Religion rearing its ignorant, oppressive head yet again: "Ride in the back of the bus"

[Arugula Latte]

This needs to be stopped. Now.


Women ride in back on sex-segregated Brooklyn bus line
Posted on October 18, 2011 by Sasha Chavkin
The B110 bus connects Williamsburg with Borough Park in Brooklyn

Sasha Chavkin/The New York World

On the morning of October 12, Melissa Franchy boarded the B110 bus in Brooklyn and sat down near the front. For a few minutes she was left in silence, although the other passengers gave her a noticeably wide berth. But as the bus began to fill up, the men told her that she had to get up. Move to the back, they insisted.

They were Orthodox Jews with full beards, sidecurls and long black coats, who told her that she was riding a “private bus” and a “Jewish bus.” When she asked why she had to move, a man scolded her.

“If God makes a rule, you don’t ask ‘Why make the rule?’” he told Franchy, who rode the bus at the invitation of a New York World reporter. She then moved to the back where the other women were sitting. The driver did not intervene in the incident.

The B110 bus travels between Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn. It is open to the public, and has a route number and tall blue bus stop signs like any other city bus. But the B110 operates according to its own distinct rules. The bus line is run by a private company and serves the Hasidic communities of the two neighborhoods. To avoid physical contact between members of opposite sexes that is prohibited by Hasidic tradition, men sit in the front of the bus and women sit in the back.

http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2011/10/18/women-ride-in-back-on-sex-segregated-brooklyn-bus-line/

[RebelOne]

1. They would have to physically move me to the back of the bus. n/t

[Warpy]

3. "If you want me, you're going to have to pick me up and carry me"

has saved my ass once when I was attacked in a parking lot. It would probably work on the bus, too.

I'd also make very certain I was getting on a transit authority bus instead of some religious nut bus. Those need to be clearly marked that they don't respect civil rights.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Convincing people that God called you on his hotline and laid out the rules

is always wrong (factually and morally).

Put another way: RELIGION SUCKS!

Fuck these fucking fucks and the lie they rode in on.

[Kerrytravelers]

4. Do they get any publicly funded money? Yes? Then this nonsense stops.

If they want to run their own private transportation, then they can be as 14th century as they'd like. So long as the public doesn't have to pay for their imaginary friend's silly sexist rules.

[Arugula Latte]

6. It seems like something that happens because the majority of riders go along w/ it.

No one is there to enforce the seat mingling, probably.

Very aggravating.

I wish the women would just say: "Fuck you. This isn't the 12th century."

[trotsky]

5. I am so very amused by the LACK of response to items like these...

from the "how dare you criticize someone's beliefs?" gang.

[Arugula Latte]

7. Yeah, funny how that works.

:eyes:

[Deep13]

8. suggested response to those men.

[progressoid]

9. Time for a flash mob of women to ride this bus!

According to NPR...

"It's become more codified," he says. "Now you have signs on the streets, telling you, 'Women, please step aside from men,' whereas in the past, that never would have been necessary."

But the tradition is running afoul of New York's civil rights laws. True, a private, company, Private Transportation Corp., owns the bus. But the company was awarded the route from the city. Therefore it can't discriminate — a point Mayor Michael Bloomberg reiterated on Wednesday.

For his part, Deen, is not surprised the B110 is making news.

"I think Americans react very viscerally to hearing about it because of the civil rights movement, because Rosa Parks became such an icon of that particular struggle — of-front-of-the-bus/back-of-the-bus discrimination."

Now the city's Department of Transportation has sent the bus company a letter saying it is violating the law and demanding a response by Wednesday. The company has not responded, nor have Hasidic leaders: The Jewish holiday of Sukkot runs through Saturday evening, and until then, Hasidic believers do not answer the telephone.