Senior rabbis have warned that they will refuse to grant a religious divorce to any woman who initiates a criminal prosecution against her husband for “coercive and controlling behaviour” under the new Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
The legislation allows a spouse to apply to the civil courts to force a get under “secular law”.
A letter from the Federation Beit Din says that because a get has to be given “entirely of their own free will” by a husband, if a prosecution is initiated by an aguna (chained wife) then it will be halachically “almost impossible” for the wife to receive a get.
The Federation of Synagogues Dayans say that “a get given under duress, whether due to physical threats, financial threats or the threat of imprisonment, is absolutely invalid as a matter of halachah (Jewish law), and the couple would remain married to one another, notwithstanding the granting of a get”.
