Finding Sympathy For The Burqa Cult

A motherinisrael has posted about the Hardi fight against the Burqa cult. I recommend you read the entire post on her blog before you read further.

There is a clear undercurrent in her post - though one that is never openly stated.  Here is the full Pashkevil and translation as posted by "mum":

Help! Help! Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh are crying out about a new cult of cruel and vicious women, destructive of household harmony in many homes, and who endanger life and do not spare babies and children.

Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh [are called] to a great protest over the education to rebellion against the transmission of the Torah and the sages of the tradition, and against the giving of impure, harmful, and forbidden advice, and the leading of a group, and all under the mask of “extra holiness”! They take on, with arrogance and pride, the crown of Torah, and decide thereon for themselves,

Heavens cry out over the heresy!

The cry of the destruction of homes and the education of children reaches the heavens! The cry of their suffering kollel husbands  will not let us rest! People of Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh!

We will not abandon the blood of our brothers! We will excommunicate the women leading this cult that rebels, and we will publicize their names and addresses! And we will not rest and we will not be quiet until they stop driving their impure fingernails and their false opinions into other homes!

Please, go back to scrubbing floors and washing dishes and leave to those who are great in Torah and fear of God and to the rabbis who sit in judgment to lead and give halachic rulings!Prepare! Prepare! More details coming soon!

-War committee against “The cult of cruel women.”

Complaints and testimonies send urgently to the voice mail or fax.

The title of "A Mother's"  post is "Veiled Women Called Apikorsim, Told to Wash Dishes". Based on the title I was expecting her to focus on the "wash dishes" angle and less on the anti burqa angle. 


The "Wash Dishes" line is however the real story of this pashkevil. In a single sentence they have managed to finally provide an explanation for this cult. If you were living in a society where telling someone to stop talking about halacha, and go wash the dishes was seen as normal, would you not seek to rebel?


I am slowly drifting from seeing these women as nothing more than crazies and seeing them as a bunch of crazies who are also radical feminists rebelling against a sexist chauvinistic world. Their radicalism is taking the halacha away from the male dictators and reclaiming it for themselves. Sadly in a truly haredi fashion (and inorder to remain in haredi society) their rebellion isn't throwing off their chains, but rather adding new ones.