Two ultra-Orthodox feminists challenge Israel’s political landscape
‘All I see is Haredi women’s voices silenced in our community’


Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Ruth Eglash.
Esty Shushan and Estee Rieder-Indursky’s spiritual leaders have made one thing clear: Women should not be involved in politics.
But for the past five years, the two ultra-Orthodox feminists have been fighting that worldview.

Shushan and Rieder-Indursky are part of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, community. They feel their rights — as well as those of other Haredi women — are being stifled.
“As Haredi women, we face many battles,” Shushan said. “It took me awhile to realize that fighting those battles start up there.”
By “up there,” she does not mean God. Shushan is referring to the ultra-Orthodox decision-makers and leaders who do not allow women in the political sphere.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up about 10 percent of Israeli society. Two political parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, represent the population, with 13 Haredi members in Israel’s 120-seat parliament and three government ministers. None are women.
The two Haredi parties did not respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment.
Religious leaders tell the Haredi community who to vote for, and their positions on many issues are dictated by the Torah. The only way for ultra-Orthodox women to get a voice in government is to challenge the Haredi leadership. That’s exactly what Shushan and Rieder-Indursky are trying to do with their nonprofit organization, Nivcharot, which means “the elected women.”
The fight sometimes gets ugly, they say.
During the last election, they lobbied against ultra-Orthodox parties, decrying their refusal to allow women to have a role. They handed out provocative fliers, asking women to refrain from voting until they were represented, and they clandestinely pasted posters on billboards in the most religious neighborhoods.
In one of the posters, they criticized women for asking for political representation, realizing that by attacking their own message they would raise curiosity and the posters probably would not be torn down.
More recently, they petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court, arguing a party that discriminates against women should not be afforded legitimacy in the political system.
These efforts make Shushan and Rieder-Indursky seem extreme to the Haredi mainstream, Israel Cohen, a journalist and commentator for the Haredi website Kikar Shabat, said.
“These women are coming and demanding change and in that way, there will be pushback and nothing will change,” Cohen said.
But the women are determined.
“In my opinion, this change will happen, the question is just when?” Rieder-Indursky said. “How do I know it will happen? Because it has happened all over the world. It’s just a matter of time.”
Shushan and Rieder-Indursky weren’t always entrenched in this fight.
Before becoming political activists, they worked for Haredi newspapers. Shushan was a columnist, and Rieder-Indursky was a political reporter.
Both used male pseudonyms.
“My editor was happy I wanted to write. He said my writing was good but asked me not to use my name because ‘You know, the men will not accept the opinions of a woman,’ ” Shushan said.
At first, Shushan had no problem keeping her identity secret and was grateful to be earning an income while still being able to air her views. But eventually, she grew tired of working without getting credit or recognition. In 2012, she quit the newspaper and began to express herself on Facebook. She set up numerous groups that reached thousands in her community and turned a taboo subject of women in politics into a focal point of the 2015 general election.
For Rieder-Indursky, it was trickier. As a political reporter, she had to interview people, among them former Israeli prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.
“Whenever I would get to an interview, people were always shocked to discover that I was actually a woman,” Rieder-Indursky said. “One surprised foreign diplomat even told me: ‘I expected many things but never did I expect to meet the Haredi Claudia Schiffer.’ ”
“It took me longer to see, but now all I see is Haredi women’s voices silenced in our community,” she added.

Before the creation of Israel, ultra-Orthodox women stayed home and raised children while the men worked.
That has changed in recent years. The community has struggled with poverty, and many men spend their days studying the Torah. Spiritual leaders encourage women to work outside the home.
Nurit Stadler, a professor of sociology and anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the participation of women in the labor market laid the foundation for the debate about women’s rights in the community.
“There is a problem when women take on a role like that. They change the way they dress, they go out of the house and face an atmosphere of pollution. It’s a provocation,” Stadler said.
Women are exposed to new ideas and suddenly start seeing the world in a different light. For this, Shushan, Rieder-Indursky and their families have paid a price.
Shushan, a mother of four, was forced to obtain a court order to keep her daughter in an ultra-Orthodox school that viewed her mother’s activities as undesirable. Rieder-Indursky said her son often returns from school begging her to stop.

