Abstract
A Jewish woman who remarries without receiving a Get from her husband is considered as an adulteress and any children born of this relationship will be considered Mamzerim – a status akin to bastardy. This stigma does not apply to a man who remarries without giving his wife a Get. This article looks at two potential solutions to the problem of the Agunah (the chained or anchored wife). The first focuses on the scope for a solution within Jewish law and considers why the religious authorities fail to use the solutions which exist. The second considers the prospect of State intervention and whether it is the responsibility of the State to rescue a religious minority from its own self-imposed problems. The problem is compounded by the requirement for Jews who live outside Israel to have their marriages sanctioned by the civil authorities and to be similarly dissolved by the civil process. The article poses the question if the Jewish religious authorities would be prepared to have their laws subjected to independent scrutiny.