New Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat takes office on Wednesday. The first item on her agenda is expected to be a letter sent to the new minister by 19 women's rights groups, urging her to immediately cancel the obligatory participation of cheerleaders in premier league basketball games.
According to the letter, "It is clear to us, women's groups and social organizations, that the regulation that requires the attendance of cheerleaders in basketball games is not only illegal and should be revoked immediately, but also deepens the sexist treatment of teenage girls and women, and could thus elevate the sexual violence towards us and the social perception of teen girls and women as sexual objects."
Maccabi Tel Aviv's cheerleader squad. Sexual objects? (Photo: Reuven Schwartz)
The signatories claimed that by levying a fine of thousands of shekels on any team that fails to include a group of cheerleaders in its games, the league was essentially "violating the teams' freedom to object tot his sexist regulation."
The groups also expressed their belief that because Livnat is a woman, who also headed the Knesset's Committee for the Promotion of the Status of Women, she would support their demand.
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