Lawmaker seeks Knesset makeup room

Calderon approached Knesset CEO Ronen Plot and asked him to designate a room for that purpose, suggesting that female MKs would pay for the makeup artist themselves.

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The Knesset has yet to decide whether to accept the request, which has already been criticized by other women lawmakers.

"We are not here to model and this is not a fashion show," said MK Miri Regev (Likud-Beiteinu). Many other female MKs expressed their objection to the move but asked to speak on condition of anonymity.

"It's unreasonable that these days, while we're busy approving the budget and the public is struggling to make ends meet or debating whether to send children to summer camps, we'll be dealing with setting up a makeup room in the Knesset. It's ridiculous," said Regev.

"These are sensitive days," she added. "We are talking about the suffering of low-income populations, and now we're dealing with an initiative for female MKs' makeup? It's detached from reality. What's the problem to buy makeup and put it on alone as we have done so far? Even if it's funded by the MKs, it conveys a negative message, unnecessary and extravagant."

'It won't be theatrical makeup'

Calderon explained that there are days when the women are forced to stay in the building for hours and have to look presentable, and so they should have the option to refresh their appearance.

"We all thought about buying their service together, because we need it sometimes," she explained. "The entry of women into the Knesset has brought along new needs, different from those of men. When you're there for 12 hours and then have to appear on television, there is need for makeup. I asked the CEO for a room and we'll pay for a makeup artist. Women interested in this service once a month, or whenever necessary, will pay for it."

Calderon said that on longer working days there was a growing need for the service. "It won't be theatrical makeup," she stressed, "but there are those who those who think we should have this option. This season we are hardly at home; we spend entire days there."

The Yesh Atid lawmaker added that the accommodation of women's needs at the Knesset is well felt: "Even when refreshments are brought in at night, it includes fruit and vegetables as opposed to the cookies served in the past.

"We are felt; it's a slightly different kind of needs. We are all the same, men and women, but women have needs. There is solidarity between women which crosses political parties and there is an attempt to help each other."

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