‘Shorts Protest’ expands as young girls call for dress code changes

Young students gathered in shorts near their schools and shouted: “Why are you letting HIM in? We have the same shorts!”

A GROUP of junior high school students are demanding the government fulfill its educational duty to them.  (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
A GROUP of junior high school students are demanding the government fulfill its educational duty to them.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Young students from schools across the country protested on Wednesday when, during an intense record breaking heatwave, girls were not allowed to wear shorts to school, but their male classmates were permitted to do so.
While religious schools enforce a dress code compelling girls to wear dresses, state-funded schools permit pants and shorts that reach below the knees. The girls argue that while their male counterparts are allowed to study wearing shorter shorts than normally allowed, the girls were sent home for dress code violations.
In Modi’in, Ra’anana and Rehovot dozens of students chanted: “Why are you letting HIM in? We have the same shorts!”
One student told N12 that it is telling that “rather than looking at us as students, even honorary ones, they look at what we are wearing.”
Model and television host Rotem Sela slammed the schools on social media for sending a message to young women that their legs "are a sexual object and not simply meant for walking." 
According to Sela, the schools are sending out the message that sexual harassment are the fault of the victims who "dressed in a way that invited it."
The model got a lot of praise on social media by many, but also some comments that mentioned previous ads in which she appeared in minimal clothing.
One user posted a picture from a 2018 Castro video-ad in which Sela played the part of a woman who is so taken by the dresses made by the company she kidnaps another woman, model Sumi Yamaguchi, to get her clothes.
Yamaguchi is seen in the social media post undressed and tied in the trunk of the car.
"I understand Rotem Sela has something to say about objectifying women and legitimizing rape?" the user wrote.