Shas disapproves of woman running for City Council in tzfat

Just a few days ago I mentioned the [Haredi] woman in Tzfat who is making a run for a seat on the City Council, despite the opposition of some of the men, and despite being relatively new to town and hardly known.

Mynet has now followed up with the story, considering the publicity she has received over the past week.

Shira Georgi's candidacy for City Council is largely being met with skepticism within the political community of Tzfat. The Shas representative has a sharper take on the candidacy than just skepticism. Zeev Shvavo says that "women in Shas do not have the luxury of making choices. Their place is in the house. It is not for naught that we do not have female representation in the Knesset and in the various City Councils, it is by the decision of Rav Ovadiah Yosef who believes the tzniyus of a woman is more important than anythign else. She claims she wants to advance issues of the women - might one think that we in Shas aren't concerned about proper representation for our women? She would be smart if she would connect to one of our representatives and advance her issues through him... I myself am prepared to bring her to Rav Ovadiah Yosef or to Aryeh Deri and she can ask them, despite my not having any doubt as to what their answer will be."

A former mayor of Tzfat dismissed Shvavo's claims, saying in the past women have served on City Council and it is important that women continue to do so.

Shira responded to Shvavo's attack on her saying "I would remind him that women in the haredi community mostly go out to work to support their husbands learning Torah. So it is ok for us to go out to work, but not ok to work for the public? If a woman wants to stay home, she is welcome to. I am not going to do that and I would recommend to Rav Shvavo, who is seemingly afraid of new things, that he should check himself. Besides for that, Deri is not my rav, nor was he ever my rav, and I have no intention to ask him what I should do. The fact that I am a Sfardi woman and Haredi does mean I necessarily am connected to Shas - Rav Shvavo should pay attention."

Way to go Shira!

  

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