Three prominent female Israeli ministers have been photoshopped out of a cabinet photo on the front page of an ultra-Orthodox newspaper.
The picture, which shows Israel's new coalition government ministers, appeared on the front cover of the Haredi newspaper Actuali, but justice minister Ayelet Shaked, culture and sports minister Miri Regev, and the minister for senior citizens, equality, and gender equality Gila Gamliel were all completely removed.
An airbrushed image also appeared in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish website B'Haderei Haredim, where the three women's faces were pixelated, in an attempt to quell the concerns of religious male readers. However, the legs of Regev were still visible.
In another Orthodox publication, print newspaper HaModia, the ministers' names were all listed but the female ministers had their first names omitted while male ministers were referred by their full names.
A member of the Israeli Orthodox community, who declined to be named, confirmed that according to Halakha (Jewish religious laws dictated by the Torah), "It is forbidden to look at the face of a woman who is not part of one's family".
Observants of the Halakha refrain from reading or viewing any publications which carry pictures of women. There have even been reports that some advertising boards in Jerusalem which depict women have previously been defaced by members of the community.
In January, following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, small ultra-Orthodox newspaper Hamevaser digitally removed German chancellor Angela Merkel from a photo of world leaders marching in solidarity against terrorism. Merkel was standing alongside French president Francois Hollande, and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in the original image.
At the time of the photoshop job, the editor of the outlet Binyamin Lipkin, said that including a picture of a woman in the publication would offend the memory of the Charlie Hebdo victims.
"Including a picture of a woman into something so sacred, as far as we are concerned, it can desecrate the memory of the martyrs and not the other way around," he told Israel's Channel 10 station.
It is not only female dignitaries that receive such treatment from the Haredi press in Israel. When
reality star Kim Kardashian visited a non-Kosher restaurant in Jerusalem with her husband Kanye West, news site Kikar HaShabbat published one photo of her with a restaurant receipt covering her face and one where her face was blurred. The site also referred to her as "Mr West's wife".
An editor at the publication declared that Kardashian's face was omitted because she is a "pornographic symbol", which is opposed to ultra-Orthodox beliefs.
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