Weiss-Dodelson: Gital "the face of Agunot" discuss her views

Times of Israel  Update see below [...] Dodelson’s public fight for a religious divorce has changed her, especially in terms of how she might approach future relationships.

“It’s kind of too depressing for me to even think ahead to this, given my current situation, but I do now understand why people live together before marriage,” she says. “I’ve even told my mother that next time I like a guy, I’m going to live with him for five years first. Of course I was joking. I know what I would and wouldn’t do — and I would never do that.”

This is because one major thing she is not allowing her struggle to do is convince her to leave Orthodox Judaism.

“I’ve never blamed my religion for this situation. I blame Avrohom Meir for it.”

As she sees it, Judaism is not bad, but there are Jewish people who do bad things.

“I don’t want Avrohom Meir to ruin my religion for me,” she asserts.

Other than finding herself an agunah, Dodelson claims that she has always felt empowered as an Orthodox woman. However, she is uncomfortable with the “feminist” label.

“Being a feminist is beyond what I am putting my energy into right now,” she states.[...]

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Guest post by Outraged rebuttal to Gital's apparent belief that living together before marriage helps prevent divorce

Gital is mistaken: Couples cohabiting before marriage are MORE likely to divorce, not less

Marriages are successful only when each of the spouses believes that marriage is a commitment, not just an easily reversible choice, and works hard to make the marriage successful.

But Gital apparently believes that the true problem is that she and Avraham Meir didn't move in together before marriage, in which case she presumably would have known that he was not for her and would not have married him.

NY Times Marry
NY Times: Downside of cohabiting before marriage

"...About two-thirds said they believed that moving in together before marriage was a good way to avoid divorce.

But that belief is contradicted by experience. Couples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to be less satisfied with their marriages — and more likely to divorce — than couples who do not. These negative outcomes are called the cohabitation effect.

Researchers originally attributed the cohabitation effect to selection, or the idea that cohabitors were less conventional about marriage and thus more open to divorce. As cohabitation has become a norm, however, studies have shown that the effect is not entirely explained by individual characteristics like religion, education or politics. Research suggests that at least some of the risks may lie in cohabitation itself.