22 Haredi women activists of Nivcharot have petitioned the District Court against the refusal of religious political parties such as Shas, Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatora to allow women to register as party members. This petition, submitted after letters demanding equal representation for women in these parties were repeatedly ignored, has received wide media coverage. In media interviews, Esti Shushan, Director and Founder of Nivcharot, explains that Haredi women want to be political active within the parties that represent the own communities. She adds that “Although the Party’s constitution does not disallow the registration of women as party members, the parties “make all kinds of excuses and providing strange explanations to justify their refusal to allow women to register, and interestingly enough, these claims have almost nothing to do with Halachic considerations". The goal of the petition is to enable women to have a place at the political table and ultimately, to ensure that women have equal representation in political parties that represent their communities.
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