http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/middleeast/israel-faces-crisis-over-role-of-ultra-orthodox-in-society.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Can religious groups be a threat to a community? To a country? Maybe.

I really do have difficulty deciding who's in the right here, especially with the above article discussing the extreme measures some ultra-Orthodox Jews are taking to assert female subjugation. Blacking out billboards with women on them? Spitting on young girls dressed too immodestly for Jewish men's ideals? Yeah that's a bit crazy.  We've seen violence inspired by extreme interpretations of religion, and here we're seeing unfair treatment of women based on the same thing. Segregating women from men within their community is harsh enough--but in the modern world, ultra-Orthodox Jews can't expect everyone to conform to their ideals too! Sheesh. People get so worked up by religion.

So basically, women OBVIOUSLY deserve equal rights as men. Religions like Orthodox Judaism just complicates that. And different women probably feel differently about the issue, too--like in Islam, Jewish women dress to different degrees of modesty, following different "codes" of behavior. And no one can tell them what's right or wrong in religion. What can we do? Nothing really, except expect them to figure it out.