Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat

[DeclinetoState]

By Daphna Berman (mailto:daphnab@haaretz.co.il)

A woman who reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc "modesty patrol" on a Jerusalem bus last month is now lining up support for her case and may be included in a petition to the High Court of Justice over the legality of sex-segregated buses.

Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No. 2 bus. She is now in touch with several legal advocacy and women's organizations, and at the same time, waiting for the police to apprehend her attackers.

In her first interview since the incident, Shear says that on the bus three weeks ago, she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women. The bus driver, in response to a media inquiry, denied that violence was used against her, but Shear's account has been substantiated by an unrelated eyewitness on the bus who confirmed that she sustained an unprovoked "severe beating."Haaretz.com (http://haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=801449&contrassID=19)

It would well behoove us to remember that a lot of Jews in the U.S. went to the South in the '50s and '60s at their own expense and peril to stop governments there from forcing blacks to sit in the back of buses.

[Kathy30]

The woman was clearly wrong. It is a failing of Americans that they go to other countries and think they should be able to behave the same way they do in the US. She shouldn't have been beaten, but then she arrogantly refused polite requests.

Picture a foreigner who gets off a plane and lights a cigarette in the airport. It may be fully legal in their country, here they would be told to put it out. If they should get into a confrontation, THEY would be arrested. At least this woman wasn't arrested.

[DeclinetoState]

I don't think there was any "rule" that she had to sit at the back of the bus, and if such a rule existed, it was apparently not used on all the buses. This attack appeared to be a case of people taking the law into their own hands to enforce their own particular understanding or interpretation of a religious regulation.

[Riverboat]

The woman was clearly wrong. . . At least this woman wasn't arrested.Yeah, being arrested would be WAY worse than getting beaten up.

[Un Con Troll Able]

The woman was clearly wrong. It is a failing of Americans that they go to other countries and think they should be able to behave the same way they do in the US. She shouldn't have been beaten, but then she arrogantly refused polite requests.

Picture a foreigner who gets off a plane and lights a cigarette in the airport. It may be fully legal in their country, here they would be told to put it out. If they should get into a confrontation, THEY would be arrested. At least this woman wasn't arrested.

The woman was beaten because she was an "uppity woman." She didn't know her place in society -- and these "men" were determined to beat her back into her place.

This woman was humiliated because of her gender. This is someone's daughter -- (and, likely) someone's sister, someone's mother.

And she was treated like dirt, publicly treated like vermin.

Rosa Parks was arrested for doing the same thing in this country (and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that she was roughed up a little by the good ol' boys cops who took her in custody). It started a revolution in this country. And I believe Parks' actions were an actual violation of a city ordinance. And still she stood her ground.

What happened to that woman who was beaten wasn't about maintaining a sensible level of social order or a reasonable cultural norm. It was about a power structure/mentality that believes that "might makes right" should be the unquestioned foundation of governance -- that logic, common sense, honor, maturity, and intelligence are traits that must be violently suppressed because the inherent decency and wisdom of these qualities would destroy these bullies' way of life.

It's the bully mentality -- an unreasoning mentality, an unfeeling mentality, a wide-eyed rage mentality. It's the school tough guy who walks around in his lettermen's jacket, beating lunch money out of the nerds and forcing them to do his homework. That might be an amusing theme for a Hollywood comedy, but that is the only venue where it should be acted out.

In the Mideast it is the norm. For the sheep (Muslim men AND women) who tolerate and, in some cases, even endorse such methods, I have little sympathy. But that is not the case here.

A standard, regardless of how ridiculous it is, will NEVER change if it goes unquestioned or unchallenged.

[John Galt]

You can't have uncovered meat in the front of the bus....

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20646437-601,00.html

[Kathy30]

The woman was beaten because she was an "uppity woman." She didn't know her place in society -- and these "men" were determined to beat her back into her place.

This woman was humiliated because of her gender. This is someone's daughter -- (and, likely) someone's sister, someone's mother.

And she was treated like dirt, publicly treated like vermin.

Rosa Parks was arrested for doing the same thing in this country (and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that she was roughed up a little by the good ol' boys cops who took her in custody). It started a revolution in this country. And I believe Parks' actions were an actual violation of a city ordinance. And still she stood her ground.

What happened to that woman who was beaten wasn't about maintaining a sensible level of social order or a reasonable cultural norm. It was about a power structure/mentality that believes that "might makes right" should be the unquestioned foundation of governance -- that logic, common sense, honor, maturity, and intelligence are traits that must be violently suppressed because the inherent decency and wisdom of these qualities would destroy their way of life.

It's the bully mentality -- an unreasoning mentality, an unfeeling mentality, a wide-eyed rage mentality. It's the school tough guy who walks around in his lettermen's jacket, beating lunch money out of the nerds and forcing them to do his homework. That might be an amusing theme for a Hollywood comedy, but that is the only venue where it should be acted out.

In the Mideast it is the norm. For the sheep (Muslim men AND women) who tolerate and, in some cases, even endorse such methods, I have little sympathy. But that is not the case here.

A standard, regardless of how ridiculous it is, will NEVER change if it goes unquestioned or unchallenged.

I agree with everything you said. Except for the Rosa Parks myth. She was actually a communist who made a point of sitting in the front of the bus to make a point of sitting in the front of the bus.

All that said, and even if the Parks story had a germ of truth to it, the woman was clearly wrong. I can't stand it when some foreigner comes here and decides to tell us that we're wrong and their ways are better. If there is a place for bringing about change by sitting in the front of the bus, it is the population's point to make not some arrogant American who is going to show them all right! If a person, any person, male or female, does not like the cultural norms of another country - don't go there.

[Un Con Troll Able]

And who decides what a "cultural norm" is?

The guy who is best with his fists (particularly when beating and denegrating women)?

And what is the basis of this "cultural norm"? Logic -- or bigotry? The law? If the cultural norm had resulted in a beating severe enough to put that woman into a coma for three weeks, would you still try to lay some of the blame at the feet of the victim?

What you believe concerning the Parks incident is irrelevant. The fact is that a cultural prohibition existed in certain geographic locations regarding blacks sitting at the front of the bus. Should a black person from Boston who, in, say, the year 1960, comes to see a friend or family member in Alabama be required to sit in the back of a bus because that's what a bunch of lynching rednecks deem to be a cultural norm?

Abuse and injustice cannot be rationalized or justified simply by citing the concept of "cultural norm" -- any more so than the Nazis were allowed to fall back on the "I was just obeying orders" in response to war crimes charges.

Incidents such as this -- believe it or not -- are actually a form of political correctness (backed up by humiliation, broken bones, and murder).

[heikediguoren]

If a person, any person, male or female, does not like the cultural norms of another country - don't go there.

Cultural norms do not extend to breaking the law. Israel has laws against battery like any Western nation, and those men broke the law. They were not law enforcement officers empowered by the will of the people to use force in support of social customs.

If civilians feel licensed to uphold their interpretations of Biblical law without allowing the criminal justice system to resolve conflicts, the gateway opens for such vigilanteism as stoning someone for working on the Sabbath.

[Wolfcounsel]

Any fruit loop who thinks women need to be treated as second-rate garbage desperately is in need of getting his peepee whacked beyond recognition, by women.

[Phil Osophical]

Well at least in Jerusalem, unlike in America, white women can still ride buses.

[Wolfcounsel]

Phil, you need to work on your sarcasm. Most kosh.