Why did Haredim force girls to cover up at a Jerusalem ceremony?
Yair Ettinger; 27/6/08
From the standpoint of Jerusalem’s non-Haredi residents, the business of the ski caps and cloaks - girls forced to cover up before dancing at the ceremony Wednesday to innaugurate the Chords Bridge - is yet another stage in the city’s ongoing fall into the hands of ultra-Orthodox extremists. But as far as the Haredim are concerned, this affair was merely the opening salvo in the mayoral campaign. … A holy war, even if aimed against 12-year-old dancing girls, seemed a golden opportunity for Shlomei Emunim to gain some Haredi street cred. The ski-cap affair began with the dress rehearsal on Monday, at the entrance to Jerusalem. Haredim from neighboring Givat Shaul watched the show, thereby discovering that “prostitutes” were supposed to appear on stage. They turned to municipal officials and to the mobile news service Hakol Haharedi, and shouted on the air about the “brazenness” and the “terrible harlotry” threatening the city.