Don't Cry No Tears

I remember the days when certain bars in Scotland didn't provide toilets for women customers - which seemed like a rather heavy handed way - if you ask me - of trying to maintain such pubs as 'male-only' preserves.  

But in the end the women who were most directly affected - with the support of their male friends - brought an end to this nonsense with a little help from the law which outlawed such discriminatory treatment - long ago.

So I was interested to read the other day that Israeli police arrested ten women for having the audacity to pray in the same way as men at one of Jerusalem's holiest sites - the Wailing Wall - and for wrapping themselves in prayer shawls while they communed with God.

For God's sake, I thought to myself - how ridiculous in this day and age?

But apparently strict religious regulations ban women from wearing the 'tallit' - or prayer shawl - while praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

In fact the 'rules' of the Orthodox synagogue go even further - they demand that women (unlike  men) must pray in silence - they are not allowed to sing, run services or read from the Torah - and they must also dress in a specific way - to avoid the wrath of the religious and secular police.

All of which women can do in other synangogues - run by more tolerant groups within the Jewish faith.

Now quite why this is a matter for the police, the courts and the Israeli state is beyond me - and probably most other readers as well.

But it is a big deal - for some people at least - and apparently Orthodox Jewish men say a prayer every morning in which they thank God “for not making me a woman”.

And these bizarre 'men-only' practices remain part of prayer and worship in Orthodox Judaism - though not in Reform and Liberal synagogues - to me the parallels with aspects of the Muslim religion are quite striking.

So for the moment Orthodox Judaism is calling the shots and - for reasons I don't understand - the men in beards have the backing of the Israeli Supreme Court.

Which means that women are effectively second class citizens - in what is supposed to be a secular not a religious state.