Israeli women seeking to annul marriages are often at a disadvantage to their husbands, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a women's-rights expert, said in her keynote address for the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute's "Day of Learning on Women, Gender Equality and Jewish Law in Israel" Tuesday at the Women's Study Research Center.As part of a project on gender, culture, religion and law, the day focused on the difficulty Jewish Israeli women face in obtaining divorces.

Halperin-Kaddari, a member of the United Nations' Expert Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, said that in Israel, divorce is not a civil matter, but a religious one in which men must also give their consent for a divorce. A man seeking a divorce doesn't need the consent of his wife.

"It is not an optimistic situation," Halperin-Kaddari said.

Following the screening of two films on the topic-Mekudeshet (Sentenced to Marriage) and Cohen's Wife-a panel consisting of Haperin-Kaddari, Rabbi Susan Fedrick, a senior research fellow at the Mandel Institute for Studies in Jewish Education, and Lisa Fishbayn, the director of the project, responded to audience questions.

Sarabeth Reingold '07, who attended the lecture, said she questioned the intentions of divorce law in Israel. "The point of the laws is to protect the women, not make [discrimination] worse.