Re: kol ishah and violence against women

[apikoyros <apikoyros...>]

Actually, the connection between these distinct 
categories is achieved through a misuse of the 
kal v'khomer principle by those who think they 
are the enforcers of God's will and the link
between the two provides some insight into 
the injustice in both cases.

The kol ishah "prohibition" claims to be 
halakhically-based, so this instance of the
suppression of human rights may not be 
intended malevolently by some traditionalists,
who don't feel empowered halakhically to 
respond otherwise to the implications of
such a prohibition. 

To refrain from participation in activities where 
kol ishah is an issue is, fundamentally, an imposition 
of a constraint on oneself, whatever the cost or implications 
for the community (and not just half the community). 

This claim to submission to halakha may excuse some 
of those sincere few who might practice it, but the practice 
is oppressive, and those traditionalists who practice the kol 
isha prohibition must be especially careful that their willingness 
to acquiesce to the injustice in the name of halakhic "modesty" 
not be appropriated as a justification for violence in the "defense 
of  virtue."

The violent enforcement of someone's idea of a "modest" 
dress code in public places, or more precisely, the punishment 
for the imagined offenses of transgressing that code, should be well 
beyond any appeal to any basis in Jewish law. It's a khilul hashem 
to commit such violence against anyone and a further khilul to try to 
justify it in any way, yet that is what is done. Sadly, the men (and
boys)
dressed in black are self-righteous beyond reason.

Their attempts to justify such outrages on the same principle of 
"modesty"  is the misuse of kal v'khomer and a profaning of halakha. 
The correct kal v'khomer extrapolation from kol ishah should be that 
the "self-righteous" of Israel shouldn't look!  Instead they initiate
attacks 
and physically injure women just like what is done in Iran and
Afghanistan
in the name of religion. The ironies do abound!

So there is some continuity between the fundamentally unjust, but 
legally-sanctioned suppression of women from participation 
in Jewish ritual, communal, and cultural life  and the sinful, criminal
acts of violence against women by the self-designated guardians
of propriety. To sever the possibility of any implication of a link from
a
just halakha to these sins and crimes, perhaps those legally-sanctioned 
suppressions should  be sacrificed. This is a "back-door" argument,
admittedly. The "front door" argument is that believers should acknow-
ledge, standing on one leg, that we are all created in the same image 
and according to the same will. 
 
Lee Friedman

On Thu, 09 Mar 2000 15:03:59 PST "Robert Cohen" <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
writes:
> With all respect to Wolf, and notwithstanding my own sense 
> (previously noted 
> in the last go-round) of dubiousness re kol isha:  this alleged 
> "correlation" is ridiculous!! -- rlc
> 
> >From: "Kame'a Media" <media (at) kamea(dot)com>
> >Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> >To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> >Subject: Re: women-only concerts
> >Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2000 09:57:30 -0500
> >
> >It is astonishing and unfortunate
> >that people who capitulate to the
> >=kol isha= injunction fail to see
> >the direct co-relation
> >between their compliance and
> >that of the physical assaults on women
> >taking place with shocking regularity
> >on the streets of Israel by primitive
> >and violent self-proclaimed
> >guardians of female modesty.
> >
> >Note:  This is not a condemnation of the
> >Orthodox or =halakha= per se.
> >
> >(Reaching for my hard-hat in anticipation, anyway.)
> >
> >Wolf
> 
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