UPDATED | Woman who sued Israeli airline after man requested she move seats wins landmark ruling

[Update:  An Israeli woman won her case against the country's national airline, making it illegal to ask female passengers to move their seats for religious reasons.

The Israel Religious Action Center filed the case on behalf of Renee Rabinowitz — an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor who had said she felt humiliated when an El Al flight attendant asked her to move from her seat at the request of an ultra-Orthodox man.

Rabinowitz told the New York Times she was "exhilarated" after the ruling.

"This is one more victory in a long string of legal victories challenging the exclusion of women in the public sphere in Israel," said Orly Erez-Likhovski, her lawyer speaking to Haaretz.

See our original April 2016 interview with Rabinowitz below.]

An 81-year-old retired lawyer is suing the Israeli airline El Al for gender discrimination after a flight attendant asked her to change seats following a request from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man.

"I was offended and rather put down by it," Renee Rabinowitz told As it Happens host Carol Off. "He asked me to move for no reason other than my gender."

The incident occurred on a flight from New York to Tel Aviv last December. Soon after boarding the plane, an ultra-Orthodox man — who was supposed to sit next to Rabinowitz — asked a flight attendant to move her to another seat.

"According to strict Orthodox interpretations, and that's very strict, sitting next to a woman is not appropriate for religious reasons," Rabinowitz explains. The 81-year-old doubts, however, that she would be a "temptation" to this man.

"If you're asking yourself why this man would have any illicit thoughts sitting next to me, I don't know. I can't answer that," she says.

When Rabinowitz was first asked to move, she says the flight attendant didn't admit the real reason for the change.

"[The flight attendant] said, 'I have a better seat for you,'" Rabinowitz said. "He showed me a seat that was no better. ... Then it occurred to me that the man had requested it. I point blank asked the flight attendant that question and he confirmed I was right."   

Rabinowitz agreed to change seats, mainly because she didn't want to be in a "very uncomfortable situation" for an 11-hour flight.  

Rabinowitz is a Holocaust survivor whose family fled Belgium in 1941. She says she attends synagogue and keeps a kosher home. 

Following this incident, Rabinowitz has decided to sue El Al for gender discrimination. She's being represented by the Israel Religious Action Centre (IRAC)  — an organization trying to "improve gender religious discrimination in Israel," says Rabinowitz. 

With files from Associated Press