The Agunah Problem in Australia — Legal Help When a Husband Refuses the Get

Understanding the constraint

Halacha requires a get to be granted voluntarily by the husband. A get given under physical coercion or genuine duress may be invalid — meaning that even if you went through the ceremony, you would still be halachically married. This doctrinal constraint is the root of why direct compulsion does not work.

It also means that the strategies that do work are indirect — creating incentives for the husband to choose to grant the get, rather than forcing him.

Beth Din pressure mechanisms

The Melbourne Beth Din (and Beth Din institutions in other Australian cities) have a structured escalation path. The first step is usually a summons (hazmana) — a formal request to attend the Beth Din. If the husband refuses to attend, the Beth Din may issue a second and third summons.

If the husband still refuses, the Beth Din may issue a siruv — a formal declaration that he is in contempt of Beth Din. A siruv can carry significant communal consequences. Some Orthodox synagogues will not call a husband under siruv to the Torah; some Jewish organisations may refuse to host him; community awareness can affect business and social relationships.

Beyond siruv, historical halacha provides for further escalations including harchakot d'Rabbeinu Tam (a structured set of communal restrictions). These are rarely invoked but remain available in egregious cases.

Family Court tools

Australian Family Courts cannot directly order a get. They can, however, take get refusal into account in property settlement under section 79 of the Family Law Act. The Court has discretion to consider any matter relevant to a just and equitable property division, including the parties' conduct and the future needs of each party.

Where a husband is using get refusal as financial leverage — for example, trying to extract a more favourable property settlement in exchange for granting the get — the conduct can be relevant to the Court's section 75(2) analysis. The Court is increasingly aware of the agunah problem and willing to give it weight.

In some cases, costs orders can also be made against a recalcitrant husband for conduct that has unnecessarily prolonged proceedings.

Practical strategies

Different matters call for different strategies. In some matters, the most effective step is to file a civil divorce application and use the timing of the divorce as leverage for the get to be arranged concurrently. In others, the strategy is to bring a property settlement to the point of orders being made and use the consent process to require the get as a condition of settlement.

In matters where there is a halachic prenuptial agreement in place, the maintenance clause may be triggered — creating a financial incentive that often resolves the issue quickly.

Community-level engagement can also matter. Where the husband is part of an observant community, the views of his rabbi, his family, and his social network are often more effective than any legal pressure. Beth Din-led mediation can sometimes resolve matters that pure legal action cannot.

What I do

In an agunah matter, my role is to coordinate the civil-law side — the divorce application, property settlement, any parenting issues — with the Beth Din process, in a way that maximises the legitimate pressure on the husband to grant the get without crossing the halachic line into coercion that would invalidate it.

Every matter is different and I will not pretend that every agunah situation resolves. Some men will refuse a get for years. But many resolve faster and better when there is a coordinated legal-religious strategy rather than a series of isolated steps.