The Chained Women: When Religion and the State Intersect
When Israel was conceived as a Jewish state, questions arose over the division between the religious and the secular. Judaism is grounded in halakha, a detailed set of laws which guides observant Jews, but debate continues over whether Israel should adopt these religious laws to govern a largely secular population. Contradictions exist between the ancient laws and modern ideals, especially regarding women’s rights. Most developed states strive to enact laws that treat men and women fairly, but in Israel, where the rabbinical courts still adhere to ancient Jewish law, women’s rights suffer. Divorce laws in particular give men excessive power over their wives, resulting in large numbers of women being denied their basic human right to marriage and family.
According to halakhic law, a marriage can only be terminated in two ways: the death of a spouse, or the giving of a get. A get is a formal statement of divorce which can only be granted by the husband to his wife, and he can refuse to give a get indefinitely. Until a get is both given and accepted, the wife remains an agunah, a chained woman. She cannot remarry, and any child born to an agunah becomes a mamzer, a bastard child (Haut 17). A husband who withholds a get is guilty of violating Article Sixteen of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the right to marriage and family), but is not violating halakhic law and has the support of the rabbinical courts in Israel.
Usually giving and accepting a get is a routine part of divorce proceedings in Israel, but a get is sometimes used as a bargaining tool during a divorce. A man can refuse to release a “chained woman” until he receives a divorce settlement he prefers. If she refuses to accept an unfair or demeaning settlement, then she remains an agunah. According to the Israel Women’s Network, “estimates of the number of ‘anchored’ women in Israel today vary, the rabbinate claiming that there are ‘only’ some 500, while women’s organizations claim that there are thousands” (IWN).
The reading, The Burden of Eve, sheds light upon the mistreatment and inequality women especially in Israel are faced with, brought upon by religious standards and the influence of Judaism and the cultural following of Orthodox fundamentalism. Alice Shalvi notes that religious based cultural beliefs drive inequality onto the lives of women, creating standards of modesty and gender roles that must be explicitly followed, enforced by the common threat of violence by men. The religious driven inequality of women as noted by Shalvi, translates into women remaining in roles as homemakers, and therefore separated from opportunities that male counterparts may be granted. Shalvi also reports however, that modernization has created a push against common ultra-Orthodox viewpoints that reside in the currently extremely conservative state of
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...netti, Louis, and Scott Eyman. “The Talkie Era.” Flashback: A Brief History of Film. Ed. Leah Jewell. 4th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. 140-145. Print.
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