As frustrated as I get

with the bullshit politics and hypocrisy in this country, at least I know I won't ever receive a beating as punishment for being raped:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A 19-year-old female victim of gang rape who initially was ordered to undergo 90 lashes for "being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape," has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail for telling her story to the news media.

I remember my 5th grade teacher telling a story about a friend of hers who'd visited a boyfriend in Kuwait (this was after the first Iraq war - I think he was a contractor of some sort). The girl, riding in the front passenger seat of her boyfriend's car, leaned over to him while they were stopped at a red light and kissed him on the cheek. The police were called.

As fucked up as our country is at times, and as mad as I get, and as often as I entertain ideas of running away to some obscure European nation just to escape the insanity - at least I can walk around with my face exposed, hold my boyfriend's hand when we walk down the street, ride in a car with a male friend, and speak my mind when I see injustice. How women in these backwards nations manage to get out of bed each morning, knowing they have nothing but complete and total oppression to look forward to each day, is beyond my comprehension.

I would live every day working toward my goal of getting the fuck out of there. (And I'd have been stoned to death at 14, if not sooner.)