New Sexual Harassment Law Sets Fines For Modest Dress

Jerusalem, October 27 – The Knesset Women’s Issues Committee took up the challenge of sexual harassment today, approving a measure that would penalize male parliamentarians for neglecting to comment on a woman’s appearance while the body is in session, or otherwise engaging in suggestive or lewd behavior toward female colleagues, visitors, aides, or journalists. It would also set criteria for how revealing the attire of female entrants to the Knesset must be, and further restrict the number of women with less-than-ideal figures allowed in the compound at the same time.

The Special Legislation on Urgent Topics (SLUT) measure passed unanimously, and will be brought to the Knesset floor for its second and third readings. If passed, the SLUT law will mandate an automatic reprimand for Members of Knesset who fail to perform sexual harassment adequately, and levy stiff financial penalties on women who do not facilitate the mandatory harassment quotas by dressing and comporting themselves as provocatively as possible.

Under SLUT, the number of women over the age of 12 inside the Knesset compound who do not have hourglass figures will be limited to eleven, including serving MKs. The limit will not apply to the security team, which enacted even stricter guidelines four years ago in the wake of a scandal in which a suspicious visitor was frisked by an unattractive woman. It will also exempt the custodial staff from the requirements, as there already exists a Basic Law that janitorial duties be performed by elderly Mizrahim, Arabs, or Ethiopians, and their attire must consist of unflattering blue button-down  housecoats. Overturning a provision in a Basic law would require mustering a two-thirds majority, which SLUT is not expected to garner.

The law also refines the specifics of earlier legislation, notably the 1998 Female Representative External Characteristics and Harassment Act (FRECHA). FRECHA ordained that women in the Knesset must wear blouses or sweaters with either a wide-open neck or a front with at least the top three buttons undone. SLUT restricts sweaters to the wintertime, and loosens the regulations on skirts and dresses, allowing hems that reach below the knee if the garment has a slit that extends to mid-thigh.

Women legislators are divided on the terms of the new law. “It’s disgusting,” says Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni. However, other female MKs support the measure. “I want to feel like I’m in a pageant every time I sashay into that hall,” says MK Ayelet Shaked. “It’s glamorous.”

Opposition to the SLUT law is expected mainly from religious parties, whose representatives have said  that sexual harassment has no place in public, governmental settings, and should take place in more modest contexts.