Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission has now told the Belz hasidic sect that its ban on women driving and its threat to expel from the sect's schools all the children of mothers who violate it is illegal.
The Guardian reports:
…[Britain’s] Equality and Human Rights Commission has told the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that banned mothers driving their children to school that its behavior is illegal.
In a letter sent after consultation with the Department for Education, Baroness O’Neill, chair of the commission, describes the actions of the Belz sect, which runs two schools in Stamford Hill, north London, as unlawful and discriminatory.
On Wednesday 3 June, the commission wrote to the sect “advising them that their actions are unlawful under the Equality Act 2010”.
The group runs Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass, a boys’ primary school, and Beis Malka, a primary school for girls. Both have been rated good by Ofsted.
The schools had said that from August, any child driven to school by their mother would be turned away at the school gates. The letter said the ban was based on the recommendations of Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, the Belzer spiritual leader in Israel.
Gloria De Piero, shadow minister for women and equalities, wrote to the commission last week asking for “urgent clarification of the law” over whether religious freedoms trumped other rights. “Our laws protect individuals in the enjoyment of their basic rights and freedoms from discrimination because of their sex and I have serious concerns about the implications of the ban as reported,” she wrote.
O’Neill’s reply, sent just five days later, said: “In our view, the actions of the proprietor of the two schools in question are likely to constitute direct discrimination (contrary to section 13) by association with the sex of another person (in this instance their mothers, when driving them to school).”
She also tackled the issue that that article 9 of the Human Rights Act allows “the right to freedom of religion”.
“This, as you know, is a qualified right and must be balanced against the rights of others, including the right not to be discriminated against under Article 14 and the right to an education.”…
The story of the ban and the threat to expel the children of mothers who violate it was first reported in Hebrew by Behadrei Haredim and in English by FailedMessiah.com. It was only by the Jewish Chronicle 9 days later, without crediting either of the original sources. And in an email sent to readers yesterday, more than two weeks after the story was broken by others, the JC's editor actually touts The JC's first story on the ban as if The JC broke the story – meaning he is still perpetuating his paper's unethical conduct.
At any rate, the ruling by the Equality and Human Rights Commission explains why Belz leadership implied yesterday that the ban was issued in error and will not be enforced, when in fact it is still in force and will be in perpetuity – unless the Belzer Rebbe publicly retracts it.
Related Posts:
Belz Hasidic Leadership In London Reiterates Ban On Women Driving, Threatens To Expel Children From Belz Schools If Their Mothers Drive.
More News On The Belz Hasidic Women's Driving Ban.
British Government Lashes Out At Hasidic Sect’s Ban On Women Driving, Could Defund Sect Schools.
Hasidic Group Apologizes For Women Driving Ban’s Language But Says Ban Justified.
Belz School That Bans Women From Driving Applies For Government Funding.
Belz Hasidim Allegedly Retract Women's Driving Ban, But Likely Really Didn’t.