The Supreme Court will hear a complaint against buses with gender-separate seating on Monday.  The buses, known as “mehadrin” lines, are available in several hareidi-religious areas.  The complaint was filed by the Israeli Religious Action Center, the legal branch of the Reform movement, and American-Israeli writer Naomi Ragen.

The IRAC argues that passengers feel coerced into sitting in the section of the bus designated for them.  The separation between sexes “causes degradation and damage to human dignity,” IRAC attorneys say.  Ragen has a similar complaint, and says she was “insulted, humiliated, and physically threatened” in 2004 when she insisted on sitting in the men’s section of a gender-separate bus line in Jerusalem.

The state argues that the seating arrangement is voluntary, and that bus operators do not force passengers to sit in any particular area.