Religious beliefs prompt seat change

I’m not sure what I would do if I was sitting in my proper seat on an airplane and someone asked me to move because of my sex. But apparently such things do happen.

“It’s an issue that has disrupted or delayed several flights,” CBS News reported. “Ultra-orthodox Jewish men refusing to sit next to women who aren’t their wives.”

An orthodox Jewish man refused to sit down next to a woman on a flight to London because his religion forbids accidental touching.

Why anyone worried about accidental touching would get anywhere near a commercial airliner, the story doesn’t say, but the woman did move and the plane took off.

However, there is now a movement to encourage women to stand their ground because religion or not, you do have to be kind of a (BLEEP) to take offense at someone’s unseen genitals. This promises to make air travel even more unpleasant.

I’ve changed seats so a family can sit together, but if I was asked to change on the grounds I was too much of a sexual temptation? Well, I guess at my age, I should be flattered, but I’d probably just get off the plane altogether.

For some reason, the prospect of any demonstration of religious fervor between airports just takes the fun out of flying.

But the airlines obviously need some kind of policy. So, how about whoever gets to the row first can declare the religious policy for that row.

Or a special privacy section with opaque sex-proof partitions between seats for an extra $75, of course.
Or the airlines could install seats that are the width of a normal person – people of all faiths would be happier.