Marital Rape; Right To Say No

A few weeks ago, the Nation newspaper reported the attempts by non-governmental organizations to push for the criminalization of marital rape. I was shocked to learn that marital rape is not recognized as a criminal offense in Malawi. Even more shocking to me, was the information that different human rights organizations have been pushing for its criminalization since 2001.

Marital rape, which is defined as an act of sexual intercourse with one’s spouse without consent, is a very serious and harmful violation of a person’s autonomy and rights. Malawi's penal code classifies assault, rape, and attempted rape as crimes; however, it ignores rape that occurs within marriage. `The law attempts to recognize rape between spouses only when divorced has occurred. The significance of consent in the context of marriage as we can all see, is disappointingly not recognized by our laws.

In a statement delivered to the Ministry of Gender Development and Social Welfare on October 6, on the issue, the Malawi Human Rights Commission stated that although marital rape is not considered a criminal offense in Malawi, there have been multiple documented cases of women being the victims of this crime behind closed doors.

In a country like Malawi, where religious and cultural beliefs influence most values and behaviors, and where men are greatly revered, marital rape becomes a very complex and controversial issue. Within these religious and cultural grounds, women are expected to serve and submit to their husbands in marriage. Sex in marriage is clearly defined as one of the most essential ways for which a woman is to serve a man,as part of her duty.

Reports say that many women have been raped within the context of marriage but fail to disclose it as they are unaware that being pushed into having sex without their consent, regardless of the relationship that exists between the perpetrator (husband) and victim(wife), still qualifies as rape. Women fail to speak up because they are afraid of being embarrassed, shamed and blamed by the community for wrecking their marriages and destroying their husband’s reputation or life.

Many women are suffering in silence, it is high time that laws against marital rape are enacted to protect women from this kind of abuse. When that happens, both men and women must to be civically-educated on the legislation. For the time being, we can only dream of the day when women will be free to say no to men without having to face any form of abuse.