The Back of the Bus

JPost put up an interesting article discussing the phenomenon of "Mehadrin" and even "Glatt-Mehadrin" buses run on some routes by Egged, the national Israeli transportation authority. The Mehadrin bus lines, which were created due to requests from the Ultra-Orthodox who frequent those routes, have women sitting in the back of the bus, and men in front. The Glatt Mehadrin buses are even more strict about maintaining the separation between men and women:

In addition to the regular mehadrin lines, there are also what are known as "Glatt Mehadrin" that operate inside haredi city centers. On the "glatt" lines women enter the bus from the side door. Women with bus passes punch their own holes. Women who pay in cash have to somehow transfer the money to the driver at the front of the bus. Little children are often used. When there is no other choice the woman herself walks to the front to pay, says Rosenstein.

Apparently, trouble flared up one day on a bus of the Mehadrin variety, when a woman, who is plagued by severe motion sickness, boarded the bus before it had many passengers, and sat in the front seat, as many doctors recommend. Then, as she recounts:

"When I first got on the bus there were only a few people", recounts Ronit. "I explained to the driver my situation and he seemed to understand. So did a haredi man.

"But soon the bus began filling up. One haredi man came up to me and explained that I was on a Mehadrin bus and, therefore, I must sit in the back.

"'Perhaps the men could sit in the back and the women in the front', I suggested. But he rejected that possibility. I told him I could not continue to talk to him because I needed to look out the window, but advised him to sit someplace where he could not see me."

Ronit, who defines herself as religious and modestly dressed, recounts that "a semi-commotion broke out" when about 30 haredis got on the bus.
"One complained to the driver, 'this is supposed to be a mehadrin bus. I am going to complain to Egged'. I tried to explain again about my motion sickness, but no one listened.

This incident raises issues with the Mehadrin bus designation that were bound to come up. I think that creating the Mehadrin bus lines was a very admirable attempt by Egged to serve the needs of and be sensitive to the Charedi community. But anyone could have predicted that there would be people who view the relegation of women to the back of the bus as discriminatory, even if the vast majority of Charedi women are perfectly comfortable with the arrangement.

A Rabbi's opinion on the subject, from the article:

However, Rabbi Ratzon Arussi, chairman of the chief rabbinate's council on marital affairs and rabbi of Kiryat Ono, said that the Mehadrin buses sometimes create more halachic problems then they solve.

"Halachically speaking, it is preferable for a man to sit next to his wife than to have other women pushing past him to get to the back of the bus. Being with his wife keeps the husband's attention focused.

"Seating men up front causes additional problems. For instance, pregnant women or women with heavy bags are forced to walk all the way to the back of the bus.

"It is obvious that men who initiated the Mehadrin lines did not think about women or about the halachic problems created.

In addition, the article stated that an Israel MK is looking to take the issue up with Egged because he feels the practice is discriminatory:

MK Doron thinks Egged's and Dan's policy is discriminatory. In a letter to Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit, Doron writes, "Egged is a public company that is supposed to provide egalitarian services to all of its customers. But line 982 does not serve all segments of the population." Doron says he plans to appeal to the Supreme Court to halt state funding to Egged if Egged does not change its policy.

I am perfectly comfortable with a segment of society choosing to live their life as they see fit. For the men and women of the Charedi community to choose to sit separately is perfectly acceptable - unless their decision starts to affect others who have not made such a choice. If the woman with motion sickness who boarded the bus needed to sit in front of the bus for her comfort, then requiring she move to the back for the comfort of the men on the bus is simply wrong.

I have a feeling this may turn into a flashpoint issue for non-Charedi women who feel that this policy of seating women at the back of the bus is discriminatory, and may start to attempt to protest it by staging sit-ins or other such tactics. Or maybe it won't, as long as the Mehadrin bus lines run on routes that are so heavily Charedi that the policy doesn't end up affecting enough people who would be offended by it. I guess time will tell.