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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
An Indian woman accused her husband of forcing her to have ‘unnatural | |
sex.’ A judge said that’s not a crime in marriage | |
By Rhea Mogul, CNN | |
Updated: | |
9:32 PM EDT, Mon May 6, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
An Indian judge has dismissed a woman’s complaint that her husband | |
committed “unnatural sex,” because under law it’s not illegal for | |
a husband to force his wife to engage in sexual acts. | |
The ruling, made in the Madhya Pradesh High Court last week, shines a | |
light on a that doesn’t criminalize marital rape by a husband against | |
his wife, if she’s over age 18. | |
Campaigners have been trying to change the law for years, but they say | |
they’re up against conservatives who argue that state interference | |
could destroy the tradition of marriage in India. | |
A challenge to the law has been winding its way through the country’s | |
courtrooms, with the Delhi High Court delivering a split verdict on the | |
issue in 2022, prompting lawyers to file an appeal in the country’s | |
Supreme Court that is still waiting to be heard. | |
According to the Madhya Pradesh High Court order, the woman told | |
police her husband came to her house in 2019, soon after they were | |
married, and committed “unnatural sex,” under Section 377 of | |
India’s penal code. | |
The offense includes non-consensual “carnal intercourse against the | |
order of nature with any man, woman or animal,” and was historically | |
used to prosecute same sex couples who engaged in consensual sex, | |
before the Supreme Court homosexuality in 2018 | |
According to court documents, the woman alleged the act happened “on | |
multiple occasions,” and that her husband had threatened to divorce | |
her if she told anyone about it. She finally came forward after telling | |
her mother, who encouraged her to file a complaint in 2022, the court | |
heard. | |
The husband challenged his wife’s complaint in court, with his lawyer | |
claiming that any “unnatural sex” between the couple was not | |
criminal as they are married. | |
Delivering his judgement, Justice Gurpal Singh Ahluwalia pointed to | |
India’s marital rape exemption, which does not make it a crime for a | |
man to force sex on his wife, a relic of British rule more than 70 | |
years after independence. | |
“When rape includes insertion of penis in the mouth, urethra or anus | |
of a woman and if that act is committed with his wife, not below the | |
age of fifteen years, then consent of the wife becomes immaterial … | |
Marital rape has not been recognized so far,” the judge said. | |
India’s Supreme Court increased marital consent from the age of 15 to | |
18 in a landmark judgement in 2017. | |
The woman also accused her in-laws of mental and physical harassment | |
“on account of nonfulfilment of demand of dowry,” the court order | |
said. A trial is pending. | |
Ahluwalia’s remarks have once again raised questions over India’s | |
treatment of women, who continue to face the threat of violence and | |
discrimination in the deeply patriarchal society. | |
The world’s largest democracy of 1.4 billion has made significant | |
strides in enacting laws to better safeguard women, but lawyers and | |
campaigners say its reluctance to criminalize marital rape leaves women | |
without adequate protection. | |
Lawyer Indira Jaising, who is among several advocates fighting to | |
outlaw rape within marriage, said “many women will benefit” if the | |
exception is struck down. | |
She called for the courts to address the issue as a matter of urgency. | |
“The crime has been invisible. Today these women have nowhere to | |
go,” she said. “Fast-tracking the case will send a message to | |
everyone that violence against women matters.” | |
According to the 2019-2021 National Family Health Survey by the | |
Government of India, 17.6% of more than 100,000 women ages 15-49 | |
surveyed said they were unable to say no to their husband if they | |
didn’t want sex, while 11% thought husbands were justified in | |
hitting or beating his wife if she refused. | |
Women alleging rape in India have some avenues of potential legal | |
action against their husbands. | |
For example, they can seek a restraining order under civil law or | |
charges under Section 354 of India’s Penal Code, which covers sexual | |
assault short of rape, and Section 498A, which covers domestic | |
violence. | |
These laws are open to interpretation and judges can use them to impose | |
prison sentences for sexual assault in cases where a married woman has | |
alleged rape, but many don’t, lawyer Karuna Nundy previously told | |
CNN. | |
Many married women are also ignored when they try to file a police | |
complaint, a 2022 study showed. | |
The study examined records from three Mumbai public hospitals from 2008 | |
to 2017 and found that of 1,664 rape survivors, no rape cases were | |
filed by police. At least 18 of those women reported marital rape to | |
the police, including 10 women who alleged rape by a former partner or | |
husband. | |
Four women were explicitly told by police that they could not do | |
anything as marital rape was not a crime, the report said. | |
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