A new regulation at Shas' Maayan Torah education network prohibits female workers from showing up to work without a head covering that covers their hair completely.
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| In their head / David Sperber |
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New exhibition examines complex issue of women's head covering in Orthodox Judaism and presents both emphatic and critical views of this religious obligation |
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A letter ordering women to dress accordingly signed by the network's Director General Yoav Ben-Zur has been distributed to all employees this week. Shas' school network caters to tens of thousands of children across the country and receives funding from the state.
Many female workers were outraged by the new directive, and claimed that a lot of ultra-Orthodox women do not regularly wear all-concealing head covering. "The new regulation is odd and infuriating," said one worker. "It refers to haredi women who ordinarily wear a head covering and reveal very little hair as it is."
Another worker stressed that the new rule bans women from wearing wigs and requires them to only wear scarves. She added that employees have already been threatened with dismissal should they continue to wear a wig to work.
"Please help us," she pleaded. "Have we become Iran? Are we like Hamas? This place is turning into Khomeinistan… we are merely women trying to work and support our Torah studying husbands, without getting involved in Shas' internal politics."
Shas' spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has in the past ruled that wigs are forbidden as a head covering.
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