January 2, 2012
Females sit in the front to protest gender-segregated buses
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Israelis women ride on a bus used mainly by the Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem Jan. 1. Photo by REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Dozens of female demonstrators in Israel sat near the driver at the front of gender-segregated buses to protest the separation of men and women.
The protesters rode buses Sunday evening leaving from Jerusalem and Ramat Gan through the haredi Orthodox community of Bnei Brak and through Beit Shemesh, where a Modern Orthodox girls school on the cusp of a haredi Orthodox neighborhood has thrust the issue of the exclusion of women in the public sphere into the spotlight.
Be Free Israel, which according to its website is a nonpartisan movement working on behalf of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, organized the protest of the mehadrin, or sex-segregated, bus lines. Men also participated in the protest.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that voluntary sex segregation is permissible on public bus routes.
Also Sunday, the chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces told a meeting of military rabbis that they must work to prevent the exclusion of women in the military.
“There will be no exclusion of women in the IDF,” Rabbi Rafi Peretz said. “We especially, who know the importance of respecting a woman, must make sure this controversy won’t penetrate our ranks.”
