However, her examination of the situation in Beit Shemesh hints at a stark difference in the priorities of our different liberalisms. Beit Shemesh presents a classic paradox for good contemporary liberals the world over: the row between ultra-Orthodox and secular Israelis is a conflict between an illiberal minority group and a basically liberal majority.
From her treatment of the subject, it seems as though Marina privileges the relativistic side of the Beit Shemesh issue quite a bit more than I would. Remember, neither side of this exchange between my friend and me would be possible in Beit Shemesh, or in Mecca for that matter. I implore them to go public, as some have begun to in the streets of Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem.
And as their community leaders have repeated time and again, Haredim hope and expect to take over Israel within a few generations. Never mind wondering how the state would earn its keep sympathetic right-wing Russian-Israeli oligarchs in gated Tel Aviv suburbs? Marina is right to note that the West is far from blameless in its routine objectification of women as sex objects. This rarely comes without a small dose of paternalistic flak, but the notional equality of women finds support in every corner of liberal Western society.
A matter of anthropological fact: from time immemorial, fathers have been shutting their daughters up in towers, draping them in veils, suffocating them with corsets, and cauterizing their genitalia in order to signal possession, chastity, and restriction of movement. The invocation of the Abrahamic god in the matter changes nothing. For the sake of women, Israel, and the forward march of human progress, we must not fall into the trap of relativism — which privileges group norms over individual opportunity.
A fringe-sect family crosses the street in Beit Shemesh. Popular Why is the World Ignoring Somaliland? Your guide to the best political writing on Harvard's campus. Subscribe Now. All Rights Reserved.
