It has already affected it. Some people, says Rachel Azaria, consider Jerusalem already “a lost city,” ruled by segregationist ultra-orthodox. They’ve succeeded in creating sex-segregated streets for an upcoming holiday; and of course many public buses make women sit in the back, just like Rosa Parks.
To tell women that they have to sit at the back of the bus, or that they have to stand in certain lines in the supermarket, or that the supermarket will be closed to women during certain hours goes against our beliefs … we will not stand for it.
All of this segregation, mind you, is illegal. Go to the Israeli courts, and they’ll obligingly rule again and again that you can’t do any of this in a democracy. But it doesn’t matter, because the haredim ignore the laws, and the police don’t enforce them.
Israel even has a national curriculum, because you don’t want a large, unemployable population. Opting out isn’t a legal option.
Only it is. The haredim opt out.
The larger picture here.
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An update; and an excellent idea:
Perhaps Haredi goggles should be developed. With picture recognition software these goggles would identify human females in the field of vision and replace them with convex pink patches (color could be selected by the user). Think about night vision goggles that show infrared as “false color”. This would allow pious men to walk anywhere, read illustrated newspapers (without female images cut out) without being disturbed, and without disturbing females. I would assume that in cases when women can fail to be recognized by the software they should look sufficiently un-exciting. With a “cautious” setting, all human figures with bare elbows and bare heads could be covered. With “most cautious” setting, the only visible humans would be properly dressed Haredi males.