Paying *personally* the price for standing for human rights?

I'm back in Montréal, after a lovely week in Massachusetts, on the beaches of Cape Cod, and then going further north in Lowell, for their folk festival and along the way, meeting wonderful FastCupid bloggers!

Basking in such an environment,

where everything is nice and cozy,
where at the beach, we wear little, if any

There is even a "clothing optional" beach which I went last year (and on FastCupid, it inspired me to write this blog entry), and I might have gone this year too, but with just a week of vacations, I ran out of time

And in Lowell,
so many cultures mixing in,
peacefully and for the joy of all of us,

It is difficult to NOT forget that we live a very shelthered part of the world.

Elsewhere, things aren't so rosy...

And when you have God on your side,
excesses can be so easily justified,
even if they are insult to everyone's intelligence.

Who would dare to say that God got it wrong,
Or the Holy Writings aren't decoded the way they should?

Mhhh...

Then you are reminded that human rights shouldn't be said too lightly.

The story about Loudna Hussein broke in many French-speaking papers here, and for some reasons was largely ignored by their English counterparts.

If you can read French, try this: L'indécence du pantalon féminin
(Although I found a brief article in the Huffpost: Ludna Hussein pants adjourns until Tuesday)

The story is taking place in Sudan, an islamic country. The police raided a cafe in Karthoum and arrested 13 women, one of them being a UN worker, Ludna Hussein. Their crime? Indecency. Wearing western clothes. In the case of Ludna, she had the heejab on, but otherwise she was wearing ordinary (western) clothes.

We're light-years away from the clothing optional beach of Cape Cod.

The sentence? Being flogged, up to 50 times according to some newspapers. That's the reason for the trial and Loudna is waiting for her sentence.

As a UN worker, she might have immunity, and she said that she wouldn't hesitate to resign, so the trial would go to through.

I get the hunch there might be some political motivations, or there are other things that aren't said. Nonetheless...

You would stand for human rights... even if it means you pay personally a physical price?

I admire her.

Altough my feeling is that nothing will change. Sudan isn't the most democratic country, and when you have the power of religion...

Though as a male, the situation couldn't ever apply to me...

However, I'm thinking that should I have been in a situation which my physical integrity is compromised *AND* I could make use of immunity to bail out, I _think_ that I'd take the immunity waiver and get the [bleep!] out of this situation as fast as I could...

But I am also thinking with my Western world minset too.

Mhhhh....

I'm crossing my fingers...