Women are forced to board public buses from the back and stay there. Billboards with images of women are defaced. Public streets are cordoned off during religious holidays so that women cannot enter.
Saudi Arabia in the misogynistic grip of sharia law? Sadly, astonishingly, infuriatingly, it is Israel under the growing influence and increasingly assertive demands of the ultra-Orthodox.
Of course, Jerusalem — where all these events took place — is not Riyadh. Israeli women work, drive, vote, serve in the military — indeed, in combat roles denied to women in the U.S. military. And, unlike the situation in Saudi Arabia, these restrictions are not government-sanctioned, let alone government-imposed.
By Ruth Marcus
Categories: Asia, Humanity First, Israel, Judaism, Middle East