Women’s rights, religious sensibilities. Can Israel respect both?

On a scorching summer afternoon in Israel, an 18-year-old woman is waiting at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem. She’s on her way to her first day of work waitressing, eager to arrive on time.

When the bus pulls up, a man waiting with her boards. But the male bus driver tells her, “You can’t get on the bus like that.”

The driver then closes the door and drives off. The young woman, who is now serving as a soldier and can only be identified as M., says she was baffled: Why couldn’t she get on the bus?

Then she realized: The driver was religious; she was wearing shorts. When she filed a complaint with the state-run bus company, she was told her “inappropriate clothing” offended religious passengers.

“At first I felt paralyzed. I was really hurt, and the next

Civil rightsDemocracy vs. theocracySegregation in secular IsraelMilitary service