Voice of Silence on Violence

Laws which allow the perpetrator impunity: • Deny justice to the complainant • Send a signal that rape is not a serious crime and can be talked or bargained away • Allow women to be traded as possessions between families • Remove control of her choices and future from the survivor and risk her continuing abuse • Perpetuate the stigma of shame attaching to the complainant rather than the perpetrator • Exploit the situation of those with few resources, especially in relation to those with greater societal power

Sexual violence occurs throughout the world. Although in most countries there has been little research conducted on the problem, available data suggest that in some countries nearly one in four women may experience sexual violence by an intimate partner, and up to one-third of adolescent girls report their first sexual experience as being forced. Sexual violence has a profound impact on physical and mental health. As well as causing physical injury, it is associated with an increased risk of a range of sexual and reproductive health problems, with both immediate and long-term consequences. Its impact on mental health can be as serious as its physical impact, and may be equally long lasting. Deaths following sexual violence may be as a result of suicide, HIV infection or murder – the latter occurring either during a sexual assault or subsequently, as a murder of ‘‘honour’’. Sexual violence can also profoundly affect the social wellbeing of victims; individuals may be stigmatized and os...

A wide range of sexually violent acts can take place in different circumstances and settings. These include, for example: — rape within marriage or dating relationships; — rape by strangers; — systematic rape during armed conflict; — unwanted sexual advances or sexual harassment, including demanding sex in return for favours; — sexual abuse of mentally or physically disabled people; — sexual abuse of children; — forced marriage or cohabitation, including the marriage of children; — denial of the right to use contraception or to adopt other measures to protect against sexually transmitted diseases; — forced abortion; — violent acts against the sexual integrity of women, including female genital mutilation and obligatory inspections for virginity; — forced prostitution and trafficking of people for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Sexual violence is defined as: any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work. Coercion can cover a whole spectrum of degrees of force. Apart from physical force, it may involve psychological intimidation, blackmail or other threats – for instance, the threat of physical harm, of being dismissed from a job or of not obtaining a job that is sought. It may also occur when the person aggressed is unable to give consent – for instance, while drunk, drugged, asleep or mentally incapable of understanding the situation. Sexual violence includes rape, defined as physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration – even if slight – of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object. The attempt to do so is known as attempted rape. Rap...

The recent landmark rulings by Supreme Court on Privacy Judgement and Triple Talaq are incomplete without repealing the draconian Section 377 and Criminalising Marital Rape. Rape laws in India continue with the patriarchal mindset of considering women to be the property of men post marriage with no autonomy or agency over their bodies. Marital rape has been impeached in approximately 106 countries and is documented as a desecration of human rights. Among the 106 countries, 32 consider it as a special criminal offence, and the remaining 74 include it in the general rape provisions. Even though many countries around the world have taken such strong and progressive steps, India is one of the 36 countries where it is still not a criminal offence and is untouched by the lawmakers of our country.

Despite the brutal gangrape and death of ‘Nirbhaya’, the massive protests, the uproar in parliament and the Justice Verma Committee (which did in fact recommend criminalising marital rape), India’s parliamentarians just could not find it in them to treat married and unmarried women equally, on matters of rape. Married women have been made a special category in the law. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013, which parliament quickly passed after the death of Nirbhaya, left intact the Indian Penal Code exception on matters of rape of married women. “Exception 2.—Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape,” says the law, while explaining the various instances of: “A man is said to commit “rape” if he…” In the event of the law denying the reality of sexual violence within marriages, “Married women only have the option of using section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which lays down provisions on cruelty, if ...

Sexual violence of course gets progressively worse if the husband is an alcoholic – 66% of married women experienced physical or sexual violence when “husband gets drunk often”. Manipur fares the worst among all states in terms of women who have said they have been victims of physical, sexual or emotional violence. 55% of married Manipuri women have been victims to these kinds of violence. Sikkim has the lowest number of victims at 3.5%. A very small percentage of women seek any kind of help for the violence they have experienced. Victims of sexual violence are the most reluctant to seek out help – only 10% of married victims of sexual violence seek help.

In the category of spousal violence, the National Health and Family Survey records both sexual and non sexual violence. The survey has looked at married women in the age group of 15-49. The highest form of non-sexual violence comes from men slapping women – 25% of women surveyed said they have been slapped. In all, 12% of married women said they have been pushed, shaken and have had things thrown at them. 10% said the husbands have pulled their arms or hair. Another 7.5% said they have been punched with fists or objects and 7.% said they have been kicked, dragged and beaten up. More so, 1.5% said they have been choked or burnt and 0.8% said they have been threatened or attacked with guns, knives and other weapons.

From the small number of survey responses that provided further information as to the circumstances under which marriage may be used as settlement, we learnt the following: In Greece, it appears that marriage as settlement is permitted for “seduction” of a child. Where the perpetrator and the survivor get married, the criminal prosecution lapses and is declared inadmissible. In the case of future annulment of the marriage the prosecution is re-opened. In Iraq, if the perpetrator lawfully marries the victim, any legal action becomes void and any investigation or other procedure is discontinued. If a sentence has already been passed, then the sentence will be quashed. In Jordan marriage as settlement is permitted unless the perpetrator divorces the survivor without just cause within 5 years of the of fence, in which case the punishment for the crime will be implemented. In Kuwait, if the perpetrator legally marries his victim with the permission of her guardian and the guardian ...

1)Laws allowing the perpetrator to walk free on reaching some form of “settlement”, including by marrying the victim 2)Laws framed in terms of morality rather than bodily integrity, thereby perpetuating a cycle of violence and discrimination 3)Laws that explicitly permit rape in marriage, even of children 4)Laws permitting judicial discretion to reduce charges or define evidence based on stereotyped assessment of the complainant’s behavior 5)Laws that fail to recognize true consent is impossible in situations of dependency or extreme vulnerability 6)Laws or practices inhibiting investigation or prosecution of sexual assault 7)Laws requiring witness corroboration and other overly burdensome evidence

Around the world, rape and sexual abuse are everyday violent occurrences -- affecting close to a billion women and girls over their lifetimes. However, despite the pervasiveness of these crimes, laws are insufficient, inconsistent, not systematically enforced and, sometimes, promote violence. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. According to UNICEF, around 120 million girls worldwide, just over 1 in 10, have experienced “forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts” at some point in their lives. Everyone reading this report is likely to have either survived, or to know someone who has experienced, some form of sexual violence. By any measure, gender-based violence, including sexual violence, is being inflicted on women and girls in epidemic proportions. If it were a medical disease, sexual violence would have the serious attention a...

According to UN Women’s 2011 Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice  report , out of 179 countries with available data, 52 had laws against marital rape, while 127 countries did not have laws against marital rape. As this map indicates, the international community appears split on whether it legally recognizes certain forms of rape, including marital rape. In practice, however, marital rape is a global problem that affects women in every country. In  Sweden , “9.2 percent of women who participated in the WHO’s Violence Against Women instrument (VAWI) study suffered sexual violence by an intimate partner.” In  Belarus , “a 2008 study of women conducted by the Belarus State University found that 13.1 percent of respondents reported that they had experienced sexual violence from their intimate partner” In  Turkey , “a Human Rights Watch report issued…documents brutal and long-lasting violence against women and girls in Turkey by husbands, partn...

Almost every country in the world has ratified at least one of these instruments, yet many countries do not specifically criminalise rape in marriage and could be said to be encouraging as well as excusing such violence by explicitly allowing it under law. Treat women as the property of their husbands to do with as they wish  Send the broader signal that women are subordinate to their husbands and so set the scene for general legal and societal discrimination, positioning women at best as second class citizens without individual authority  Provide impunity and even encouragement for sexual violence and potentially other forms of violence against women

ENGLAND Historically, under British common law, husbands were exempted from prosecution for raping their wives based on the understanding that marriage meant implied consent to sex497. In addition to Hale’s rationale that marriage implied perpetual, un-retractable consent to sex, other rationales for the common law marital rape exemption were based on notions that at marriage a woman becomes the property/chattel of her husband, and that when two people marry, they become one, rendering marital rape impossible because a husband is incapable of raping himself498. USA In USA prior to the 20th century the concept of marital rape exemption was followed. This concept basically means that by entering into a marital contract, a woman has tacitly consented to have sexual intercourse with her spouse anytime he wants it. It dates back to 18th century common law, and was articulated by English jurist Matthew Hale as follows: "The husband cannot be guilty of rape . . . for by their mutu...

Living in the 21st century, 3rd April 2018, 11:25pm by the clock, we still live in the world where latest words from Gujarat High court revolve around the non-criminalizaation of Marital Rape. STILL. The Gujarat High Court on Monday observed that non-consensual intercourse by a husband cannot be dubbed as rape. However, it also stated that subjecting his married partner to have oral or unnatural sex was akin to cruelty. The court made these observations in a case pertaining to a lady doctor's complaint of rape and physical harassment against her husband, who too happens to be a medical professional.  The complainant said that her husband forced her to have sexual intercourse with him against her wishes and that he would also subject her to have oral sex and indulge in unnatural sexual activities, other than torturing her for dowry. Seeking rejection of her wife's complaint against him, the husband moved the Gujarat High Court.

The women’s rights organization surveyed the laws of each of the 82 countries between 2014 and 2015. They found laws expressly allowing for spousal rape in Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Lesotho, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania. In four of these countries, it is permitted even when the victim is a child. Ghanaian law, for example, states that “consent given by husband or wife at marriage, for the purposes of marriage, cannot be revoked,” unless the parties are divorced or legally separated. In Lesotho, spousal rape is only illegal if the perpetrator also uses abusive language, violence, or threats. Allowing for spousal rape, the report points out, makes sexual violence as a whole seem less serious. A lack of spousal rape protections, the authors write, “begins the narrative that not all rape is rape and so sews the seeds to allow the perpetrator to escape responsibility — in law or in practice — for his violence.” In India, where spousal rape is still leg...

India’s rape laws, which make an exception for cases where the perpetrator is the husband, has its origins in the common law. Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which defines rapes, makes an exception for marital rape by stating, “Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.” On Monday, the central government had filed an affidavit in Delhi High Court, arguing that marital rape should not be criminalised, on the ground that it may “destabilise the institution of marriage”. The grounds for “marital immunity” for rape prosecution were laid by Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale in The History of the Pleas of the Crown, published in 1736, 60 years after his death. He wrote, “The husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract.” This ‘Implied Consent Theor...

Sanjay Khan A dashing star of the yesteryear, Sanjay Khan while being married to extremely beautiful and talented Zarine Khan and a father to three pretty girls was in a relationship with Zeenat Aman that went really ugly. It was reported that they would often have violent squabbles even in public. The greatest shock was when Sanjay Khan was reported to have brutally assaulted Zeenat Aman in a five star hotel at a party. Aditya Pancholi The grey eyed tall actor from the Indian film industry is often in the news for his affairs and link ups. When he was dating Pooja Bedi, he was alleged to have raped her fifteen year old maid. Later, while he was having an affair with Kangana Ranaut who was more than twenty years his junior, he was reported to have assaulted her physically. She even filed a case against him when he barged into her home, beat her up and caused damage to the property but he got scot free. Raja Chaudhary A Bhojpuri film actor and producer,...

The statistics are always scary when it comes to the number of instances of sexual or physical violence against women in India at any given hour, day or year. There are several organisations that work towards helping women combat this constant threat of violence, and work towards making our country safer for women by initiating policy level changes and conducting awareness campaigns that aim to educate the public. Azad foundation Azad foundation focusses on women who continue in abusive relationships because of their financial dependence on their husbands. The New Delhi-based organisation trains women in professions traditionally closed to them and helps them achieve financial independence. Contact-  Tel:   +91 11 4060 1878 Email:  azadfoundation@gmail.com Website:  http://www.azadfoundation.com/ Bharatiya Grameen Mahila Sangh  Bharatiya Grameen Mahila Sangh or BGMS (National Association of Rural Women India) was founded in 1955, and is a...

Geeta Tandon - Stuntwoman 31-year-old Geeta Tandon claims to be the only stuntwoman to have successfully attempted car chases (driving cars through objects like barricades or racing along narrow lanes), and that too with minimal training. But then again, things like that probably come more easily to a person who has spent a greater part of their lives fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive. Rati Agnihotri - Indian Actress But as the reigning star of the 80s recounts in vivid detail the turbulent years of her marriage to architect Anil Virwani, you realise how deceptive the calm is. For, this room and this house is where the actress has suffered horrific domestic abuse. Yukta Mookhey - Actress, Winner of Miss World 1999 Pageant.  In July 2013, there were reports that Yukta filed a case of domestic violence and unnatural sex against her husband, and has moved to her parent’s place in Mumbai. Prince stayed tight-lipped about the matter, but Yukta did no...