[PhillipHer]

I don't know. I know of Orthodox women who have after being treated badly by their own communities.

[Slonopotam845]

Those are not halachic issues, they are criminal issues. I mean things like divorce decrees, custody, inheritance, generally the kinds of family law issues you would see every day in a civil family court.

But in some communities like the Satmars, they can be pretty cruel, borderline criminal if they don't like you. So you have to look at it on a case by case basis.

[Peptobismol]

I remember at my Yeshiva as a kid seeing my friends disciplined by the rabbi with a swift slap to the face. (it was also the only time in life I had soap put in my mouth). In all honesty, I'd like to see a bit more of that in our public schools.

hmmmm, first weed, now soap and face-slapping: you have some interesting preferences, minus.

[Big A]

Is he a liberal? I am just suprised that Liberals accept these "conservatives" as part of their own. These people have absolutely nothing LIBERAL to offer.

[S.T.D.]

But they still can't break civil law. In other words it's nonbinding. To me this looks like halachic courts that arbitrate a Get. Of course there are problems with those as well...but they don't break the civil code. They're basically an arbiter that defines how one remains a part of one's own religious community. If women are being abused, sharia or not isn't going to change that.