Here’s a video I shot inside the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron on November 8. My traveling party had just run into another group of Americans and we started gabbing– ten students who were doing a year in Amman, Jordan, and had come over to Palestine to see the sights.
Then these two women, both age 20, told us about being asked what their religion is by Israeli authorities– first at the border at Allenby Bridge, and then in Hebron, at the entrance to Shuhada Street. They’d never been asked that question by an authority before.
The women are both Muslims, and when they said they were Muslim, they were not allowed to walk down Shuhada Street. Even though they had American passports. Shuhada Street is infamous because it’s an apartheid road. Jews can use it, but Palestinians can’t.
You can see these two women’s reactions to the policy for yourself; I believe they were offended. Frankly I was too upset to ask them.
I bet it was also a shock that they had to cover their hair everywhere they go in Jordan and the West Bank.
But that’s okay, right?
I can’t begin to count how many times my daughter has been question about her race. It always is the same but the fool asking the question acts as if she’s never been asked it before. It’s almost always the first question – what is your background (for real) which is asking what race are you, immediately followed by “Are you Jewish”. It never fails to infuriate me that people actually think its their business in the first place.
Best wishes to you both Aliyah and Nishat (I’m sorry about the spelling) – from Minnesota and Chicago – my 2 favorite places – Minnesota my home and Chicago my husband’s home – peace to you both and I pray for your safety and return home.
Like any other form of supremacism, religion-based Jewish supremacism (a.k.a. Zio-supremacism) is truly hateful and immoral stuff. One particularly ugly feature of Zio-supremacism is that it affects the lives even of non-Jews living outside of the (Partition) borders of the supremacist “Jewish State”.
Jackdaw always answers a question he?she has not been asked.
Very zionist.It,s how to avoid the tough questions.You will find this trick on page one of the hasbara manual on how to be a stout defender of Israel.
The repressive practices/rules Ultra Orthodox Jews follow are rarely questioned, yet Muslim practices are continually pointed out as being repressive; especially when it comes to women.
Nuns were required to wear head coverings until recently and I never heard criticism launched towards the Christian religions practicing this custom. In fact all women were expected have their heads covered when attending church.
I wondered why many Jewish women had the same hairstyle until I read a discussion on a Jewish website ….voicing concern hair from Christian women had been used to make wigs for orthodox women.
What about other practice of isolating women who are menstruating ….they are unclean?