A huge reversal is taking place in the four corners of the world on key equal rights. If the current trend continues, it could take generations just to be where we were before moving backward.
In Turkmenistan, the new president just enacted a law making it a crime for women to have beauty enhancements done to their bodies. In fact, last month security forces raided a restaurant forcing women to uncover their faces to check if their lips or other parts have been treated with botox. The new law is based on an ancient local custom, Adat, which essentially says that women should stay home and have children. Female fertility has been declining in Turkmenistan and it’s being blamed on girls who focus on beauty.
At home in Curaçao, the Christian churches, including Catholics are pushing their extremist agenda against equal rights for LGBTQ even after the independent Court ruled that the prohibition of same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. The churches launched a despicable attack disqualifying the then President-designate of our Common Court based on his assumed sexual preference. In their perverseness, they didn’t care about the damage inflicted on our administration of justice and rule of law. Yet, Fòrti has the backs of these churches, apparently as long as the money keeps flowing.
In the U.S. another attack on women’s rights to choose is being played out with the probable reversal of Roe v. Wade, which protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. If history is our witness, women will not stop having abortions. With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, women will be stopped from having safe abortions.
How long will our brothers and sisters have to suffer while we stand aside and look? Perhaps we’ll jump into action the moment our own rights are trampled? Maybe we should realize that the time for justice and equality is not tomorrow, not in 100 years, but always today.
New York City, U.S.A.
Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia & Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He’s from Curaçao and has a MBA from the University of Iowa. (USA).
