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Religious Rosa Parks?

3K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  sonja 
#1 ·
I thought this was an interesting (and infuriating) article...

Women taking a stand to sit up front
Canadian joins group bringing segregation on buses to court in Israel

CAROLYNNE WHEELER

JERUSALEM -- It began as a peaceful morning, with a religious woman boarding a bus just after daybreak to take her to the Old City to pray.

But Miriam Shear's day quickly turned ugly when she was ordered by a religious man to move to the back of the bus, a common practice on many routes serving the religious population.

Ms. Shear, a 50-year-old Toronto-area resident who was in Israel that November day for religious study, refused politely when he demanded her seat, pointing to several others nearby. He yelled and spat on her. Incensed, she spat back. In the 20-minute scuffle that followed, which was joined by four other men, she was slapped, pushed out of her seat and onto the floor, beaten and kicked; her hair covering fell off, a great shame for a married religious woman, and she suffered bruising to her cheek.

Now, Ms. Shear's case, which has gained notoriety here as a kind of religious Rosa Parks incident, is cited in a petition to the Supreme Court to review the segregated bus policy, in what is seen as a test case in balancing the rights of a minority's freedom of religion against the basic human rights of all.

"There's a concept in Jewish law which is that silence is acquiescence. And when the rabbinical leaders hear about a store being burned down . . . when people are being sprayed with bleach on the street because their clothes are not considered modest enough, when women are being beaten on buses, when these things are going on and the rabbinical leaders say nothing, there is an appearance that it is condoned," Ms. Shear said in a telephone interview from her home in Canada, emphasizing that she respects Haredi values but regards the violence as a tragedy that cannot be ignored. "I've come under a lot of heat for publicizing this. But I've stood my ground."

The mehadrin buses for religious riders were once limited to a few designated routes, but the practice has spread to 30 routes formally, and several others informally. And they are popular with many riders who would otherwise be anxious about inappropriate jostling. The Haredi, or ultra-orthodox sect of Judaism, follows a strict code of religious law, including modest, traditional clothing for both men and women. Men and women do not touch unless they are married or closely related and women are expected to cover their heads after marrying with wigs, snoods or hats.

"It's more relaxing, because the males are in the front and they leave me alone," said Rachel Orlowick, a Toronto-born religious Israeli on the mehadrin No. 36 bus in Jerusalem this week. Yet even as she speaks, the heavily pregnant Ms. Orlowick grabs at a handrail as she casts around for a seat in the crowded rear, though there are several places open at the front.

But secular passengers have reported being harassed or kicked off for what other passengers deem inappropriate dress, and even modestly dressed women have been verbally abused for refusing to board through a rear entrance and sit at the back.

The prominent Israeli-American author Naomi Ragen, an Orthodox Jew and women's rights activist, says she, too, has been verbally abused and physically threatened for refusing to relinquish a front seat, and is now petitioning the Supreme Court along with four other women for a review of the practice. At the least, they are asking that segregated buses be well marked and run only in parallel with regular buses.

"When I got off the bus, I felt degraded, I felt embarrassed, I felt shaken and I felt angry," said Ms. Ragen, who has referred to the hard-line religious leaders pushing the policy as a local Taliban. "You're not going to tell me there's not a sense of degradation in being forced to sit at the back of the bus."

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case and has given Israel's main bus companies and the Ministry of Transportation a little more than a month to respond to the court. The ministry has declined comment, pending their response.

But the bus question is part of a growing trend of what observers say is an increasing drive for religious purity in some parts of Haredi society in the face of growing Western and secular influences.

"There is a very strong feeling of attack from the outside world," said Tzvia Greenfield, a Haredi woman and former left-wing member of the Knesset who holds a doctorate in political philosophy. "We have to make choices, and they're never perfect."

In recent months, reports have emerged of so-called bleach patrols trolling the religious neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, throwing bleach on the clothing of women they deem to be immodest and threatening clothing stores whose displays are considered too racy. At least two clothing stores -- one in Jerusalem, one in the religious community of Bnei Brak -- have also been set on fire in attacks associated with their wares.

More serious is a new rabbinical ruling that has ordered an end to postsecondary degree programs for Haredi women, even within ultra-orthodox educational institutions, a move that threatens to drive many of their large families deeper into poverty. In this society, a man who spends his days studying religious texts is of high regard, and women are expected to work to support their families.

"The collective and humiliating announcement about closing down the courses and shrinking them struck me like a thunderbolt," a 46-year-old teacher wrote anonymously to the rabbinical committee making the decision, in a letter reprinted in local media. "You don't allow the yeshiva students to work for a living, every new initiative is immediately cut down . . . everyone says the women must be the breadwinners, fine . . . but let me make a decent living for my family."

There is a long list of areas in this struggle between religious and state law, including how to regulate Israel's publicly subsidized but separate ultra-orthodox schools, whether to keep draft exemptions for the religious and even whether to permit civil marriage rather than just religious ceremonies.

But if the secular community is struggling with the balance, there are elements within the Haredi community who are even more torn, between the modern world's opportunities and expectations and the traditions of a religious life insulated from such temptations.

"I'm very conflicted, all the time," said Ms. Greenfield. She, too, has faced the question of whether to move to the back of the bus and has so far stayed at the front, though she faced nothing more than angry looks for her decision. "When it came to me personally, I couldn't play by the rules. But I'm not sure I did the right thing. The question for liberal thinkers is to find the right equilibrium between these two main concerns: women's rights and human rights on one hand, and the right of the group to maintain its way of life."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070203.ISRAEL03/TPStory/International
 
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#5 ·
Oh, I forget who gives me grief for this whole human rights idea I have sometimes. I thought it might have been :shake for me posting it.
The whole thing is that I understand this belief has been ingrained in their culture- that women are second-class citizens if even that. It's just appalling to hear that a woman was harassed because she wanted to sit in the "wrong seat" on the bus. Again.
 
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