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Discrimination Against Women Disguised as Religious Freedom: Bill to Expand Gender Segregation in Academia

>> Read the full position paper  

Bill on Student Rights Law (Amendment No. 10) (Separate Study Tracks in Advanced Degrees) 2025 seeks to extend the authorization for gender-segregated academic programs to master’s and doctoral studies, contrary to the rationale underlying the Supreme Court’s ruling, which permitted limited gender segregation only in undergraduate programs for the purpose of integrating the ultra-Orthodox community into higher education. This expansion departs from the balance struck between the principle of equality and the goal of social integration, as advanced degrees are not a prerequisite for participation in the labor market but rather frameworks for advanced academic and research study. Experience gained from the implementation of gender segregation to date demonstrates that it actually constitutes a mechanism for the systematic exclusion of wome n, including discrimination in learning conditions and employment opportunities, particularly in regard to female lecturers, who are denied the possibility of teaching male students.

Zulat opposes the proposed legislation because of its significant infringement on women’s right to equality and freedom of occupation, as well as the fear that it will deepen patterns of gender discrimination in the public sphere. Legislation of this kind entrenches segregation as a social norm that may extend beyond its originally intended target population and give rise to similar demands from other groups. In addition, the proposed law is likely to reinforce mechanisms of gender-based occupational segregation by creating designated “women’s tracks,” which in effect narrow women’s range of choices and channel them into a limited number of lower-paying fields. The bill therefore not only reflects existing inequalities but also contributes to their perpetuation and deepening, in a manner that is incompatible with the values of a democratic society committed to substantive equality.

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.