Straddle to skedaddle

The Indonesian government may step in to stop a city in Aceh province from prohibiting women from wearing pants and "straddling" motorbikes or bicycles, requiring women to instead ride two-wheel vehicles "sidesaddle." Mayor Suaidi Yahya of the town of Lhokseumawe told the Jakarta Globe last week that the town planned to submit the new rule because "we've seen that people's behaviours and morals are getting far from Aceh's Islamic cultural values. We want to save women from things that will cause them to violate Shariah law. We wish to honour women with this ban, because they are delicate creatures." This is just stupid. There is no honour in discrimination against women. There are women (and yes, men) who prefer skirts, but there are also women who prefer pants. But taking sides on the skirt-or-pants dilemma won't be of much use to four people, one of them the gunman, who died in a hostage-taking incident in Aurora, Colorado, the same town where a man shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 more in a movie theater last July.