Haredim gone wild

February 11, 2012 - 6:47 PM by David

This is unlikely to help bridge the secular-haredi divide that has engulfed Israel, with all the recent women-in-the-back-of-the-bus and army singing segregation stories.

An Israeli fashion magazine called BelleMode is publicizing a new photo spread that speaks directly to those headlines. The spread features models portraying haredi men and women on a bus. But not only is there no separate seating, there’s some very provocative cohabitation going on.

As the Gawker website put it, the outfits “ resemble the clothing favored by haredim, except with some minor differences. Like, some of the shirts are see-through. And some of the models have forgotten to wear their pants.”

According to an accompanying behind the scenes video for the shoot, the director is heard explaining what he was trying to do. “My feeling is, that in the fashion industry, women have a lot of power, they are at the center. We took that power and decided to centralize/funnel it into a fashion production – that’s both inspired and against a woman’s appearance, to bring all the stuff that’s most irritating to us — the bus banishments, silencing of singing – to bring it and make a production that walks a fine line between being very closed and modest to ripped wide open and sexy. As long as it’s being done in good taste and doesn’t harm the woman, I don’t see any problem.”

You can judge for yourself after viewing some of the photos from the shoot here.

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