At Front of Brooklyn Bus, a Clash of Religious and Women’s Rights

[rug]

The B110 bus runs between Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn, seating men in the front and women in the back.

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Published: October 19, 2011

It does not take long to recognize that the B110 bus in Brooklyn is not like others in the city.

Privately operated, the B110 is for public use and cannot discriminate, a Transportation Department spokesman said.
The exterior colors are different: red, white and blue. The price for a single ride is the same, $2.50, but MetroCards are not accepted. The bus does not run Friday night or most of Saturday.

But the most obvious sign that the B110 is different was demonstrated Wednesday by Gitty Green, a 30-year-old mother who boarded the bus on Wednesday with her three children and a stroller and headed straight to the back.

As her two older sons perched on the seats behind her, she looked ahead at the men seated in front, mostly Hasidic Jews in wide-brimmed hats, and said, because her religion dictates the separation of the sexes, she never wondered what it would be like to sit with them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/nyregion/bus-segregation-of-jewish-women-prompts-review.html

[Warpy]

1. Since men are generally unencumbered by babies, strollers and groceries

perhaps they're the ones who need to move to the back of the bus.

Oh, wait, that would make sense and it might make them feel a little inferior. Poor crybabies.

[NMMNG]

2. They're just standing up for their religious freedoms

Who cares if some whiny women are offended because they're forced to sit in the back of a bus?

[abogado]

3. Humans choose their religion, but not their gender.

...