Religious extremism is everywhere: Israel has a history of greater gender equality than many Western countries. Since the turn of the twentieth century, women have been working alongside men in the kibbutz movement. Female soldiers have served in the Israel Defense Forces since its founding, with the country, in 1948. Over the past decade, however, as the Haredim have grown in numbers and influence, women’s equality has significantly declined. In 2011, a female pediatrics professor was forbidden from going onstage to collect an award given by the Health Ministry; she was instructed to send a male colleague to accept it on her behalf. The same year, in the city of Beit Shemesh, where almost half the population identifies as Haredi, a group of Haredi men routinely hounded and spat at an eight-year-old girl for not being dressed “modestly enough.” When four hundred women protested the introduction of segregated buses in the city, they were pummeled with stones.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 17:58:55 +0000
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