Off your bike
What is religion for? To strip away all rights from women and girls, in order to imprison them at home and prevent them from doing anything other than domestic and sexual / reproductive service. At least that’s often how it appears. Now it’s riding bikes, for girls over five. (Yeah, girls of six are such sluts – I notice that every day.)
An ultra-orthodox Jewish leader has reportedly banned girls aged five and older in some areas of Israel from riding bicycles – claiming it is “immodest”.
The rabbi of the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Nahloat distributed the stringent decree to his followers in synagogues across the area.
He had said young girls riding bicycles could “cause serious damage to their modesty” and that bicycle seats caused young girls to sit in a way men found “provocative”, according to the Arutz Sheva 7 website.
The hell with men. Men should deal with their own shit, not make women deal with it by abandoning all activity.
In December ultra-orthodox rabbis requested women in Israeli city Bnei Brak refrain from studying in higher education, according to Yeshida World News website.
They claimed institutions which teach secular subjects presented a real danger, and that girls and women should not study.
This is what I mean. They must get their jollies this way, listing all the good things women and girls can’t do, have, see, watch, hear, say, read. Hahaha we can study and you can’t, we can ride bikes and you can’t.
And the irony is. The scorching fucking irony is, that’s exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews. Anne Frank notes the moment when she and Margo can’t ride their bikes any more. Forbidding universities to enroll Jews came very early – no study for Jews. But when it’s just girls and women – oh that’s not hideous sadistic bigotry any more, that’s just normal.
Back in the 1980s I read that some rabbi or other pronounced that girls aged 3 and up must not ride bikes or swim in the presence of men. That they still feel the need to make these pronouncements means that most people don’t listen, and most parents let their girls ride bikes and swim and what not.
As for women studying – especially in the Haredi community women are more likely than men to have an education and an occupation that involves interacting with the secular world. The rabbis can shout all they want, but the women’s work is what keeps their huge families from starving, so I’m sure some work-around will be found.
And what authority can this moron wield to ‘ban’ anything? Is he going to unleash packs of earlocked mooks to harass little girls on bikes? And how much Respect are the civil and legal authorities going to extend to this twit?
He might inspire Haredi men to harass and bully girls on bicycles. There’s precedent for that – years ago I blogged about Haredi men harassing Haredi girls on their way to school in what the men considered insufficiently “modest” clothes.
John the Drunkard, within his own insular community he has plenty of authority. And harassment of holdouts, if any, is likely, harassment of both the children and their families. Haredi men feel free to harass women here in the US, on planes, buses, and the streets of certain neighborhoods in New York; why wouldn’t this rabbi and his followers feel free to do it in Nahloat?
Excellent point.
If men find women and girls so triggering, they should remove themselves to an isolated safe space where they won’t find themselves tempted to rape, assault, or harass women and girls. If men are such fragile creatures, they should shroud themselves from head to foot and cloister themselves at home; they should stay out of tbe universities and all public life to keep themselves safe from their own proclivities.
Back in the 70s I was at school with a brilliant girl who was top of the class in nearly all subjects. I remember asking her what university she wanted to go to, and she told me that she was leaving school as in her religion women stayed at home and looked after the house.
She was Brethren I think, wore long skirts and a scarf on her head. I still see some women and girls dressed like this, and I expect their roles are still so prescribed.
I was horrified, tried in my naive way to suggest she had options but to no avail.
If people are paying attention they will recognize that the Rabbi is sexualizing children, as religious leaders so often do, and keep children safely away from him and any other men who think the little ones are giving them boner. Cuz yanno, the children might not be the problem.
Boys and men are immune I guess.
Holms, boys and men are already studying Talmud, for the most part (though recently some are studying programming and other secular subjects).
When it comes to girls and bicycles, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a young Muslimah in hijab riding a bike. I live near a large Hassidic community in a neighbourhood filled with bike paths and sometimes see young pre-teen Jewish girls on bikes ( riding in groups). To be honest, though, you don’t see them all that often.
On those same paths, OTOH, one often sees large groups of boisterous Orthodox boys, of the same age, burning up the pavement while yelling in Yiddish
The neighbourhoods my work calls me to cover also have many bike paths and some have large Muslim communities. But I’ve never happened upon a single hijabi on a bike in those neighbourhoods..
Although I have seen a few on skateboards…so there’s hope.
@11
Outremont?
I once saw a Hassidic woman (wearing a long skirt.and, I believe, a kerchief in a bun) riding a bike attached to which was a wagon containing a small girl. Normally the child would have been walking beside her (or in a stroller). The sight was unusual. Even a couple of Hassidic men turned to look. I felt like applauding.
“…damage to her modesty…”
I’m pretty sure in this context that “modesty” is a euphemism for “hymen.”
“…that men find provocative…”
It’s the straddling.mwomen straddling things is oh-my-god sooo sexy, amiright?
John: I’ll note that in your totally-without-an-agenda post, you specify ‘pre-teen’ Jewish girls. That’s significant, because for most Muslims, that’s when the hijab actually becomes a requirement. So you probably see about as many hijabi as you do teenage Orthodox girls–which is to say, none, because both groups are utter shits towards women, as are the “Purity” movement Christians.
@12 Yep!
@14 I’m talking girls of about Jewish girls of 12 or 13. Muslim girls wear head coverings at that age…like the ones I saw with skateboards. I suppose skateboards are considered “safe” because one doesn’t have to straddle them.
And I’ve no ‘agenda’ other than a noble quest for knowledge and enlightenment…