Religious IDF troops walk out of event featuring woman singer

[IndianaGreen]

And we complain in America when fundies claim a religious exemption to dispensing birth control pills at a pharmacy. We should all be combating patriarchal religious intolerance.

Religious IDF troops walk out of event featuring woman singer

By Amos Harel

About 100 religious soldiers left a Paratroop Brigade assembly earlier this month to avoid being present at the performance of a female singer, the army weekly Bamahane reported last week.

Their departure stemmed from their belief that halakha, or Jewish religious law, prohibits them from hearing a woman sing. Their position has the support of the army rabbinate.

The case is only the latest of several such incidents of which Haaretz has learned. The first was reported about two years ago.

This month's incident occurred two weeks ago in Haifa, when the Paratroop Brigade was marking its service in the recent Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The event featured a short performance by male and female singers, both members of the brigade, who performed the brigade anthem.

At that point, soldiers from the hesder program, which combines yeshiva study with army service, left the performance, after notifying their commanders. Several officers wearing skullcaps did the same. No disciplinary action has been taken against those who left.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073722.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. Fundamentalism = Crazy

No matter what group your with.

[Zenlitened]

2. Religious fundamentalism... it'll mess yer head up, man.

:wow: :wow: :wow:

...their belief that... religious law prohibits them from hearing a woman sing

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. So let me see if I got this straight......

The IDF has no problem with women serving in the military (and they regularly do)but a woman singing is against "God's law" ?? :wtf:

[IndianaGreen]

6. Blame it on patriarchal religions

The IDF has women and gays serving with distinction, yet because of the way the laws are written, the homophobic misogynist religious enjoy a level of influence that is disproportionate to their numbers.

[Tigress DEM]

4. It seems bad, yet it's simply freedom of religion.

FUNDIES try to make the rest of us follow their religious laws from the boardroom to the bedroom and beyond, reaching right into our bodies and trying to force decisions on us that line up with their beliefs.

THESE people may have very odd and archane beliefs, but they didn't force anyone to do anything differently, they just observed their own religious beliefs. They didn't say that it was bad or wrong for others to stay or that it was wrong for women to sing. Their beliefs I think are about keeping themselves pure and focused on spiritual things, not worldly things.

To each his own. And I am a woman, a feminist and a singer.

[zazen]

7. what if they only walked out on African American singers for religious beliefs?

I'm a woman and feminist, and no singer :-), but 150 years ago Southern American Christian apologists believed it was God's law to maintain legal and social inferiority of the "Negroes."

I do think walking out is disruptive and insulting. It would certainly be construed that way if for example they walked out on Muslims or Buddhists because of some rule that said they shouldn't listen to people outside their own faith.

[iverglas]

9. this particular instance is, although borderline

The military includes women. What if a woman in the military decides to sing somewhere where one of these ultra-orthodox types can hear? Who will have to alter his/her behaviour?

Google

women israel orthodox

and start with sitting at the back of the bus, maybe. That does seem to be a favourite with bigots of all stripes.

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=8334&size=A

Women reject Taliban-like rules on bus
A group of Israeli women filed a petition with the court against requiring women to sit in the back of buses in ultra-Orthodox areas, where sit in the front and women in the back to prevent the sexes from “mixing”.

If the men don't want to "mix", how about the fucking men (or any other band of bigots objecting to mixing with anybody else) sit at the back of the fucking bus?

Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) – “They shouted at me,” said Naomi Ragen, after an ultra-Orthodox man had asked to move to the back of the bus. “I felt humiliated. The driver didn't even open his mouth to defend me,” she added.

Naomi Ragen, an Orthodox Jew, and five other women, including a representative of the Reform Judaism movement, filed a petition with Israel’s High Court against public bus companies to stop telling women to sit in the back of buses running through some Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods.

“I got off the bus with a terrible, terrible feeling that in my country I have to take a public bus home that is under the purview of the Taliban,” said the US-born novelist.

Many members of the ultra-Orthodox sects of Judaism follow teachings that bar any public contact between men and women, and Israeli government-subsidised transport companies have recently granted demands to run gender-divided buses along some routes.

Yes, the only democratic country in the mid east, blah blah blah ...

[Tesha]

5. The religiously insane are insane no matter what their religion. (NT)

[hvn_nbr_2]

8. So if Gazan women start singing in the streets, will the IDF have to leave? nt

[IndianaGreen]

10. Having women serenade the IDF?

I think you got something there, hvn_nbr_2. Memo to Obama.

[GOB2K]

11. GURLPOWER

YOU GOO GUURLFRIEND

[Warpy]

12. I'm always amazed by how much these patriarchal desert religions

want half the human race dead.

Unfortunately, they need us to reproduce themselves, so they have to keep us around as prisoners and slaves.

[backtoblue]

13. You hit the nail...

They even want to control our reproduction...we're supposed to be silent, obedient, and submissive little breeders don't ya know.

I wish we had a smiley with it's finger in the air so I could give it to these sexists assholes.
nt