I'm Eastern European and live in the USA. I've been to places like Israel, Jordan, Turkey, the UAE, and Russia. I went to these places to see historical landmarks and discover culture. I've mostly had the "you travelled there as a Russian-speaking female ... alone? Do you know what they do to our girls?" I think I had a passing comment by some idiot in my graduate program when I went to Israel who failed to understand the reason I have visited said countries. Frankly, it's a blessing that I even can travel, as an immigrant who grew up stereotypically broke in Brooklyn. Furthermore, if you want to get real technical with them, I think you can take the "relativity" route with human rights - if you want to look at human rights universally (which Westerners love to do), then, yes, there are a few countries in the world that violate human rights. In a relative perspective, though, there's not a country in existence that isn't currently violating human rights, or has a violent history of doing so. Let's be real, the only kind of people who make these comments are usually self-righteous and take the route of shaming to feel like they're a "good" person. You think I don't hate that homosexuals aren't allowed to be openly gay in my home country? I do, I hate it, and I'm not even homosexual. But does that stop me from visiting my mother? No. Do you think I'm not aware of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict/atrocities? I am, but I wanted to see Jerusalem because I'm a nationalistic Christian and it was one of the most beautiful trips I've ever made. It really bothers me when Westerners get on their high horse - the fact that they can even make these comments shows how privileged and out of touch they really are.

There's your argume.