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I do ketubot, and one of my rules these days is, if you don't do something to prevent the bride becoming an agunah, either a pre-nup or a clause within the ketubah, I won't do your ketubah. I see this as something ketubah artists can do to help Judaism treat Jews more humanely.
The interesting thing I'm noticing is, when I explain this to potential clients, the sort who would self-identify as "halakhic,"* they very often respond "It's okay, our wedding wouldn't be regarded as valid by the Orthodox anyway."
By which presumably they mean "Iggun is only an Orthodox problem."
Why?
Are they thinking "Only Orthodox people are shitty enough to behave like that"? Because that's rubbish.
Are they thinking "Non-Orthodox Judaism is egalitarian, so doesn't have that problem?" Because halakhic egalitarian Judaism does have that problem, actually; it keeps quiet about it, but it's true.
Are they thinking "Egalitarian Jews don't care about halakha so it doesn't matter?"
What are they thinking?
What do you think?
* edit. Non-halakhic Jews, that I can understand, since if you don't buy into the halakhic system in its entirety you don't necessarily need to worry about gittin. I still request some sort of agunah provision, for awareness purposes in the broader context, but I understand why a Jew who didn't consider halakha ultimately binding wouldn't be personally worried about iggun.
The interesting thing I'm noticing is, when I explain this to potential clients, the sort who would self-identify as "halakhic,"* they very often respond "It's okay, our wedding wouldn't be regarded as valid by the Orthodox anyway."
By which presumably they mean "Iggun is only an Orthodox problem."
Why?
Are they thinking "Only Orthodox people are shitty enough to behave like that"? Because that's rubbish.
Are they thinking "Non-Orthodox Judaism is egalitarian, so doesn't have that problem?" Because halakhic egalitarian Judaism does have that problem, actually; it keeps quiet about it, but it's true.
Are they thinking "Egalitarian Jews don't care about halakha so it doesn't matter?"
What are they thinking?
What do you think?
* edit. Non-halakhic Jews, that I can understand, since if you don't buy into the halakhic system in its entirety you don't necessarily need to worry about gittin. I still request some sort of agunah provision, for awareness purposes in the broader context, but I understand why a Jew who didn't consider halakha ultimately binding wouldn't be personally worried about iggun.