In Israel, Muslim Women Can Serve On Religious Courts, But Not Jews
Israel’s first female Muslim judge, Hana Mansour-Khatib. Image by Twitter/@ayelet_shaked
By Naomi Zeveloff April 26, 2017
Israel just appointed its first female religious judge, but Jewish women are still not allowed to serve on religious courts in the country.
Hana Mansour-Khatib, a family lawyer from Tamra in Northern Israel, was unanimously voted in by the Judicial Appointments Committee as judge, or qadi in a Sharia court on Tuesday, Haaretz reported.
Issawi Frej, a parliament member of the leftwing Meretz Party, who has been pushing for women to be appointed to religious courts, said that “history has been made” with Mansour-Katib’s appointment. “This is one of the moments when all the work you do in parliament pays off.”
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties have blocked attempts in parliament to change the law to allow women to serve on religious courts in Israel. Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked circumvented the parliament to allow Mansour-Khatib’s appointment.
According to Haaretz, the appointment could be precedent-setting for Jewish women to serve on religious courts.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected] or on Twitter @naomizeveloff
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Betar ‘almost exclusively triggered’ former student’s detention, judge says
-
Fast Forward ‘Honey, he’s had enough of you’: Trump’s Middle East moves increasingly appear to sideline Israel
-
Fast Forward Yeshiva University rescinds approval for LGBTQ+ student club
-
Fast Forward Rumeysa Ozturk ordered free on bail, after judge says op-ed criticizing Israel is insufficient to justify detention
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture How one Jewish woman fought the Nazis — and helped found a new Italian republic
-
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
-
Fast Forward Betar ‘almost exclusively triggered’ former student’s detention, judge says
-
Fast Forward ‘Honey, he’s had enough of you’: Trump’s Middle East moves increasingly appear to sideline Israel
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.