The fact is that some people are so eager to appear more and more frum that they lose sight of the big picture. Some of these chumros have no real basis, and they create a huge chillul Hashem, and drive people off the derech.
I don’t really feel like talking about chumros again, but I do want to make this point.
I don’t think you should be jumping on this chumros make us look bad bandwagon. The things that you do make us look just as bad. The MO community is not at all insulated from modern critique that they discriminate and hide women.
For example:
You require women to dress modestly, to always cover their torso, to not go swimming in public, etc. Seems to me that if your men have a problem, they should deal with it themselves.
You don’t allow your women to be witnesses in court, or to be judges in court. Seems to me that you are locking women out of the authority and communal leadership.
You don’t allow women to divorce their husbands, a man marries a woman by “buying” her. Seems to me like you think men own their wives.
You consider a woman to be dirty and unclean for half the month, you say you aren’t allowed to touch women. Seems to me like you think women are an underclass of “untouchables”.
You see what I mean? The goyim have plenty enough to make fun of which is actual halacha. Don’t think that it is just our chumrah’s that they look down on- it’s you also. The only reason they are focusing on chareidim recently, is because the other frum people are calling attention to it.
“First they came for the chareidim, but I did not care, because I was not chareidi.” Just look at what’s going on in the army in Israel, they’re coming for you.