Gov't backs law to re-draft women caught lying about religious lifestyle

Govt backs law to re-dr

By HERB KEINON
Eighteen-year-old women who falsely claim a religious lifestyle can be re-drafted if caught in their lie up to the age of 20, according to a compromise brought to the cabinet on Sunday. Last Sunday the cabinet charged a committee headed by cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser to come up with ways to reduce the number of women falsely claiming a religious lifestyle to get out of the army. An estimated 30 percent of the country's draft-age women do not go into the army because of religious reasons. Those religious women who do national service instead of IDF service are not included in this number. On Sunday the government gave its nod to legislation that would mandate that women falsely claiming a religious lifestyle could be drafted up until the age of 20 if their claims are proven false. After 20, however, the age until which women are drafted, the IDF would be unable to call them into service. If a woman whom the draft board has determined was not truthful in declaring a religious lifestyle wanted to appeal the decision, she would - under the proposed legislation - be able to do so to a special body that would include one IDF representative and a Defense Ministry representative who is also acceptable to the Chief Rabbinate.