Video version of this segment here: https://youtu.be/_H1hjrS2MLo

A chained wife is a woman who is chained to a man in marriage, even after the relationship ends. This can happen in Jewish marriages when one partner refuses to give or accept the Get, the religious divorce. Malky is a Hasidic woman in Kiryas Joel who has been a chained wife for 4 years. In recent weeks the activist Flatbush Girl has spearheaded a campaign to pressure Malky’s husband to give a Get, by protesting in the strict and insular village of Kiryas Joel, by entering synagogues, and most controversially, by calling for a sex strike. 

In this segment, I talk to Keshet Starr, the CEO of the organization ORA, or Organization for the Resolution of Agunot. We talk about how the problem of chained wives comes to happen, how these problems are unique in insular communities, how it impacts the children, the types of pressures that are applied, and more.

Some links related to this segment: ORA’s website: https://www.getora.org ORA’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oraagunot/ Keshet Starr’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keshetstarr/ Flatbush Girl (Adina Miles)’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flatbushgirl/ Thanks for watching!