Agunah

An aguna or agunah (, plural: , ʿaḡunoṯ) is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her marriage as determined by traditional halakha (Jewish law). The classic case is a man who has left on a journey and has not returned or has gone into battle and is missing in action. It is used as a borrowed term to refer to a woman whose husband refuses or is unable to grant her a divorce (which requires a document known as a get).

For a divorce to be effective, halakha requires a man to grant his wife a get of his own free will. Without a get, no new marriage will be recognized, and any child she might have with another man would be considered a mamzer (illegitimate). It is sometimes possible for a woman to receive special dispensation from a posek (halakhic authority), called a heter agunah, based on a complex decision supported by substantial evidence that her husband is presumed dead, but this cannot be applied if the husband is alive.