Many members of the Jewish community are unaware of the challenges facing women denied a get, and the problem is getting worse, according to a leading expert.

Sarah Anticoni, a mediator and divorce lawyer, said there was “growing ignorance among large sections of the community that this issue does not affect them or they just don’t care about it at all”.

But it was “not just an ultra-Orthodox issue, or something that is a women’s problem,” she said.

Ms Anticoni is chairing a workshop aiming to raise awareness next week.

Entitled A Communal Response to The Challenges of Agunah: Action and Education, the event will be open to both men and women.

Ms Anticoni, who works at the Charles Russell Speechlys law firm, said she will explore how the community, including rabbis, batei din, can do more to help agunah – the “chained women” who have been denied a religious divorce by their husbands.

She will also examine how civil law operates in this area.

She said: “Men often withhold a get because they think it can help them keep access to children or money. But the law can help them in those situations. There just needs to be better awareness around it.”

The workshop, hosted by the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance UK, will take place at the Maurice and Vivenne Wohl Campus in Golders Green, north-west London, on September 13. Entrance is free.