Mavoi Satum director Batya Kahana-Dror says the solutions for women denied a divorce by their husbands can be found in Jewish law, as long as it is applied correctly.
By PEGGY CIDORHalacha Misuse(photo credit: Courtesy)
The dramatic escape last week of a man who was refusing his wife a religious divorce illustrated perhaps better than verbal declarations the plight of women who have become hostages to such husbands.Shai Cohen – who had been in jail for the last six years and yet continued to deny his wife a get (Jewish writ of divorce) – jumped out of a bathroom window at the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, where he had been brought for a hearing on the matter, and disappeared.It is the rabbinical court’s prerogative to send a recalcitrant husband to jail, but according to attorney Batya Kahana-Dror – executive director of the Mavoi Satum organization, which helps agunot (women who have been denied a get ) – though “there are many additional tools that exist in the framework of Jewish law... rabbinical judges are reluctant to use them.”That reluctance is particularly apparent in Cohen’s case, she explains, since the couple belongs to a religious community, which has even more means at its disposal to get the husband to change his mind.“According to Jewish law, one cannot force a husband to give a get , but the community can make his life so miserable, still according to the Jewish law and customs, [that he will likely relent],” she says. “But first we have to see that the rabbinical courts send such a clear message, which is not the case.”Last month, Mavoi Satum marked International Aguna Day, traditionally observed on the Fast of Esther before Purim, in solidarity with women who cannot remarry because their husbands have not granted them a get .At a conference the organization held at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, one of the two major guests of honor was a Muslim woman, Shirin Musa, from the Netherlands. Although she lives in a modern society, she still has to face a marital situation that chains her to an unwanted husband, because the religious laws are either hostile to women or wrongly applied. Her presence at a conference on agunot in Israel made for a feeling of shared grief.While Kahana-Dror was glad to be able to facilitate this woman’s participation, she was careful not to fall into the trap of turning the event against religion in general. Herself a modern Orthodox woman, the Mavoi Satum director is insistent that the problem is not religion itself, but misinterpretation stemming from a misogynistic approach and/or the rabbinical judges’ inability to understand modern social developments.“The problem is not the Halacha [Jewish law], but the misuse of the Halacha in order to serve ultra-conservative positions, mostly designed to favor men at women’s expense,” she says. “I wish they would stick to the requirements of the Halacha. Women’s situation would certainly benefit from it.”CREATED IN 1996 by Leah Globe, a Jewish American woman, Mavoi Satum supports the efforts of women fighting for their right to a divorce.Divorces are solely the prerogative of the rabbinical court, since civil marriage does not exist in Israel.According to the organization’s data, one out of every five Jewish women is unable to exit her marriage freely, in a system that empowers men as the sole executors of the divorce process. As a result, women are vulnerable to extortion (they often have to pay for their freedom by, for example, renouncing a share of the couple’s property), as well as manipulation and abuse.The same week as the Cinematheque event, Kahana-Dror and her staff enjoyed a small victory. Two days before the conference, the High Court of Justice, to which Mavoi Satum had petitioned (together with other organizations that included religious feminist group Kolech), overturned a ruling by the rabbinical court demanding that a woman withdraw her suit in a civil court against her husband. The husband, despite having been sent to prison on those grounds, was still refusing to give her a get .“She asked the civil court to make him pay her damages for his refusal to give her a divorce, but the rabbinical court threatened that if she did so, they would release him from prison,” says an outraged Kahana-Dror.The woman, out of fear and confusion, had already withdrawn her suit – a step that would prevent her from submitting it again in the future, and thereby cut off her chances of receiving financial compensation. But Mavoi Satum nonetheless considered the High Court decision that her husband would remain in jail a victory, facing what it calls the “stubbornness and lack of empathy of the rabbinical court.”But the rare High Court ruling revealed another aspect of these women’s struggle. Just before the Muslim woman recounted her personal experience and the strength she derived from seeing Mavoi Satum’s efforts – something that had led her to create a parallel organization in her society – the conference’s keynote speaker, former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, took the discourse in a different direction.In a detailed and informed lecture, Barak – who was responsible in large part for shaping the High Court’s policy – explained that in his view, the gap between a religious approach and a civil and egalitarian one was not bridgeable. Just like civil – or secular – matters are decided by the courts, solutions for religious issues need to be found within Jewish law.The question – how to solve the problem of women taken hostage by husbands – returned firstly, according to Barak, to the basic choice to which side a woman would want to bestow rights on her life, the secular or the religious.Today, many in modern Orthodox society admit openly that a separation between religion and state is not only acceptable but necessary, both for the protection of some civil rights (like women’s right to a divorce), and to keep religious life safe from unwanted interference. In fact, many in this community feel that instituting civil marriage would prevent many aspects of religion from being misused for political or power aims.Nonetheless, says Kahana-Dror, “I still believe that Jewish law is able to give fair solutions to most of the cases. Think of this – the ties that chain women to husbands who refuse to give them a divorce are a problem especially for religious and observant women; they are the ones who pay the highest price for their commitment to their faith. But we all know that non-religious women might not feel that committed [to following the laws preventing remarriage], and then the result of this situation [not forcing men to grant a divorce] may lead to cases of mamzerim [illegitimate children of a married woman] – something I’m sure no rabbi or rabbinical judge would want to happen.”Why, then, does the phenomenon of recalcitrant husbands persist? The Mavoi Satum director suggests that it could be a result of most rabbinical judges belonging to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, which is largely insular.“We should have more national-religious rabbinical judges. They are certainly more aware of the reality out there,” she says. “Since in any case, for religious women, only a divorce inside the religious system of Jewish law is acceptable, only a serious revision of the rabbinical courts’ attitude toward women’s status and rights can bring about a real, fair solution.”•
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