Women in Israel are fighting a Rosa Parks-style campaign for the right to sit where they want on buses.

They claim men are forcing them to sit at the back because their clothes are too revealing.

The campaign against 'voluntary' segregation comes after the Haredi, or ultra- Orthodox community, increased 'modesty police' patrols of neighbourhoods and chastised women whose clothes were deemed inappropriate.

Protesters have compared their situation to that of Rosa Parks, a black seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama, who refused to give her seat to a white passenger on a bus in 1955.

Her arrest triggered protests which began the US civil rights movement.

Naomi Ragen, an ultra-Orthodox novelist, was told to go to the back of the bus by a group of men.

She explained that there were no signs on the bus regulating where passengers sat and no religious reason why there had to be segregation.

'For the entire ride I was subjected to this insulting and physically imposing presence,' she said.

'There was one man who was sweating over me, shouting, threatening me. I felt like Rosa Parks.'

She rang the bus firm but was told it was free seating, effectively meaning Haredi men could demand women sit at the back.

Ms Ragen and four other women have petitioned the country's Supreme Court over 'voluntary' segregation on buses.

One of the group's lawyers, said: 'It's like the Wild West. An American woman was beaten and spat upon a few weeks ago.'

The Supreme Court has given the government 45 days to respond to the petition.