The issue has created a stir in recent months after years of intentional disregard particularly among the haredi population in Israel, viewing the women as outcasts against the teachings of both rabbis and Judaism.
Photo by: YouTube)
The number of head-to-toe covered women are growing in numbers. Reports surface of six-year-old girls forced to hide their faces. The women take an extreme stance to preserve the modesty both of themselves and of their children. The following is an explanation by a “Taliban woman” in her own words from Channel 1 Israel:
“My parents didn't educate me to don the 'Shal' (Jewish Burqa). I was raised in a regular religious house. We used to dress as we wished. After getting married I suddenly realized that when I was walking outside (men were staring at me) and I have a husband and I don't want to be stared at, because I'm only for him. I just looked and thought that I have to cover myself even more in order that no one could star at me, and thus I took a cloth and put it on myself. Then, I felt good with myself, I felt that I'm not being stared at and that I'm covered.
“When I started to become more religious, namely to think of my role in the world, what I have to do in this world, to connect to myself' to connect to my roots, then I've started to dress more like our mothers who wore few hundreds years ago ample and long clothes and a lot of clothes.
“In addition to the issue of modesty, the covering brings us closer to the Creator, because the animals have no clothes. The human being is different from the animal as he has brains. When a human being covers himself more and more he differentiates himself from the animal and becomes more divine. It demonstrates that he has more intelligence and that modesty connects us to the Creator, to our roots to our mothers to whom I want to be connected.”
The war on the “veiled women” has gained steam with women heckled, called names, and sometimes assaulted in Ultra Orthodox Neighbourhoods. The campaign gained steam after the extreme Eda Haredit faction in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood denounced the "veiled women" which found itself surprisingly attacking a radical-religious phenomenon from a more moderate position. A special meeting of the Badatz: Eda Haredit’s supreme religious authority tackled the issued by issuing a proclamation titled, "Holy call for the sanctity of Israel's homes."
The proclamation warns Jewish women to stay away from the growing trend, viewing “Taliban women” as a dangerous anarchic sect that is “doomed”. The proclamation was announced after allegations surface of women refusing marital relations with their husbands, not allowing fathers to see their own daughters, and forcing daughters into marriage at a young age against their will.
So far, the edict has led to protests in Ultra Orthodox Neighbourhoods in Israel, with dozens and sometimes hundreds of haredim, including family members of veiled women, protesting the new phenomenon.
