Chassidish customs are to build respect for women? How so? Please explain how the following build respect:
Women not allowed to be out on the streets at night.
Woman only allowed to ride in the back of the bus.
When there are guests over, the women must eat in the kitchen instead of at the table with their family.
Women are not allowed to drive.
Well Feif, the question was not addressed to me, but I’d like to respond.
Before I do though, I’d like you to first answer the questions I posed to your way of life earlier.
You claim to respect women? Please explain how the following build respect:
Women are not allowed to show any of the skin of their torso in front of men.
Women are not allowed to touch men.
Women are not allowed to sit with men in shul.
Women are not accepted as witnesses.
Women are not acceptable as judges.
Women are considered unclean for half the month.
Women are not allowed to sing in front of men.
Women are not able to divorce their husband unilaterally, but can be divorced unilaterally.
Women are “purchased” by their husband for gold.
Women do not count for a minyan.
Women whose husbands die childless are allowed to be married by their brother in law unilaterally, and are held hostage until he decides one way or the other unilaterally.
I am not just trying to shtuch you here. I am trying to show you that we only differ in degree, not in kind. I am trying to show you that you cannot approach this question with Western liberal morals, since those morals would clearly cause you to reject your own way as well.
While we’re at it, we can discuss other ways in which you need to reject Judaism if you come from an approach of Western liberal morals. Like how a yids life is worth more than a goy.
Also, if anything, this book disproves your point. She says it did not bother her to sit in the back of the bus. She does not say in the article that she felt inferior to men, or that men degraded her for being female.