This extract depicts a woman's physical, emotional, psychological and legal struggles after futile attempts to have her religious marriage dissolved. As it turns out, she is forced to remain married against her will. This is a situation which evidently affects every aspect of her life. This peculiar situation is also known as marital captivity.

In contemporary times, the termination of a marriage has become an inevitable truth for an ever-increasing number of relationships. Divorce is generally considered and experienced as an undesirable outcome of the marriage and it is often followed by a tedious time and money consuming process. In many cases, the dissolution of the marriage is eventually realised. However, in certain instances, as illustrated in the case above, one or both couples may not be able to terminate the marriage by way of divorce. The dissolution of a marriage can be hindered by both legal and non-legal factors, such as financial restrictions, social and emotional pressure to remain married, fear of losing a residency permit, religion, and so on. This contribution examines situations in which religion forms a barrier to the dissolution of a marriage.