Why does New York allow its enclaves of gender-based, public, religious discrimination?

Last edited Sun Mar 29, 2015, 06:19 PM - Edit history (3)

Isn't it hypocritical to criticize Indiana business owners for this, when certain New York communities remain entangled in religious discrimination against women -- even in public facilities?

I don't support the Indiana business owners who want to discriminate against gay people; or the ultra-Orthodox who want public facilities to discriminate against women.

I don't know what changes were made to buses after this article was written in 2011, but I understand similar problems are still occurring. And the incident with the airplane passengers (below) took place last September in a New York airport.

http://forward.com/articles/144987/sex-segregation-spreads-among-orthodox/


Orthodox individuals interviewed by the Forward insisted they were hewing to age-old traditions by separating men and women in public spaces. But outside observers said that the gender segregation on city buses — as well as other recent incidents — pointed to the fact that sex separation in the Haredi world has become more entrenched in recent years. What’s more, they say, by taking these practices from private worship halls and extending them into public spaces like buses and streets, the ultra-Orthodox community is asserting itself in new ways, staking its claim as a cultural force of American life.

“What is special about this isn’t the segregation of sexes, but the segregation in the public domain,” said Samuel Heilman, a sociologist at Queens College who has written extensively on the ultra-Orthodox. “That didn’t happen before. They separated men and women, but they would have never thought to do it on turf that isn’t completely theirs. They are saying, ‘We own the street, we own the bus, we own the public square.’”

On October 18, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism’s news site, New York World, first reported that a woman boarding the bus was told forcefully by the other passengers to move to the back. A follow-up report in The New York Times noted that the rule consigning women to the back was posted in writing on the bus, as well.

SNIP

In America, he said, the significance of the practice is more subtle. Signs, such as those posted in Williamsburg urging women to step aside when men approach, promote communitywide norms with which the observant, and even the non-observant, feel bound to comply. By this means, Heilman said, Haredi Jews extend religious rules to public spaces, thus flexing their muscles as major players in American cultural life.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/30/israeli-airline-ultra-orthodox-men-bullying-women

Israel’s national airline, El Al, has been criticised for allowing ultra-orthodox Jewish men to disrupt flights by refusing to be seated next to women.

SNIP


Another passenger on the flight, named only as Galit, said ultra-orthodox passengers had suggested she and her husband sit separately to accommodate their religious requirements. She refused, but added: “I ended up sitting next to a haredi man who jumped out of his seat the moment we had finished taking off and proceeded to stand in the aisle.”

On a different flight, Elana Sztokman, a former executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, refused to accede to a request to move seats, triggering “frantic negotiations”, she said, between ultra-orthodox men and airline staff.

“What happened to me on this flight isn’t that different from what happens on almost every flight,” she told Voice of Israel radio. “You get on a plane, and the plane is about to take off but a whole bunch of ultra-orthodox men start playing around, moving around, whispering, moving back and forth trying to find different seats … Anyone who’s ever travelled on El Al has experienced this.”

Sharon Shapiro, from Chicago, the organiser of the online petition – which had attracted about 1,000 backers by Tuesday morning – said it was “not right that female passengers are being intimidated or harassed. It’s one thing to ask nicely, but if someone says no, they should not be put under pressure.”

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.618630

(Note on edit: I could read this article the first time, but when I went back it was behind a pay wall.)

El Al 'gender discrimination' may violate U.S. law, claims N.Y. activist rabbi

In wake of petition urging El Al to act on Haredi passengers who refuse to sit next to women, Conservative rabbi and attorney calls on unhappy clients to use U.S. Federal law to pressure airlines.

In the wake of a petition urging El Al airlines to protect female passengers from what it says is harassment by ultra-Orthodox male passengers, a New York Conservative rabbi and attorney is calling on unhappy customers to put pressure on airlines by using a U.S. federal law that prohibits...

http://www.inquisitr.com/1716176/female-delta-airlines-passengers-claim-discrimination-after-being-asked-to-change-seats-for-religious-reasons/#sjcgs2Hdd4417uIp.99

Two female Delta Airlines passengers are claiming discrimination after a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men asked them to move from their assigned seats. Israel Radio reported on December 26 that Delta Flight 468, bound for Tel Aviv, was delayed for more then 30 minutes at New York’s JFK Airport last week when several Haredi men would not sit in their seats because they would have to sit between two women. The two women refused to exchange seats, reportedly claiming that they were discriminated against due to the men’s religious beliefs.


http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/06/11/an-ultra-orthodox-neighborhood-goes-against-bikes/

As bike infrastructure has expanded, city officials have faced a persistent push back from an insular religious community in Brooklyn’s South Williamsburg neighborhood.

Local leaders, many of whom identify with the Satmar Hasidic Jewish movement, successfully fought to have a Bedford Avenue bike lane removed in 2009. Now, as the city prepares to roll out its new bike-share program next month, the map of locations bypasses South Williamsburg completely — an exclusion planners see as sensitive deference to the community.

But what explains the ongoing opposition to bikes in this very religious corner of Brooklyn? Previous press reports have suggested the primary issue is modesty, particularly concerns about the attire of women bikers.

As the surrounding neighborhoods gentrified over the past two decades, more bikers began to traverse the insular area. One Hasidic man expressed that view recently, telling The Wall Street Journal that passersby on bikes sometimes seemed “more naked than clothed.”