The fight to not fight

An excellent article about Idan Halili's struggle against joining the Israeli army on feminist grounds. You can also see a photo with commentary on "Bright Tal's Flickr site. I strongly recommend you look at all of Tal's photos.

"In 2003, research from the Israel Defence Force showed that a fifth of female soldiers experienced sexual harassment within the army. When the survey asked women about specific examples of harassment, such as humiliating innuendo or unwanted sexual proposals, that figure rose to 81% and 69% respectively. In other words, says Rela Mazali, one of the founders of New Profile, 'Young women soldiers don't even know that what they are experiencing is called sexual harassment and they can do something about it.' So female soldiers not only experience harassment, but are also conditioned not to view it as such."

When my daughter was of army age, I encouraged and supported her choice to do national service (i.e. volunteer work) instead of army service. My experience had shown that for the most part women worked in demeaning, boring and meaningless jobs in the army. The "army experience" is just one big time waster for women. There are some exceptional jobs, but they are few and hard to get.

Volunteer service is a far better option, although most young women who opt for it are religiously observant. Orthodox Israelis view the army as a hotbed of promiscuity and sexual license, not a healthy place for a modest young woman to spend time. As is often the case, this Orthodox critique of Israeli society is not so far off. The Israeli army is not a healthy place for anyone who believes in sexual equality, whether in the bedroom or the workplace.

The following anectode sums up sexual attitudes prevalent in the army. After ex-defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai was convicted of sexual assault, the Army prosecutor's office decided to lay out some guidelines for officers on the topic of sexual harassment. A news article in Ha'aretz noted, during the discussion some of the male army attourneys joked that the new rules would cause a "reduction in work benefits" for the officers.

<  |  >