Panel: Segregation of sexes on Haredi buses is illegal

Don't you agree that it would be better if another siyag was built to protect modesty and have the femakes ride seperate buses all together so the males would not be tempted to think what alluringly lies behind the mechitzah? And the rabbis really should devise some kind of purdah for the females so that they are entirely covered. People taday are only now coming to udnerstand the temptation of a hand or a wrist and what of exposed necks!! Would this not be a holier atmosphere?

if the buses are paid for by this group they have a right to dictate terms If theY ARE public buses they have no right to tell us anything

No one likes to sit apart when there are no seats but while non-observant Jews do not care whom they sit next to those who observe the Jewish religion do care and this is why we have a Jewish state so that JEWS can practice our religion. Those who find this offensive seem to find the Jewish religion offensive so we do not need a panel to hear their bias.

Public busses should not be segregated. However, Haredim should be given the right to create their own segregated bus lines. It would be nice to see some haredim actually working for a living - and driving a bus is an honorable vocation. Of course one would hope the drivers of the women's busses will be women, as one wouldn't want any needless contact between a driver and his female passengers.

...like the inner-city buses coming on time not 30 minutes late ....lowering the bus fare ....teaching drivers to be polite. This is just another case of harassment towards the haredi community. Keep the buses........

Separation of the sexes is the norm in Saudi.

The segregation occurs regardless of individual passengers' preferences; women on these buses are not allowed to sit next to a man. In fact, I believe that they are forced to sit in the "women's" section, even if that section is crowded and the "men's section" is not.

"How can it possibly be illegal if men and women choose freely to sit separately?" Apparently you have a reading problem. This is not about choosing freely, but about being forced to.

Eggeds decision to have mehadrin buses stems purely from a marketing view. Their most profitable routes over the past decade are without doubt routes 402 450 and others which are mehadrin. Ask egged if you dont believe me. As for the pluralists, they can sit in their cars and moan.

I got a laugh about an article in the Turkish newspaper about France's banning the burqa. Quoted as saying it was France's banning of the headscarf that made men face their male chauvinism and unequal treatment of women. Here it is an issue of freedom of speech; but in France the Algerians too are for banning the headscarf and burqa for keeping women in slavery, oppression and humiliation.

How can it possibly be illegal if men and women choose freely to sit separately? What if the women don't like the appearance or behaviour of the men? Are they forced to sit paired off? This panel's conclusions sound like the loony Left who think they can impose their current fashion on everyone else. When I travel on public transport I note that schools boys and girls tend to sit separately, especially if they attend single sex schools. Should I tell them they are acting illegally and must sit together? Did this panel meet in a padded cell?

Guys, we forget that not all men are gentlemen, or know how to behave when they sit beside women. The back of the bus or the front of the bus, it don't matter much. Some women prefer to sit beside another woman, rather than risk whomever comes by to sit beside them. As such, the guys sit separately, and girls and other women sit separately, while married couples and their children sit together. So, it's not "segregation" as such. I wonder, too, if you asked a woman what she thinks about sitting beside men with whom they aren't acquainted. Depending on situation, it could be coercive. If they want to make "friends" with guys, well . . . I could think of better places than a bus.

I also oppose segregated mehadrin buses, but the reasoning in this article is poisoned. Is it implying that it may be 'illegal' to segregate men and women at the Kotel? In synagogues? on religious beaches ? The UK had a long tradition of women only carriages on trains to protect women from unwanted advances. Was that also illegal? London has separate swimmming pools on Hampstead Heath. Is that illegal? My local gym has a women's only gym and times for women only swimming ? Is that illegal?

The ultra orthodoxes have to understand that they can't impose their regressive false religious laws because they don't feel confortable in the company of women.