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Alimony - Dilemmas and Thoughts
Representing Arab women in alimony claims under religious law in Israeli religious and public family courts poses a dilemma for a feminist lawyer, due to the highly patriarchal language and gender-traditions surrounding alimony laws. In three major religions in Israel (Islam, Christianity and Druze), under religious law acknowledged by the State, a woman has the right for alimony as long as she is married and while she stays at the husbands house. The alimony is conditioned upon obedience, in particular, upon not leaving the house without the husband`s consent. In order to avoid payment of alimony, men often claim that the wife had violated the condition of obedience. On the one hand, the client is in need of the alimony, but on the other hand, the traditional role-model applied in the laws surrounding alimony contradicts feminist concepts. Shirin Batshon-Khoury, Coordinator of Kayan`s Legal Department, writes about the dilemmas in representing women in alimony cases in the name of a feminist organization.
