home? Let it cry and raise a fit?

The reality is that few organizations in China have fulfilled the responsibility of setting up mother-and-baby facilities in public places. Even though the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests says workplaces should have breast-feeding facilities, very few companies, organizations or institutions have established them. To say that such negligence is discrimination against woman employees is an understatement.