‘Put a shirt on,’ Tel Aviv bus driver tells female passenger wearing tank top
Romi Inbar, 20, says she got off the bus after driver berated her for her clothing, adding it was a ‘difficult and horrible situation’
A bus driver berated a female passenger in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for wearing a tank top, which he considered to be immodest, causing the woman to get off the bus, the Kan public broadcaster reported Wednesday.
“Put a shirt on,” the driver told Romi Inbar, who got off two stops later because of how shocked and offended she was by the incident. “You can’t walk around like that,” the driver added, and another passenger reportedly joined him.
“This is a difficult and horrible situation,” Inbar told Kan in a radio interview.
The 20-year-old said the driver started yelling at her as she got on the back of the bus. “I couldn’t really understand what he was saying, I thought he was telling me to pay or something else, and then one of the passengers said that he told me to put on a shirt. He kept saying it to make sure I heard him. I didn’t know what to do.”
Inbar added that the whole bus remained silent except for a mother who told the driver that she can wear whatever she wants. “When I sat down, I felt totally humiliated,” she told Kan. “I posted an [Instagram story], and I’m speaking now because this can’t happen to other girls.”
In a statement, the Dan bus company said: “If any passengers were made to feel uncomfortable, we apologize.”
There have been past cases of discrimination against women on public transportation in Israel.
In May, it was reported that ultra-Orthodox men often prevent women from boarding buses in the southern city of Ashdod.
