As ultra-Orthodox flex muscle, Israel feminists see a backsliding

[bemildred]

Women who thought Israel's battle for gender equality was mostly won warn of a new assault from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox, seeking to expand religious-based segregation into the public realm.

Reporting from Jerusalem—
When public buses rumble to a stop in some of Jerusalem's religious neighborhoods, women often dutifully enter by the rear door and sit in the back, leaving the front for men.

There's no law requiring the women to do so, but those who don't risk verbal taunts and intimidation.

It's a curious sight given Israel's history as an international trailblazer for women's rights.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-women-20111113,0,7356238.story

[bemildred]

1. Jerusalem mayor urges police: Stop exclusion of women on ads

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Sunday urged District Police Commander Niso Shaham to put a stop to the exclusion of women's images from billboards across the city, and to the defacing of advertisements on which women do appear, both trends initiated of late by the local ultra-Orthodox sector.

"We must make sure that those who want to advertise women's images in the city can do so without fear of vandalism and defacement of billboards or buses showing women," Barkat wrote Shaham.

One example of women disappearing from billboards in Jerusalem is in the winter campaign of clothing outlet Honigman: Whereas model Sandy Bar appears in wool knit outfit in ads elsewhere in the country, in the Jerusalem ads all that remains is her arm and purse.

Another instance is an ad for the organization that encourages organ donation that appears in buses, in which a mosaic-like representation of people are shown holding donor cards – all of them men.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/jerusalem-mayor-urges-police-stop-exclusion-of-women-on-ads-1.395314

[snagglepuss]

2. I think Sinclair Lewis' quote about how fascism will come to America

wrapped in a flagged and carrying a cross can be modifyied and applied to Israel as well.

[Dawson Leery]

3. ALL Religious fundamentalists are reactionary filth!