This is an advertisement for an event in Netanya that will be hosting the Shalva Band. Looks exciting. the event is free to the public, sponsored by the Iryah.

hattip to SK on Facebook

The funny thing about the ad is that it is missing the two main faces of the band - the singers, Dina and Anael.

Presumably, the target audience for this event is not any of the residents of Kiryat Sanz, the haredi hassidic neighborhood of Netanya, as they would not attend such an event anyway, let alone for a band with female singers. Despite the target audience not being a haredi one, the city people running this still felt it necessary to cut out womens images from the ad. And we are talking about Netanya, not Bet Shemesh, Jerusalem, Beitar, Bnei Braq or Modiin Ilit.

The funnier thing about this is that by taking Dina and Anael out of the picture, people might think this is an all-male band. Even if they are familiar with The Shalva Band, they might think, because of the advertisement, that only the male band members will be performing at this event. That means people who do not want to hear women singing will show up to this event thinking it is an all-male performance and end up hearing The Shalva Band in all its glory.

This seems to qualify as an example of the law of Unintended Consequences. I might also call it a חומרה המביא לידי קולא, a stringency that brings about a leniency, but not printing women's images is not even a chumra, just some strange hassidic hanhaga that has taken off and gone viral.