Thursday, November 01, 2007

Solution to Hareidi Antipathy to Mixed Public Transportation

I have been following the incidents of violence emanating from Hareidi quarters in Jerusalem and Bet Shemesh coming from men who can't tolerated mixed-seating or even women sitting in the front of the bus. My wife has blogged about it, too.

Anway, here's one possible solution:

Seoul subway to reintroduce women-only cars

SEOUL (AFP) — Women-only subway carriages will be reintroduced in South Korea's capital to try to curb sexual harassment of female passengers, officials said Wednesday.

Operators of Seoul's eight subway lines introduced women-only carriages in 1992, but the system was suspended just months later due to "structural problems in operations," a Seoul Metro spokesman told AFP.

"Previously, it had been impossible to stop male passengers from using women-only carriages during the rush hour," he said.

Subway authorities plan next year to designate two carriages of each train exclusively for women, he said.


And here also.

As I have friends in Seoul (a Jewish chaplain and his wife), maybe I can get an on-the-scene report.

Will this suffice for our Jewesses or will they insist on full rights?

6 comments:

Batya said...

Thanks for the link, but separate transportation isn't the solution here.
It would reduce frequency of already too infrequent bus service.
A little "menschkeit," thinking of others is all that's needed.

Commenter Abbi said...

From you last sentence, it sounds like you think this violence is the fault of women on these buses, demanding equal rights?

If that's true, that's a pretty shocking way to view the situation.

YMedad said...

No, Abbi. I think I wasn't clear enough. I was wondering whether women will indeed demand full rights and as my wife blogged, one can get along although, of course, violence is a matter for the police, if complaints are made.

therapydoc said...

If men are able to control themselves at home, then surely they can handle themselves on a bus, no? I hate to guess what people who don't understand us must think of our culture.

Come to think of it, I'm sure I don't understand our culture anymore. This isn't the Judaism of either my or my mother's generation, and frankly, I don't think Jews are any more pious.

YMedad said...

Actually, Doc, I thinky that Hareifi people, men especially but not exclusively, undergo a sort of transformation when in the "public square" and much more so in Israel than in Galut. Let they try throwing epithets or staones in Brklyn at traffic on Shabbat on a main thoroughfare. It seems, I would propose, that they assume they have more power and they need more power, i.e., need to become violent, when they feel the public area is being overtaken to their and their children's detriment. But I may be wrong because I just read a book on the previous Chabad Rebbe's visit to EY in the summer of 1929 when he was met by demonstrators from the Eidah Hareidit protesting his upcoming visit with Rav Kook which annoyed them to no end.

therapydoc said...

It's unbelievable.