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Examples

  • But despite widespread public outcry, her "agunah" (literally "chained") status remained in force until earlier this week when Mr Elias, 86, died.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • t know what an "agunah" was, nor would a female friend be likely to offer Larry solemn consolation as follows: "It's not always easy, deciphering what God is trying to tell you."

    unknown title 2009

  • Circulating this agunah pin, and publishing this ad in The Jewish Week, were efforts that attempted to create public awareness.

    Rivka Haut: Statement 2010

  • From the 1980s to the present day, many agunah activists have tried to remedy this situation.

    Rivka Haut: Statement 2010

  • While these attempts did much to increase knowledge about agunah agony, this unjust situation is still widespread.

    Rivka Haut: Statement 2010

  • (It should be noted that women still do not have the right to initiate divorce within Judaism, the source of the problem of the agunah, the chained wife who cannot remarry.)

    Paula Hyman: Statement 2010

  • It tells of a trader who “married Rahel and went to eastern Spain, where he lived for ten years and took a second wife, leaving his first wife an agunah” (Leiter, 83 – 84).

    Halakhic Decisions on Family Matters in Medieval Jewish Society. 2009

  • Because religious sanctions are no longer sufficiently powerful in all cases to pressure a recalcitrant husband to give a get, the agunah [chained wife] has sought state intervention to pressure husbands to give divorces.

    Law in the United States. 2009

  • In another directive ruling, Justice Procaccia limited the authority of the rabbinical court, which sought to prevent the departure from Israel of a citizen of another country who had come on a visit, because he refused to grant his wife a GET and left her an agunah.

    Ayala Procaccia. 2009

  • Until this ritual takes place, the widow cannot remarry and she remains an agunah (“anchored” woman).

    Caribbean Islands and the Guianas. 2009

  • If she doesn’t receive it, she is considered an “agunah”, a chained woman, because she remains “chained” to her former marriage.

    ‘Unchain your wife’: the Orthodox women shining a light on ‘get’ refusal Caren Chesler 2022

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  • GETTING THE “GET”: AN INVISIBLE PRISON BETWEEN MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE (The Brooklyn Ink, December 11, 2009)

    Hannah Nagila’s sons are 3 and 5 years old, and they already know what an agunah is. They have told their mother what their father tells them: “Daddy says you’re going to be an agunah until you pay back every cent.”

    Agunah is the term for a Jewish woman chained to a dead marriage. Under Jewish religious law, a husband must issue his wife an official bill of divorce, known as a get, to end an Orthodox marriage. The central provision of the get is simple: “You are hereby permitted to all men.” Without a get, the woman is branded an adulteress as soon as she enters another relationship. She cannot remarry under Jewish law, and any child from another man is labeled a mamzer, or bastard child. A mamzer can only marry another mamzer or a convert.

    Historically, agunah cases were the result of a husband’s death, disappearance, or mental insanity. Today, they more often stem from vindictive husbands who exploit the get as a form of control. The get becomes a bargaining chip—leveraged for large sums of money or custody of the children.

    December 12, 2009

  • A woman abandoned but not divorced, and unable to remarry (a legal term in Jewish law). Hebrew, literally "chained."

    November 21, 2011