A TEENAGER has claimed she was banned from boarding a bus after the driver labelled her clothes as “inappropriate.”
Tamara Lahav was decked out in shorts and an alter neck top when she was refused admission to the number nine service in Or Akiva, Israel, on Friday.
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The 13-year-old claims the diver “asked whether she had something to cover up with” as she tried to board the bus.
Perplexed, she responded by saying she had nothing else to put on as the driver closed the door and drove off.
It’s alleged in local media that the driver, who works for the firm Kavim, insisted the attire constituted “sexual harassment.”
Tamara, who was on her way to the mail in nearby Binyamina, told Haaretz that she was left shocked and embarrassed by the bus operator’s comments.
Recalling the incident, she said: “I regretted that I didn’t confront the driver. I don’t think that boys would have received the same treatment.”
Yael Lahav, Tamara’s mother filed a complaint against the driver with the national authority for public transportation.
She labelled the driver’s actions as a violations basic right and “above all, a violation of human dignity”.
She added that the remarks were sexist and wouldn’t have been levelled at a man meaning “there is no reason that he should do so for a woman or girl”.
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A Transportation Ministry official told Haaretz that drivers are not allowed to refuse transportation to passengers because of the way they are dressed.
Kavim has said it will investigate the incident and that disciplinary action will be taken against the driver if they find that he infringed the firm’s policies.
The incident comes just four years after a fellow Israeli teen Mor Simchi, then 18, was stopped from boarding bus because she was wearing shorts.
The driver remarked that they looked like underwear, according to reports at the time.
In October 2021, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court awarded 150,000 shekels in compensation to Simchi.
The judge ruled that the driver “discriminated against her because of her beliefs and liberal lifestyle, as evidenced by her dress”.
