I don't mean to start an MRA flamewar, but if the headline was,"Ultra-Orthodox women again hold up plane, refusing to sit beside men" I don't think this article would get nearly as much attention.

And I think it's because, in our minds, we see these "Ultra-Orthodox men" as people indoctrinated into sexism, hating a woman who will sit next to any man. And the reverse narrative would be women misled into fearing men. But for some reason, I think my hypothetical headline wouldn't stir many click hungry internet users.

Furthermore, I think that their desire to stay holy and propper or whatever by not sitting next to women isn't all about forcing their religious rules on someone, or keeping women oppressed, it's just a social taboo their conservative culture has. Like, the reason we don't walk around naked is because: that's a taboo we were raised with—there isn't anything inherently wrong with nudity (we were born that way and there have been many nude cultures). But in our culture, public nudity is not something people tolerate, they don't want to sit next to a naked person because it would make them very uncomfortable. These men didn't want to sit next to women because they themselves would feel uncomfortable.

I think we need to be tolerant of their culture and change it overtime by showing the virtues and advantages of our OWN culture as they travel. These conservative cultural norms (at the deep root) DO promote sexism, but that doesn't mean they are an overt sexist act on their own.