Thursday, January 16, 2014

Girls in (olive) green

It's that time of the year when 12th graders start wondering what they are going to do next year. Their parents have been thinking about it since the beginning of 11th grade but the kids are just starting to catch up now. The post-high school options, like everything in Israel, are moving targets that our kids understand far better than their immigrant parents.

For boys the choices are relatively simple: they are going to the army. The only question is how many interim stops can they make prior to their inevitable Induction. Some don't want to postpone the inevitable; they are chomping at the bit and raring to go. No pre-military preparation year(s) for them; they have been preparing and they are ready NOW. They were actually ready yesterday but this is Israel, and nothing happens in a straight, logical fashion.

This brings me to the girls; their post-high school plans are so much more interesting. Particularly religious girls. And particularly right now. (You didn't really think I was going to make a list of the boring options and leaving it that, did you?)

Since I arrived in Israel, religious girls traditionally do what is kindly called National Service rather than go to the army. I don't want to slam National Service because some of those jobs are mentally and/or physically difficult and I applaud any one who completes their assigned task. But therein lies my issue with National Service. If the religious girls drop out or choose not to do NS at all, there are no real consequences for their actions. If a boy left the army because he didn't like his job or didn't feel like being in the army any more, the shit would hit the fan; that kid would be labelled for life.

In the past few years I have noticed that more religious girls are choosing the army. Personally I like that because some of the jobs available to the women in the army sound interesting to me. If you are going to serve some bigwig coffee, then all bets are off, but if you are going to do something worthwhile for your country (and in turn, yourself) then I think that is the way to go. But that's me.

Plus the army isn't a whimsical place -- in fact, it is anti-whimsy. You have to show up on time; you cannot do a partial tour-of-duty; you always have to have your shoelaces tied; and you have to listen to your superiors even if they are jerks. There are rules and you must follow them whether you want to or not.

Unfortunately, once religious girls start choosing the army, the rabbis are right behind them trying to guilt them into staying away. They are using the same old tired arguments that it is not modest (and therefore not appropriate) for girls to be near boys, possibly wearing pants, and doing man's work.

Let me refute their myopic, misogynistic views once again:

  • Perhaps some religious men like themselves have no self-control but what makes these rabbis think that every young woman working next to a man is likely to find herself in the broom closet rubbing up against him in the throes of passion before the end of the average day? In my personal experience that does not happen unless you are on a Thursday-night TV drama. Most of us manage to get through the day without fondling the person working next to us. YUP, everyday without fondling.
  • If you don't want to wear pants then opt for a skirt. The army has a lovely selection of drab olive skirts from which to choose. If there is one thing you can say for the army, it's that there are copious fashion choices. Have you seen all the different coloured berets out there? Or the lovely snowsuits for the soldiers in Golan? Or those navy whites????
  • And now for my favourite issue: rabbis don't want women to use their brains unless they tell them to. Rabbis want to maintain control over women folk and they believe that if women do meaningful work heaven knows they may never step foot in a kitchen or bear children again. Of course, all this women-in-the-kitchen thinking goes out the window if the woman marries a man who wants to learn Torah all day. Then the rabbis want the women to do all the kitchen work, bear children AND go to work to support their families. 

The more the rabbis stick their noses into things that in my mind are not directly related to their jobs, the more they alienate many of the people they expect to follow them. And in turn, the more young religious Jews who start to question the rabbis' role in the big picture of their lives. At some point in most Israelis lives, the army is their religion. It has to be and it is sad that the rabbis can't understand it and support it.



No comments:

Post a Comment