Maryam Namazie

Maryam Namazie is a political activist, campaigner and blogger

Can you please respect the man and move to the back?

Tanya Rosenblit, a woman passenger on a public bus to Jerusalem was told to move to the back of the bus by an Orthodox male passenger. When she refused, the man held the door open and would not allow it to move. The driver called the police who took the man aside for ‘a pleasant conversation,’ after which the policeman asked her if she would move to the back of the bus! After Rosenblit refused, the man who had held the door got off and Rosenblit continued on her way…

Isn’t it infuriating that we are always required to ‘respect’ the wishes of the misogynist and intolerant? What about our wishes? And when did the term respect come to mean the disrespecting of women?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, respect is for people not for religions and beliefs.

Anyway doesn’t this all sound familiar?

(Via Iain Simpson on Facebook)

Comments

32 responses to “Can you please respect the man and move to the back?”

  1. Desi Dirada Avatar
    Desi Dirada

    TANYA ROSENBLIT IS NO ROSA PARKS. Rosa Parks came from a people who were oppressed by the racist and unjust government in the United States. She was part of a large, courageous historical freedom movement, upholding the rights of all people. A major force in that movement was her religion, represented by the activism of Black churches. TANYA ROSENBLIT IS NO ROSA PARKS! Tanya Rosenblit fully enjoys all the privileges of Jewish citizenship granted to her by the Theocratic occupation regime of Israel. Tanya Rosenblit represents the racist and unjust government which oppresses and denies the human rights of Palestinians. So there is no comparison at all. Sounds like you are the ones “being taken for a ride” here.

    Reply
  2. Bahman Avatar
    Bahman

    @Rafiq Mahmood

    taazi sag

    Fuck you. I don’t care what your religion. I’m Iranian and I hate ALL Arabs.

    Fuck Pisslam (ARAB MADE religion)

    Reply
  3. mrianabrinson Avatar
    mrianabrinson

    Sounds like segregation, except in this case, it’s not separation by black and white, but by gender. *rolling eyes* The two most common means to define and degrade people.

    Reply
  4. mywall Avatar
    mywall

    Sorry dumb question. If this guy wanted to be separate from the women on board what was stopping him from moving to the back?

    Reply
    1. No Light Avatar
      No Light

      Mywall- because if men sat at the back they’d be able to see women, and women are inherently tumah (impure). That’s why the women have to board at the back of the bus, so that the pure, pious men don’t have to see an uncovered ankle or wrist.

      Girls older than three years are not allowed to be alone with unrelated men, because their foul womanly essence might tempt the men into sin. I wish I was joking, but I’m not.

      Reply
      1. Sunny Avatar
        Sunny

        Must require a lot of purification given that a woman had to give birth to them.

        S.

        Reply
      2. mywall Avatar
        mywall

        I honestly wish i hadnt read that. Somehow, the horseshit reasons these people make up for their behaviour rile me up even more than the arsehole behaviour.

        Reply
        1. mywall Avatar
          mywall

          There should be an “itself” at the end of my last sentance.

          Reply
  5. allenc Avatar
    allenc

    Apart from connections to Rosa Parks etc, there is a somewhat closer similiarity with this story from New York:

    http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/10/21/new-york-bus-service-run-by-othodox-jews-to-be-shut-down-if-they-keep-sending-women-to-the-back/

    Reply
  6. Dhorvath, OM Avatar
    Dhorvath, OM

    Good on her. Not that she should have to do so, or be alone in her resistance to religious bullshit, but damn it is awesome to read about someone who stands up and says No! Tanya Rosenblit is a hero.

    Reply
  7. Mykelb Avatar
    Mykelb

    I thought Israel was a secular state. As such, the public bus system should have no problems with all people being equal. The bus driver was wrong, the cop was wrong and the male passenger was wrong. Perhaps the woman should sue the bus system for sex discrimination and for interfering in intrastate commerce.

    Reply
    1. julian Avatar
      julian

      I don’t think there’s a reason to. The busdriver was going against company policy when he asked her to move. From the bit Rafiq Mahmood quoted it sounds like they have no desire to see this happen again and are equally frustrated with this sort of discrimination which the spokesman notes has been increasing with the number of orthodox in the area. The spokesperson even went on to suggest she file a complaint against the busdriver so that seems to suggest he will be disciplined for this.

      Reply
    2. Yoav Avatar
      Yoav

      The fundies originally tried to make the gender segregation on buses an official policy but the court made it very clear that this will be illegal, and knowing who they deal with the judges went on to specify that male passengers pressuring women to ‘voluntarily’ move to the back should not be tolerated. It’s good to see that people are not willing to let the assholes get a way with violating the law. Over the last decade the ultra orthodox were getting more and more aggressive in trying to force their talibanesque ways on the rest of the country and you can now see a growing backlash as the secular majority which used to think it’s not a real problem start to come to grasp with the fact that if they don’t speak up there is an increasing risk that they will find themselves living in a theocracy.

      Reply
  8. The Lorax Avatar
    The Lorax

    Brilliant! A modern Rosa Parks story, and what a beautiful outcome. Shit like this resonates.

    Reply
  9. chuck Avatar
    chuck

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/150832#.TvAvUF12rZJ

    Reply
  10. Retired Prodigy Bill Avatar
    Retired Prodigy Bill

    I have seen an increasing number of news reports that the immune to serving in the military, ultra-hawkish, ultra-misogynist Orthodox minority have grown in numbers and are trying to flex their political clout by attempting to impose their cultural insanity on the rest of the country.

    Dear sane Israelis: slap these idiots down, and slap them down hard. Organized, systematic misogynists do not make positive contributions to your society. Organized, systematic cowards who call for other people to fight for them do not make positive contributions to your society.

    Reply
    1. bobjones Avatar
      bobjones

      When the Orthodox nutcases have finished their “populate like rabbits” goal and become the majority, it will be the start of World Wqar III. And that, no doubt, is their intention.

      Reply
  11. Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty Avatar
    Giliell, the woman who said Good-bye to Kitty

    But, don’t you see, by getting off the bus the man was actualy the greater person, because he respected her silly little ways of being in the front of the bus!
    That’s the argument I heard…

    Reply
  12. Martyn Hughes Avatar
    Martyn Hughes

    Well done Tanya Rosenblit!

    The simplest form of resistance is with a firm No!

    ‘You get to the back of the bus!’
    ‘No! I will not’.

    ‘You respect my religion’.
    ‘No! I will not!’.

    ‘You respect Jesus, muhammed and Zeus’.
    ‘No, I will not!’

    🙂

    Reply
  13. Graham Martin-Royle Avatar
    Graham Martin-Royle

    Good for TR. If a man finds it offensive that a woman is not where he wants her to be, then he can move! Just as, if a man finds the sight of a woman in normal clothing offensive, he can turn his head. It should never be up to the woman to comply with his demands.

    Reply
  14. Rafiq Mahmood Avatar
    Rafiq Mahmood

    (Bus company)Egged spokesman Ron Ratner condemned the incident, but said such incidents were increasing and that Egged’s directives clearly prohibit the driver from “permitting or creating any separation on the bus unless it is voluntary,” and instructing to call the police in such cases. Ratner advised Rosenblit to submit a complaint to Egged’s ombudsman so the incident could be scrutinized more closely.

    So both the eedyut orthodox guy and the police were breaking the bus company rules.

    Rosenblit said the man … told the driver it was his right to have her sit in the back and that he had paid to be able to do so.

    Actually, no, it wasn’t. That is the (slight) difference between Rosa Parkes and Tanya Rosenblit. There were no bus company rules to protect Rosa Parkes.

    Religion is a negation of morality. It encourages lying. The orthodox guy claimed it was his right to deny someone else their right and it wasn’t in the same way that the mad hatter’s tea party in the States claim that theirs is a Christian country and the first amendment does not say what it actually does say.

    Reply
    1. noastronomer Avatar
      noastronomer

      “Religion is a negation of morality.”

      Bam!

      Right there. Religions do not tell us how to live morally. Religions give us excuses for behaving immorally.

      Reply
      1. JetClarke Avatar
        JetClarke

        Well, religion is also a great way to tell people what they should hate.
        I can certainly see the police point of view here, they just want to resolve the issue and get the bus moving with minimal fuss.
        But these orthodox religious people have to realize that no matter what YOUR beliefs are, you have no right to impose them on OTHERS. If you don’t want to be on a bus with women, WALK.

        Reply
  15. Mike de Fleuriot Avatar
    Mike de Fleuriot

    What I find worse is it seems that none of the other passengers stood up for the woman. Do they all think this pig was right to demand that the woman move to the back of the bus?

    Reply
  16. Philip Walterhouse Avatar
    Philip Walterhouse

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, respect is for people not for religions and beliefs.

    I like that quote and I hope you don’t mind if I use it sometime. I of course will state you as the source 🙂

    Reply
    1. Rafiq Mahmood Avatar
      Rafiq Mahmood

      You’re welcome! 🙂

      Reply
  17. julian Avatar
    julian

    Anyway doesn’t this all sound familiar?

    I have no idea what you are you talking about, ma’am./sarcasm

    Fucked up part is I can just hear some whiny little gnat complaining about this isn’t at comparable to what happened to women like Rosa Parks because this is honoring her in that man’s eyes.

    Where’s my fly swatter…

    Reply
    1. Rafiq Mahmood Avatar
      Rafiq Mahmood

      It would be good if this news spreads. Hopefully more people will make the connection between Tanya Rosenblit and Rosa Parks – two great roses whose thorns prick deep.

      So the next time anyone accuses us of racism because we refuse to tolerate the intolerable, point out this story and say: How dare you accuse us of something of which we are innocent to hide your own guilty sexism.

      Cover your bodies, stay at home, travel on the back of the bus, pray at the back of the mosque or in the balcony of the synagogue where we can pretend you don’t exist.

      Reply
      1. sunnydale75 Avatar
        sunnydale75

        Except for when we need you for the whole baby making thing that is. By Odin, I don’t understand how people can embrace any ideology that denigrates another human being and robs them of their universal human rights.

        Tony

        Reply
      2. EvN Avatar
        EvN

        “Anyway doesn’t this all sound familiar?”

        Oh, yes.

        Do not forget the connection with apartheid South Africa where black people were not allowed on “white” buses and had to use seperate entrances to shops and government buildings.

        Also do not forget the bantustan policy where black people were herded into godforsaken tracts of land “for their own good.”

        The latter, of course, because of “respect for their culture.”

        Reply
        1. Rafiq Mahmood Avatar
          Rafiq Mahmood

          What’s the next thing we can expect? Separate water coolers for menstruating women? The most ridiculous thing I saw was a university in Sharjah where they had separate women’s and men’s colleges connected by walkways, albeit carefully scrutinised walkways. Why the walkways? Because the men’s colleges had to rely on women lecturers. There weren’t enough qualified men. Indeed some of the woman lecturers were based in the men’s colleges as sort of honorary men. Like honorary whites in South Africa and Southern US? Well yes, in more ways than one. In the Arabian peninsular women are dressed in black and men in white. It is like living on a chessboard.

          Reply
          1. Rafiq Mahmood Avatar
            Rafiq Mahmood

            …except that all the white “pieces” are kings and all the black “pieces” are pawns.

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