Two distinguished scholars, one from Israel and one from the United Kingdom, join us to discuss a landmark case, ‘believed to be the first time the criminal justice system in the UK has been used on behalf of an agunah – a “chained” woman left unable to remarry according to Jewish law because her husband denies her a religious divorce.’*
Evoked in this case are issues not only of Jewish and British law, but of family law, religious autonomy, and women’s rights, with ”wide implications within the Orthodox Jewish community and potentially in other communities, when religious laws are abused . . . .’**
Background:
- Landmark case sees woman obtain get after launching private prosecution against husband for coercive control: ‘For the first time in the UK, a private prosecution was successfully commenced against a get refuser.’ *
- Legal first as jail threat makes man grant ‘get’: New laws against ‘controlling behaviour’ forces Jewish man to agree to religious divorce in UK legal first. **
- Beth Din “names and shames” man who refuses his wife a get.
- Jewish women are being erased: ‘When a woman is not seen, her voice is not heard, and her needs are not met. She is simply less than a full person.’