Haredi women, academics file petition against Israel's new gender-segregated education law

Six Haredi women and ten academics have petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice to strike down or restrict a new law expanding gender-segregated studies in higher education. The petition, filed after the Knesset approved an amendment allowing the Council for Higher Education (CHE) to approve separate programs for men and women in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral studies, argues that the legislation dismantles safeguards from a 2021 court decision. That ruling permitted gender-segregated programs only as a narrow exception for Haredi students at the bachelor's level, within classrooms, and prohibited the exclusion of women lecturers. The petitioners contend the new law enables "separate and unequal" education and fails to address existing violations of segregation restrictions.

• The petition highlights the CHE's acknowledgment that "We did not find at any institution a woman lecturer teaching Haredi men in a mandatory frontal course."
• It also cites instances of segregation spreading beyond classrooms, into libraries and administrative services.
• Haredi petitioners argue that what is presented as "freedom of choice" becomes "social pressure and the absence of any real ability to choose otherwise."
• The new law's application extends beyond the Haredi community, referring broadly to programs operated "for religious reasons."