Rape has always been considered one of the most detestable acts committed on a woman in all societies. Justice Krishna Iyer in a famous judgment said “When a woman is ravished, what is inflicted is not mere physical injury but the deep sense of some deathless shame… judicial response to Human Rights cannot be blunted by legal bigotry.” This much abhorred topic however got a special mention in International News recently. The Parliament of Afghanistan recently passed a Shia Law (the Shia community in Afghanistan that has its separate Shia Laws) that indirectly decriminalises marital rape giving the power to a husband not to feed her wife, starve her and sustain her if she refuses to copulate with him. It also says that a woman desirous of working can only work at certain institutions that too only with the permission of certain male members in her family.
Sometimes one just sits back at developments like this and hopelessly wonders what kind of senseless insecurity grips people to even begin to think on such lines. What kind of a world do we live in? While in one part of the world we are fighting positive wars, that for liberalism, that for uplifting all kinds of censorship and now also decriminalising homosexuality among consenting adults and in another part of the world we have laws being carved out such as this one. In fact, Muslim clerics are justifying that if a woman has the right to say "no" to her husband’s sexual advances then he also has to right to deny her food and sustenance. As I understand it, Shia population in
This in fact reminds me of Khaled Husseini's A thousand Splendid Suns in which the protagonist tries again and again to run away from the brutalities of her husband but every time someone or the other grabs her only to be mercilessly beaten up by her husband for venturing out without his consent. Such laws, such fundamentalist attitude and such Talibanisation is nothing but a way to make sure that women don't even think of the rights enjoyed by people all across the world. One feels so helpless listening to stories like these. What freedom, what world, what beauty, what brains do we talk about? I may be getting too caught up here but I sincerely hope that International Organisations would create a major stir and pressure the Afghan Government enough to scrap such an abhorrent law.
But this is not where the discussion ends. For we can't just look at one sect and their laws in isolation while living under a delusion of security in our own land. Rape laws in countries like
Though we do boast of the Domestic Violence Act 2005 but even that calls for a through scrutiny and amendments as it makes marital rape a part of domestic violence, thereby considerably reducing the punishment from what one gets for committing rape otherwise. There is no clear law that makes marital rape a crime equivalent to a non-marital rape. Moreover, there are such lacunae in our legal system that on one hand penalises any sexual intercourse with a girl aged below 16 years (consent is immaterial because a minor's consent is no consent in the eyes of the law) as rape and on the other hand marital intercourse with one's wife above 15 years is completely legal (see S. 375 IPC below) which basically implies that sexual intercourse with an unmarried girl of 16 years is rape, while that with a married 15 year old is clearly exempted from the Section dealing with rape. It is an interesting piece of information that
Continuing on the same lines, it is interesting to note that a man can claim divorce on the basis of his wife not consenting to have sexual relations with him (i.e. if she refuses to give him 'access' to her body) but if a wife wants to speak up against a rape committed on her by her husband, the law nowhere is clearly holds it as rape! There is, it seems, nothing that stops a man from expressing his claim to sexual gratification as a matter of right over his wife in a marital relationship. It is thus imperative that we sensitise the younger as well as the present generations about individual rights and how to respect these rights. A rape is a rape, period. And whether it is
encouragement emanating from something that i did..! :)
ReplyDeletenice 'little' post dear..!
but i must confess that apart from the basic moral things i didn't knew a thing about the IPCs..
are u a lawyer ? because i think a greater part of this post talks about legality of the matter.. lawyers do have a reputation of being loquacious.. don't they ??
:) thanks! I am not a lawyer .. just a law student as of now and that's why conversant with the legal jargon.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about lawyers.. going through a strange phase.. I am beginning to hate lawyers.. the very professionals I rub shoulders with! I hope its a passing phase. But that would call for another post, innit? heh
But good job you too. I enjoyed penning all this down. Keep up.
beginning to hate lawyers ? hehe.. happens.. even i went through things like that but fortunately or unfortunately i never came out of it.. n besides all that i've come into touch with a lawyer(or a to be lawyer) for the first time..
ReplyDeleteI read this and the other article that inspired you to write this, and all I could do is cry ...
ReplyDelete... why, when this is supposed to be the age of technology, humanity is still in such a primitive state of being?
Nothing wrong with being a lawyer, it's the laws they are forced to uphold that is the problem --- it's either for or against, the pros and the cons --- two sides to every coin and then there is the in between that one can manipulate --- and so on, and so on.
Being raped physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and economically; more than one time, beginning at birth by family members I am appall at how women, the procreators, are treated.
I tell you this, I am glad to be at the end of my days, as I feel so helpless -- and I cry for my children and especially my grandchildren, but what can I do when the sisterhood of women, as a whole, is so very divided not only by country, but also by culture. WE are the majority, yet we can not fight the tyranny of our sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, uncles, nephews, and cousins. We are treated less than human -- thank God, if their is such a being, for the internet. Here, at least we can communicate.
Sorry I ranted here .. I just feel so sick and helpless about this and my heart aches for my sisters across the sea, yet I am in no position to help them.
:) we all have our sad moments and we all live through them. I know you shall feel better soon and shall have lovely tales to tell to us. :)
ReplyDelete