Marriage and Divorce Laws
Further information: Marriage in IsraelSince the establishment of the state, Israeli law gives jurisdiction for matters of personal status, including marriage and divorce, to the rabbinical courts. In these courts, which operate according to halakha (Torah law), a Jewish woman is allowed to initiate divorce proceedings, but her husband must give his consent to make the divorce final. If the husband disappears or refuses to grant the divorce, the wife is considered an "agunah" (lit. "chained woman") and may not remarry or give birth to halakhically legitimate children. Rabbinical tribunals may, and sometimes do, sanction a husband who refused divorce, but still do not grant a divorce without his consent.
A Muslim woman may petition for and receive a divorce through the Sharia courts without her husband's consent under certain conditions, and a marriage contract may provide for other circumstances in which she may obtain a divorce without her husband's consent. A Muslim man may divorce his wife without her consent and without petitioning the court.
Christians may seek official separations or divorces, depending on the denomination, through ecclesiastical courts.
Read more about this topic: Israeli Women
Famous quotes containing the words marriage, divorce and/or laws:
“We lov’d, and we lov’d, as long as we could,
Till our love was lov’d out in us both;
But our marriage is dead, when the pleasure is fled:
‘Twas pleasure first made it an oath.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“Anybody who’s been through a divorce will tell you that at one point ... they’ve thought murder. The line between thinking murder and doing murder isn’t that major.”
—Oliver Stone (b. 1946)
“With a generous endowment of motherhood provided by legislation, with all laws against voluntary motherhood and education in its methods repealed, with the feminist ideal of education accepted in home and school, and with all special barriers removed in every field of human activity, there is no reason why woman should not become almost a human thing. It will be time enough then to consider whether she has a soul.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)