‘Govt showing no interest in dealing with marital rape’

As of Thursday, September 1, 2022

Alicia Wallace

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AN activist said the current administration continues to demonstrate its disinterest in addressing the issue of marital rape by “putting it off” and explicitly stating that it is prioritising other issues.

Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas, told The Tribune yesterday that people in situations of vulnerability as well as pressing social and legal issues are being “ignored.”

Her remarks came after Justice J Denise Lewis-Johnson handed down a ruling on August 29 involving a divorce case in which a woman claimed her husband would force intercourse and made her feel like a “rape victim” throughout their marriage.

While ruling that the husband was cruel for forcing his wife to have sex against her will on numerous occasions, it was found that “there is no rape in marriage” under Bahamian law.

The judge noted the woman claimed she “has felt like a rape victim during the ordeal of sexual intercourse with the respondent.”

While she granted the couple’s divorce and accepted the petitioner’s evidence, the judge said the issue raised by the parties of non-consensual and forced intercourse along with the word “rape” required the court to consider the term in context of Bahamian marriage laws.

It was highlighted in the judgement the offence of rape is set out in section three of the Sexual Offences Act which states rape is the act of any person not under 14 years of age having sexual intercourse with another person who is not his spouse, without the consent of that other person; without consent which has been extorted by threats or fear of bodily harm; with consent obtained by personating the spouse of that other person; with consent obtained by false and fraudulent representation as to the nature and quality of the act.

In response to the judgement, Ms Wallace spoke about the issue regarding the courts tackling the problem.

“The current administration continues to demonstrate its disinterest in addressing the issue of marital rape, putting it off and explicitly stating that it is prioritising other issues. People in situations of vulnerability and pressing social and legal issues are being ignored,” she asserted.

“In this case, we see that a woman was being repeatedly raped by her husband, and the court refuses to acknowledge it as rape, blaming it on the law and abdicating responsibility to use the law to protect human rights. The ruling refers to sex with a wife as a man’s ‘right,’ but does not reference the wife’s actual right to bodily autonomy or safety.

“On August 20, at one of the sessions in our CEDAW (Convention) Speaker Series, committee member Rhoda Reddock focused on Article 5 of the Convention and Bahamian attorney and CEDAW committee member Marion Bethel joined her to talk about the ability of judges to use CEDAW, whether or not it has been domesticated by the state, and this has been done in other countries.

“It is clear that Christian values, morals, and whatever passes for love are not sufficient to ensure a safe, healthy environment or healthy relationships. We have come to depend on the law to distinguish between right and wrong, and on judges to interpret the law. Obviously, both need significant improvements, and it cannot wait.”

Equality Bahamas continues to run the #Strike5ive campaign which advocates for the criminalisation of marital rape in the “most explicit way”.

“The Sexual Offences Act needs to be amended to remove ‘who is not his spouse’ from the definition of rape in Section 3, Section 15 must be repealed, we need a statutory definition of consent along with a clause of non-immunity on the basis of marriage, and there must be no temporal limitation,” Ms Wallace said.

However, Dr Sandra Dean-Patterson, the director of the Bahamas Crisis Centre, saw the judgment as a step in the right direction for progress.

“Well, I would certainly applaud and commend the judge in that case for putting the reality which is that rape in a marriage is not illegal, but that that behaviour is wrong and that behaviour needs to be addressed, and there needs to be consequences for it,” she argued.

“And so we definitely would commend her and support her with that. And you know, over the years, the Crisis Centre has talked about the violence that too many women live with in marriages and intimate relationships and there should be recognition, the fact that that’s unacceptable. You know, marriage is not a license to beat or to rape. You know you don’t have the right to do that and you shouldn’t use marriage as cover or shelter for behaviour that’s wrong.”

birdiestrachan 2 years, 2 months ago

A bitter divorce the wife wants the husband to go to jail this could very well be the case

hrysippus 2 years, 2 months ago

This particular administration it seems will avoid anything controversial as a matter of policy. It is also almost impossible for the media to interview any cabinet member as needed as the Firewall choirmaster stands largely n the way.

sheeprunner12 2 years, 2 months ago

If there is no such thing as marital rape in 242 law, what is there for the 242 lawmakers to deal with????

Just asking .....

birdiestrachan 2 years, 2 months ago

When a marriage comes to marital rape the marriage is over they can not be living in the same house

Porcupine 2 years, 2 months ago

When did thinking die in The Bahamas? Is there a particular date that can be identified? Or, did it actually ever exist in the past?

tribanon 2 years, 2 months ago

All of the utter BS about such legislation encouraging spiteful and/or vindictive wives to wrongfully accuse their husbands of rape is just that, utter BS!

The UK and many other countries have long had excellent statutes criminalising marital rape which afford more than adequate protection in instances where innocent persons may be wrongfully accused of rape.

And the UK legislation that exists on this matter can simply be copied by our attorney-general's office almost word for word in producing a suitable, appropriate, and workable bill for speedy passage by our own legislators.

Our PM and the attorney-general are clearly not supportive of legislation criminalising marital rape. All they ever do is give the subject lip-service whenever it comes up again in public in a big way.

Women in The Bahamas need to make sure that they and they children of age (especially their daughters) all register to vote in the next national general election. And they should only cast their vote for a candidate running in their constituency who has signed and made public their personal proclamation to support the passage of meaningful and enforceable legislation that makes marital rape illegal at the earliest possible time.

This should be a top-priority piece of legislation for all our parliamentarians so as to afford all women in our country a fundamental and basic right of protection from a most heinous crime.

Get off your duff PM and do something meaningful and right for a change. And by the way, why is your wife so silent on this issue and never speaks publicly with any real fire in her belly about it?!

Sickened 2 years, 2 months ago

the church has successfully convinced their flock that women are just penis holes.

OMG 2 years, 2 months ago

I know of one case on a family island where the wife refused sex to her husband unless he went with her to church every Sunday. That's sexual blackmail.

tribanon 2 years, 2 months ago

Any God-fearing decent woman who sees Satan in her husband's eyes should do as she did. And "No" it's not blackmail !

LastManStanding 2 years, 2 months ago

Let me get this straight : the judge in the recent Tribune front page case was supposed to throw that man in prison purely because his wife said so? Complete and utter lunacy. Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence in the court of law? "He said, she said" is not good enough send anyone to prison for a day much less a possible decades long sentence. The lunatics are trying to take over the asylum.

carltonr61 2 years, 2 months ago

I with you on that.

tribanon 2 years, 2 months ago

That's precisely why we need a marital rape statute along the lines of the one they have in the U.K. which affords due process to both the accused and the accusor. Do you really believe any woman deserves to be raped by her husband? If you do, you're no man, and that's for sure!

LastManStanding 2 years, 2 months ago

Tribanon,

Have you ever actually read the UK statute on marital rape? You do realize that women cannot be charged with it, right? It may sound silly that a little old woman can rape a man but go and ask the men that Cardi B drugged up and date raped whether a man can be raped or not. The UK is an Orwellian shithole where citizens are arrested over tweets and Facebook posts, we should be nothing like them (England was a great place to live at one time, but not anymore).

Quite frankly, such a law is borderline unenforceable. As with 99% of these cases, it boils down to "he said, she said" which means the man is always going to be presumed guilty by default. You are acting as if the Johnny Depp trial did not just happen and that women are sweet little innocent flowers that would never lie on a man to get ahead; hint : they are not. Not every woman will do that kind of thing, but some definitely will. Practicality of a law is much more important than the intent behind it.

tribanon 2 years, 2 months ago

You clearly believe a husband is entitled to rape his wife and that by marriage she is nothing more than a possession of his to be used and abused as he sees fit. And that means you could not care less that marital rape is a major problem in our country. You should be living in Jamaica or, better still, Uganda.

Even in our geographic region, most nations, Jamaica aside, have fair and effective laws that protect both husband and wife from marital rape as is the case in just about all of the more civilised societies around the world.

Most of us know that small minded abusive husbands, who must heinously and hurtfully force themselves on their wives, are usually the most outspoken ones against the criminalisation of marital rape.

carltonr61 2 years, 2 months ago

A blogger here some time back mentioned that to play with marital rape female primal social anthropology must be studied. Female primal instinct is the protection of her unborn child during pregnancy or children. Rooted in female psyche is this security whereby she and her offspring receive protection from harm,food and shelter. To ensure procreation of each species males are strongly driven or bedeviled to seek something out. And when he gets it a mutual exchange or ritual takes place where both parties are satisfied. If this divorce saga becomes followed throughout into settlement then a clearer picture may emerge. There is the rule of the jungle out there still to seek protection, shelter, and the needs of the past middle aged vulnerable seeking a second chance at independence into old age is filled with unknowns along the last mile of the way.

carltonr61 2 years, 2 months ago

As a married female rule of thumb. Unaware that when children reach the stage of high school graduation women begin to phase husbands out of the bed. So we have divorces going on wholesale as the husband's job is finished. Suddenly he is the worst demon in the world.Then she plots to get the house to happily relive in freedom minus the former husband. The pre adult children at this point in life is most vulnerable to a vicious world after loosing a father's protection. The faithful husband's are then relegated to bar rooms if they are lucky or to shelters.

tribanon 2 years, 2 months ago

You're showing off your small mind which may be even smaller than your ........., well, you know what I mean.

carltonr61 2 years, 2 months ago

Small brained women like trib do not bring their husbands to ejaculation within months which forces him to pay for another woman' mortgage or face marriage rape. Some agreement or understanding must be made upon these girls about men biological issues trib nd other old hags call demon possession. Too many preachers silently sleep in the next bedroom or have church sweethearts to compensate for their wives acting like cock masters making the chained bird sit for months in a locked cage. Women like trib are only sadistic unconcerned about Godly marriage duty which she sees as a sin. Poor soul will see hell.

tribanon 2 years, 2 months ago

The mere fact you assume I'm a woman says many more negative things about you than I could ever say.

carltonr61 2 years, 2 months ago

Within Nationhood we could simply get accurate data to see our marriage sex realities. Married Men respond to painful sperm buildup by eating excessive calories to release pleasure hormones compensation. Alcohol consumption and dependencies is next in marriage bed ice. Clinical depression and failure at work follows. We need data on how many married women scream out 'this ting close' at age 40, 35, 50, 60, 70 and how to get them back on stream that God faulted in allowing healthy men to need, need, need, need need sexual satisfiction till we die, at no fault of our own. And I am sure God did not make a mistake. But we need data on this malfunctioning age old problem in order to make some changes. Counties with the lowest rape count have sexual workers to compensate excessive sperm buildup up due to a breakdown in bed pumping system in married men suffersuffersuffer-ring.

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