Kosher Cellphone
- Filed under: Article, Israel, Jews, Middle East, Religion
- Date: Oct 6,2008 | 11:19 AM
This is interesting:
The kosher cellphone looks like an ordinary cellphone, can make and receive calls, and may have a calculator and alarm clock.
But it cannot send or receive text messages, browse the internet or take photos – all activities that could potentially involve behaviour considered “immodest” among Haredis.
For example, SMS capability could lead to the unwitting receipt of mass text messages publicising secular events. It could also be used as a method of illicit communication between male and female teenagers.
They call it self-control:
She expresses concern over the amount of time people devote to surfing the net, wasting time they could spend learning Torah or doing good deeds.
Her main worry, however, is over the lack of control over content.
“There are many things on the internet that are not appropriate for me as a Haredi woman, things I would prefer that my family and I didn’t see or hear, like violence, pornography and inappropriate sexual relations,” she says.
For Haredis, “inappropriate” means any physical contact between a man and a woman who are not married.
But Avi, who says he needs the internet for his work in the tourist industry, has unfiltered online access.
“I’m not afraid of the negative aspects because I grew up with internet and I feel I can control myself not to use the bad features,” he says.
But when Muslims do this, it’s oppression!
Source: BBC News
