Haredi burqa sect

'shawl-wearing women') is a community of Haredi Jews that ordains the full covering of a woman's entire body and face, including her eyes, for the preservation of modesty (tzniut) in public.

The Haredi burqa sect, with an estimated population of several hundred people as of 2011[update], is primarily concentrated in Israel, and particularly in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh.

Several notable Haredi religious organizations, including the Jerusalem-based Edah HaChareidis, have issued strong and vocal statements condemning the burqa sect's radical tenets with regard to women's clothing.

The frumka as a mode of dress for Haredi women was encouraged by Bruria Keren, an Israeli religious leader who taught a strict (by Orthodox standards) interpretation of Jewish scripture for female adherents.

The religious group, which was estimated to number around 100 in 2008 and may have grown to several hundred as of 2021[update],[2] is concentrated in Beit Shemesh, but also has followers in Safed and Jerusalem.

[8] The Israeli press has adopted the informal epithet "Taliban mothers" to refer to the followers of Keren's teachings on modesty.

The Edah HaChareidis issued an edict declaring the act of wearing the shawl to be a sexual fetish as deviant as scant clothing or nudity.

"There is a real danger that by exaggerating, you are doing the opposite of what is intended, [resulting in] severe transgressions in sexual matters", explains Edah member Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim.

The religious court of Beit Shemesh issued a sharp condemnation of the group, and warned Jewish women and girls not to be drawn after them or follow their customs.

Another Haredi group which requires female adherents to wear Islamic style veils is the Lev Tahor cult of Israeli-Canadian rabbi Shlomo Helbrans.