The Jews sure know how to suck the fun out of the Olympics by declaring today International Agunah Day. An agunah is a woman who is "locked"- stuck in a marriage because her husband refuses to grant her a divorce. Of course she can't just get one herself cause that would mean that she is NOT a piece of property.
There are many women like this, languishing for years as they eagerly await their husbands' deaths or for liberal thinking to prevail in the Orthodox rabbinical establishment. I think it's more prudent to pray for the man's death. We're more likely to see a solution to global warming before the rabbinic mainstream warms up to the idea that the problem isn't recalcitrant husbands but the inequity at the root of the law. Men and women should be able to get divorces without permission from the other. It shouldn't come as a result of the will/generosity of one to the other.
Probably unwittingly in honor of International Agunah Day, Slate ran this article about a Muslim woman's failure to properly read her marriage contract before her wedding day. It's quite a lovely piece of writing and shows the way another community sometimes doesn't fully respect the rights of one half of its population.
0 comments:
Post a Comment