[Music] the biggest Jewish Community outside Israel lives in New York City nearly half of Orthodox Jews here are haredim or Ultra Orthodox many of the men devote themselves to studying the Torah most of the women start having children early and look after the household but traditional gender roles in this community are beginning to change Pearl and Dalia have founded the first Ultra Orthodox women's rock band but can they make it as rock musicians without being shut out of the community many of New York City's Ultra Orthodox Jews about 300,000 live in a world of their
own in Brooklyn Pearl grew up in this world her skirt reaches below her knees but it's a bit tight putting it at the edge of respectability a trained makeup artist she virtually lives at the edge of rules laws and customs Pearl's visiting her friend feige a closer inspection reveals that both are wearing wigs she loves you I'm not married I a lot of girls who are divorced who don't cover their hair uh or you know take take their hair covering off after their divorce and I decided not to because I I couldn't I don't know
I felt naked it'll soon be Shabbat Pearl makes figy up very thoroughly it has to last for 2 days they can't put any makeup on during Shabbat ey makeup will stay probably most of the days lipstick I'm going to use will also last like a day or two yeah face stuff is usually what comes off because but even still I feel like it stays on me it just Fades right when no men are around the women speak openly about the religious rules that even Define intimacy with their husbands there are certain times in when a
woman gets her period um she's not allowed to touch her husband or he's not allowed to touch her um until she goes to the Mikvah because the it's not that she's considered impure but the I guess the the period you know the blood from I don't know if you want to get into the Gory deta ritual it's like a ritual it's considered impure because the what a p what a period is is the the I guess quote unquote death of a like what could have potential of life is that difficult yes not touching yeah never
gets easy Pearl buys flowers for Shabbat like other women in the community she's supposed to avoid drawing attention to herself in public but Pearl is doing the exact opposite she's got a camera team on her as a passer by points out there is a norm and there's a norm everywhere yes it's not appr I've spoken to many ranim in this community about this specifically because they're filming me because of I I make music for women I make I'm a singer for women doesn't matter and I've been told by every R I spoke to here that
for sure it's not a question but you didn't tell them on the street did you of course I did yes absolutely absolutely I don't think it's appropriately at all okay it's not it's not uh doesn't go according TOA what is the what would be the Hala that would be issue I'm not getting into this secular matters have no place here at the offices of the online news service Jewish political updates we meet jov corn BL he's agreed to speak to us not something to be taken for granted he says every family here has six or
seven children he only has four he says they get married at 19 20 at the latest so women have little time for higher education the woman is more more at home cooking taking care of the kids the education of the kids putting the kids onto the buses in the morning going to school one of the um main uh bringing up the children is not to be out there in the world uh you know the world is quite dangerous and what looks so harmless here is in reality a minor Revolution Pearl and her friend Dalia have
started the first hidic women's rock band usually only Orthodox men sing in public women aren't supposed to sing for men they're also not supposed to stand on stage so it's a Kind of Revolution because they're here to make an album and sing in public and rock music at that not everyone in their Community thinks that's [Music] kosher dancing anding living by car is through hardly disting M always it's so GL I start to some people are afraid of it too they're like oh rock music that's very secular thing you know it's like rock and roll
is is associated with a whole scene exactly which is not necessarily you know uh associated with theid community so yeah not quite the same vibration call themselves bulletproof stockings there's a religious element to their lyrics and their music is bold sometimes Brash it's a far cry from the quiet and submissive role many associate with hidic [Music] women y a quick morning prayer Dalia washes her youngest son's hands after sleep religious rules like these set the rhythm of Dalia's life the drummer is the mother of four little boys her husband died four years ago since then
Dalia has raised the kids on her own other women from the community help out and they admire her sense of Independence oh yeah here give me it don't forget to notzy notzy okay that means your bus hopefully each child attends a different Jewish school the school buses arrive at the door every few minutes you ready bye Izzy thank you bye shy have a good day thank you it's a different take on feminism like we're not here to do anything but like it's not it's not we're not doing anything against we're just doing like we're like
jumping over that hurdle we don't have to fight against and break down like walls in the sense of like you know we need to liberate it's a close-knit community but this being Brooklyn you can get [Music] anything one local store specializes in wigs or shitel as they're called in Yiddish they're an accessory that Pearl has always been interested in human hair wigs are expensive pearl tries out a new hair color cuz there's no style to it yet it's not cut turning from her natural light brown to a darker Hue yeah this one I actually got
much cheaper I got this one for 600 because it's like not as high quality the hair but I feel like if you some shitel if they're really not great quality they're not going to last but if you know how to take care of it and wash it and be delicate with it you can make it look nice even though like people think this is a several thousand wig $600 after taxes so that's not bad considering I mean it's still a lot you're like that still sounds like a lot of money how often do you have
to wash it well you wash it whenever you need to like if it gets really dirty but you can't wash it too often because the hair comes out every time you wash it and every time you play with it it doesn't grow back so you know anytime you shower some hair comes out but every time you wash the Shadel hair comes out and it doesn't grow back Dalia is showing female solidarity in a special way at the moment she's looking after a woman who's just given birth shopping for her and bringing her some breakfast the
community takes care of its mothers of newborns I usually make dinners for for mothers but her mother's taking care of the dinner so she's just like get her breakfast if you want to help have solidarity or what is that that's so impressive oh it's just Community you know whenever somebody has a baby the community gets together and makes food for the family for like at least a week riy recently had her fifth child the others are aged 6 5 3 and 1 the latest edition is a girl called elot Chena smiling go it's very common
that that friends will send dinner send lunch send breakfast come that's a a good good friends do it it's fun not even good friend they have a they have um like a they get there like a whole network you know as soon as a baby's born like you know the message goes out and whoever can make dinner or lunch whatever they don't know yeah really totally it's gig night at an orthodox Community Center in Manhattan around 40 women have come along men are not permitted inside at least I am not going to cheat I am
going to stand and work the door for the late comers and then I will uh act as security as a Orthodox Jewish woman you're constantly trying to be humble and you're trying to be modest and that's kind of a way in which you live life and so when you're in situations where that might be challenged you have to try to think oh no what do I do in this situation and in a situation like this what's nice is it's all women so you can feel that a sense of Freedom what might look like a poorly
attended night school event is in fact something of a sensation the audience are initially reserved for a few of the women dancing in public is a totally foreign concept but eventually some get up and start moving and shaking a rather remarkable ladies night awesome awesome night Happ
