A conference on “Innovations in Gynecology/Obstetrics and Halacha [Jewish law]” will be held this week to discuss such things as “how to choose a suitable contraceptive pill” but women will be barred as speakers. Bowing to ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders in Israel, the Puah Institute has barred female speakers and ordered that women are to be segregated in female-only areas. With the ongoing protests over the mistreatment of women and girls by Orthodox Jews in some areas, the conference only magnifies the tensions in the country.
Despite objections from various groups and the decision of some doctors to decline to speak, the Puah Institute has remained firm in its discriminatory treatment.
The United Torah Judaism party was given the position of Deputy Health Minister because it cannot formally join the coalition of Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, due to its religious objections to accepting the concept of a Zionist state. Netanyahu is technically the minister to allow the ultra-Orthodox to control the health ministry.
Again, Israel faces these difficulties due to a lack of separation of temple and state, in my view. These religious parties have inflated importance due to the constitutional system where coalitions control governments. The result is not just political instability but investing extreme groups with unwarranted power.
Source: Globe and Mail
“And most politicos and pundits dare to criticize the way Muslims treat their women?” archie1954 do you think that discrimination is fine where ever it is tolerated? I’ve lived in Egypt, Sudan and Libya after living in New England in the USA. There they make no gripe over inequities and i find them obscene. Israel, as the foundation of it’s creation, is rooted in a solution to genocide. How could any Israeli condone any form of degradation? Esspicialiy when the subject of a conference is gynecologic in nature, the conflict is clear…. Israel is ruled by a minority, extremist minority. is Iran any worse????
And most politicos and pundits dare to criticize the way Muslims treat their women?
Jay S.,
I guess it would be okay if they were excluded for “religious” reasons.
So, by Carol’s logic, if a conference (or hotel or ….) in this country wanted to exclude Jews or blacks or gays or whatever, that would be all right?
I’d like to point out, as a casual reader of this blog/site, that many here are missing a large part of why there is international uproar over this and many other issues in Israel. Israel is the established home land of the Jews which was created in large part due to the events of the Holocaust. After viewing the creation of a State under the horror of genocide, wouldn’t any thinking, rational person point the contradictions of any Israeli citizen being discriminatory? Take that to the larger embarrassment of the West Bank and here you go>>>>
What rafflaw said.
Carol protests she is not explaining it very well. What is there to explain? Sexism, bigotry, and narrow minded rigidity are their own explanation.
You have a penis and you are welcome at our international medical conference.
Have a vagina? Sorry, you have to sit in the back of the bus and keep your mouth shut. After all, we men are talking about how best to treat women’s medical disorders and we know far more about such serious things than women physicians and researchers.
Carol,
It doesn’t matter why they do it. It is wrong to discriminate against women, period.
I’m not explaining it well…
Here’s a link to their own explanation
http://www.puahonline.org/component/content/article/403-press-release-12th-annual-conference
Carol,
Religion, no matter what religion–should not control who can and cannot be speakers or attendees at a medical conference. Medicine needs to be gender neutral. This is a small group of fundamentalists that does not even represent mainstream thinking in their own country, so how come they get to tell others who they can have as guest speakers.
Suppose the local Southern Baptists told you who you could have as house guests at your home. In Rutherford County, Tennessee the christian right wing has done everything they can to keep a mosque from being built. How would you feel–using your own bizarre logic–if you were told that Jews could not build a temple because it is a “Christ oriented town?”
Or for that matter, the gender of the physician you needed to see?
Bigotry comes in all flavors. In the pre-civil war South, slavery was the custom. Did that make it right? Slavery is even mentioned in the Bible, so I suppose that makes it OK?
I have no desire to attend a professional conference where a handful of bearded old farts tell the conference who can–and cannot–present medical research findings based on whether they have a penis or vagina, and not what they know.
Elaine,
It is a shame that women aren’t allowed to be priests, We would have had less predators assaulting young kids.
Carol,
Let’s clarify terms. There is Orthodox Judaism. and then there are the so-called Ultras known as Haredi. Many of the latter are in my opinion a cult and their views on women are an abomination to my mind. Yes within an Orthodox Synagogue there is a separation between the sexes and that is precisely why I come from a Conservative Jewish Tradition. even though my large family on both sides began as Orthodox, as many still are today. However, modern Orthodoxy does not insist on secular segregation of females, just the cultic Haredi who frankly are a disgrace. Their actions in Israel have become as intolerent as any Islamic Fundamentalist. That this is insisted on at Gynecological Conference is absurdly ironic. These are the same people who spit at/on an 8 year old Orthodox girl, because they didn’t approve of her dress while on a street. To accomodate the to me un-Godly misogyny of these cultists is unfathomable.
Carol,
I was raised Catholic. Women aren’t allowed to be ordained priests in that religion. It may be a Catholic religious issue/tradition/convention. That doesn’t mean it isn’t sexist. Sexism is what it is–just as discrimination is what it is. Maybe your definitions of the words sexism and discrimination are different from mine.
Religion is the only self inflicted mental disorder.
perhaps they can find a country or continent where there are no women so they can feel comfortable. the antarctic comes to mind. only problem there is the waiters only bring fish.
It is a religious issue. It is not a discrimination issue.
Separation of men and women is convention in Orthodox Judaism.
It is dangerous to apply our own secular views when we do not understand the other’s value systems.
Carol,
Quoting from Professor Turley’s post:
“Bowing to ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders in Israel, the Puah Institute has barred female speakers and ordered that women are to be segregated in female-only areas.”
Are ultra-Orthodox Jews the only guests being invited to the conference?
Would you agree that the ultra-Orthodox guests who are being accommodated by the Puah Institute are sexists?
I only intended to respond to this particular situation.
We tend to accomodate our guests, so if my friend is allergic to peanuts, I will not serve her peanuts. If my friend keeps kosher, we will meet at a kosher restaurant. If two or three friends are meeting and only one keeps kosher, we will still go to a kosher restaurant. Why? Because my kosher friend will still be able to eat with us. It is polite and considerate.
The Puah Institute is accomodating its guests, its attendees, in exactly the same way and that there is an international uproar about it is telling.
Anon Nurse,
Thank you.
Dredd,
thank you too, a prescient posting as usual.
Mike S., Blouise,
Oddly enough, I thought about posting a link to “The Authoritarians” yesterday, but there are days when exhaustion rules and sleep takes precedence. (I agree with you, Mike S., it’s certainly worth reading.) Though I’ve read it, and may have posted a link at some point, I believe that Dredd gets the credit:
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/10/24/cbs-gaddafi-may-have-been-sodomized-after-capture/#comment-281597
(My memory is “failing”, as well, Mike… At any rate, I hope you decide to go ahead with a blog article about it.)
Elaine,
Good catches I was going to post those but was limited by two links. These fully make the point.