agunot

Noun

agunah (plural agunahs or agunot or agunoth)

1. A Jewish woman who is trapped in a marriage, either because her husband has disappeared or because he will not grant her a gett.
   • A woman may become an agunah either through her husband's accidental disappearance or through his willful desertion, although accidental disappearance constitutes the main source of difficulty.1986, Menachem M. Brayer, The Jewish Woman in Rabbinic Literature, page 187