The erased ones

I realize, of course, that the images, which I posted below, have now become iconic. They do represent different things to different people; some interpretations and reactions are most odd. I have recently become aware how anti-woman Orthodox Judaism is. Here where I live, there is a "progressive" Jewish faction, who's Rabbi is a woman. One step ahead of most Christian factions. She appears to be a "shining light" of tolerance, engages in cross cultural, religious, and denominational exchanges, engaging her own, and also Moslem and Christian groups (though I imagine that both Jews and Moslems are few in number in our valley).

I have heard that there is a drive by the Orthodox to have women sit in the backs of buses in Israeli cities, but that at least acknowledges their existence, somewhere...back there. Today, I read that in a US Jewish daily (Der Tzitung), both Hillary Clinton and the other woman lurking in the back of the group have been photoshopped out. The very image of a woman is considered so unacceptable, perhaps provoking uncontrollable lust in members of that particular congregation, that it needs to be erased. How do they deal with men who lust after other men, I wonder. Nothing but luscious hunks in that photo.

I still do not quite connect how societies like that, but especially ones with strong fundamentalist Moslem elements, manage to produce women leaders. They seem to occur in Moslem nations more frequently than in the US, and several other "Western/Christian" nations. Israel too, after all, had Golda Meir. I assume that this extremism is a recent trend, and perhaps is growing in strength to counter the world-wide rise of women in all areas. At best, it will soon become overwhelmingly apparent, that societies that are successful are ones where women are allowed to realize their potential, and that their success will be so overwhelming that they will make flaccid  all those little retro dicks