The “Gett Naked” campaign, led by activist Adina Sash, is using anonymous images and public pressure to demand a religious divorce for an agunah and force the issue back onto the community agenda
A growing online protest campaign is drawing attention to the plight of agunot — Jewish women trapped in marriages because their husbands refuse to grant them a religious divorce.
The campaign, called “Gett Naked,” seeks to pressure gett refusers by publishing revealing photos submitted by ultra-Orthodox women in the United States. Hundreds of images have been posted on Instagram in recent weeks, most of them anonymously.
The initiative is led by social activist Adina Sash, who has worked for years in the United States on behalf of agunot and women denied a gett. Sash runs the platform collecting and publishing the images and messages sent by participants. Each woman decides her own level of exposure, according to her boundaries around modesty and her personal sense of mission.
In an interview with ynet, ultra-Orthodox social activist Tzipi Lavi said the campaign was sparked by an especially severe case.
“In this case, there is a much more extreme story than what they are used to seeing,” Lavi said. “This refuser has not only been refusing for five years while saying his wife is crazy and insane, but he also encourages and guides other men on how they can refuse a gett. That is why this is so infuriating and why it has sparked such a large protest against him.”
Lavi said the campaign’s broader aim is to force the issue of gett refusal onto the communal agenda, especially among men.
“In the end, the goal of these women is to get their husbands, the men at home with them, interested in this issue,” she said. “Their experience is that gett refusal has become a women’s issue, a women’s problem. Their goal is to wake up the community to address this issue, to wake up the men and make them care.”
According to Lavi, the campaign has already succeeded in putting agunot back in the headlines.
“I think in this case their real and central goal is to obtain this gett, while also raising awareness and discussion around the issue of agunot in general,” she said. “This has been going on for several weeks, and for several weeks it has been the hot topic. It has not come off the agenda.”
Lavi said most participants submit their images anonymously to Sash, who posts them along with their accompanying messages.
“First, it is important to note that they do this anonymously,” Lavi said. “The woman uploading the photos is Adina Sash, the social activist leading the campaign. They send her the photo privately with an accompanying message, and she takes a screenshot and posts both together, including on a separate page.”
Lavi said Sash has faced significant pressure over the campaign, but has responded by publicly exposing threats or intimidation attempts.
“She absorbs a lot of pressure,” Lavi said. “She also posts everything. You cannot threaten or pressure her without her immediately posting it with your name.”
Lavi compared the campaign to a 2022 sex strike by ultra-Orthodox women in the United States, which helped one woman obtain a gett.
“That actually worked,” she said. “Three months after that protest, Malky Berkowitz received her gett, and that is the hope now as well.”