You will only be legally divorced from the date that the decree absolute is made in court proceedings, not when a religious divorce, for example a declaration from the Sharia Council or Get from the Beth Din is granted. Whilst you do not need a religious divorce in order to be legally divorced, some religions require a religious divorce to also take place if you are to be recognised as no longer being married within your faith.
If you had a religious marriage and your partner refuses to give you a religious divorce, the English courts in England and Wales can put pressure on your partner to agree to it, for example by preventing the legal divorce being finalised or finalising the financial agreements between you until the religious divorce has been granted.
Read how others coped:
Nathalie
Nathalie
'We had a traditional Jewish wedding and our faith has always been important to us, especially to me.
So there are two sides to this divorce: the civil law which is the bit the solicitors can sort out - getting a decree and splitting our home and so on. But then there's the religious side too. In Jewish law, we will not be divorced unless we have a Get from the Beth Din. That's not such an issue for my husband Daniel, but I will not be able to remarry in the synagogue if we don't do this. Daniel's made an appointment for us to talk to the Rabbi. I’m thankful that he’s agreed that although we can't be happy together any more that doesn't mean that we can’t have happy futures with other people.'
