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Conferences & lectures

"Move Aside and Cover Yourself"

Between Gender Equality and Religious Accommodation in Today's Israel


Date & time
Friday, October 1, 2021
1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Speaker(s)

Dr. Yofi Tirosh

Cost

This event is free

Contact

Erica Lehrer

Where

Henry F. Hall Building
1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Room H-1220

Wheel chair accessible

Yes

Cartoon: Hadar Landsberg 

This event is co-sponsored by the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, and the Departments of Political Science and History 

Israel’s constitutional documents define it as “a Jewish and democratic state.” One of the most challenging aspects of this oxymoronic formula has always been gender equality. Recently, this tension manifests in a new way, as more and more public spaces practice sex-segregation as a form of religious accommodation. In academic programs, professional training, military units, or shows and concerts, women are sent to the back or to the side behind the divide, and at times completely excluded from participation, or subject to “modest” dress and conduct. Justified as a form of multicultural tolerance and a necessary means to integrate the ultra-Orthodox Israel’s labor and consumption markets, sex segregation raises pressing questions about the legality of “separate but equal” in the context of sex.

Prof. Tirosh will describe the dilemma from a socio-legal perspective, critically examining the dominant paradigms governing the discourse around sex segregation.

Concordia Students, Faculty and Staff:

** IMPORTANT NOTE:** Those attending this conference in person will need to show the Quebec Vaccination Passport. Also, anyone entering Concordia buildings must wear a procedure mask (i.e., the blue and white surgical type). Reusable or cloth face coverings are no longer acceptable. 

** Please note that we cannot admit those from the General Public at this time.** 

Speaker: Dr. Yofi Tirosh is an Associate Professor at the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, an expert on antidiscrimination law, law and culture, and body and law. Her work has been published in leading legal journals. She is an award winning public advocate for her contribution to advancing civil rights and women’s rights in Israel, and a regular legal commentator on national media. In 2020 she was listed among Israel’s 100 most influential people by Haaretz’s financial magazine. Tirosh has clerked at Israel’s Supreme Court, wrote her doctoral dissertation at the University of Michigan Law School, and served as a visiting Professor at Georgetown Law Center and Queen’s University Faculty of Law in Ontario.

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