by Rebecca Honig Friedman

The Hebrew language newspaper Maariv has an in-depth article about the group of women who’ve been wearing burkas, previously discussed here. Mother in Israel has, generously, been posting translations to parts of the article, starting with this post (see the next several posts on her blog for more).
The situation the article depicts is truly upsetting, to say the least. On so many levels.
The parts that really got me:
The fact that the women who choose to completely veil their faces, including their eyes, use their children to guide them through the streets. As Mother in Israel suggests, this is akin to child abuse.
The expressed belief that “Women don’t have to learn Torah; their obligation is tzniyut.”
That these women are routinely insulted and attacked for their extreme behavior, by their own community. One describes having fruit thrown at her, by a man who turned out to be the rebbe of her young son.

This brings out two troubling issues: the factors that have driven this group to such masochistic extremism (I would argue that this goes beyond just one crazy woman and the unsuspecting followers who’ve fallen prey to her teachings); and their community’s seeming inability to deal with difference in their midst, whether it be more or less extreme than their norms, except through violence and hatred.

Posted on February 3rd, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized |