‘Chained women’ to have legal recourse against divorce-refusing husbands

The state will now be able to punish men who refuse to give their wives a religious divorce, also known as a get, in accordance with a new order by State’s Attorney Shai Nitzan, Channel 2 news reports.

In Jewish law, women denied a get, who are sometimes referred to as “chained women,” are unable to remarry, putting them in a difficult limbo state.

Religious courts and some more modern marriage contracts have sought to address this issue, freeing these women, even if their husbands refuse to offer the divorce. However, these women had no recourse in the legal system — until now.

“In the cases where rabbinic courts give an order demanding a get, we can now consider opening an investigation against the divorce-refuser and bringing him to trial for ignoring a legal order, under section 287 of the penal code,” Nitzan says in his new order.

“When a man is found guilty of the crime of ignoring a legal order by refusing to grant the get, the prosecution will sentence him to imprisonment for a real period of time,” he writes.