Women Detained for Wearing Prayer Shawls at Western Wall
Three women were detained after attempting to pray at the Western Wall in Jewish prayer shawls.
The women, part of a group of about 40 from the Women of the Wall group, were praying at the wall Tuesday morning as part of their monthly Rosh Chodesh, or new month, prayer service, the Jerusalem Post reported.
A policewoman approached one of the women during the service and asked her not to wear the prayer shawl, or tallit, the way a man would and then adjusted it for her, according to the Post. Police took the national identification numbers and contact details of three of the women who were wearing prayer shawls, and were told that they would be called for questioning to a police investigation over the incident, the newspaper reported.
It is illegal for women to wear phylacteries or a prayer shawl, or to read from a Torah scroll at the Western Wall, under a 2001 law.
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