Anne Marie Davis (File photo)
By LETRE SWEETING
lsweeting@tribunemedia.net
ANN Marie Davis yesterday said “no means no” and joined countless other Bahamian officials and activists calling for marital rape to be outlawed.
Mrs Davis’s comment came at the final monthly forum for the year for the Department of Gender and Family Affairs and the Ministry of Social Services at the Edmund Moxey Centre.
Mrs Davis said: “We must agitate and hold our policy makers accountable. We want them to upgrade our laws and we really need that.
“Imagine, we are still living in a society where no does not mean no. How could that be? I tell you no and you think I mean yes. No, sir. Of course I’m talking about marital rape right. No means no.”
“That could really hurt, not only physically, but psychologically and that is what is wrong with it. Women endure so much. We endure too much for too long. So I want to see our marital rape laws improved on the books too,” she said.
“I am happy that this conversation is taking place and when it is done, I hope that our marital laws are upgraded as to where they are supposed to be,” Mrs Davis said.
In addition to Mrs Davis, those at the forum yesterday included Equality Bahamas Director Alicia Wallace, who spoke on the topic of “femicide” and framing the narrative around violence against women accurately, as well as Marisa Mason-Smith of Zonta Club of New Providence, and Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings.
A 2017 United Nations (UN) report pointed out that The Bahamas’ failure to criminalise marital rape means it has also failed to uphold obligations under the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Meanwhile Social Services and Urban Development Minister Obie Wilchcombe told The Tribune last month that he plans to discuss the issue of marital rape among other things next March at a three-day women’s conference.
In October, the government circulated for consultation a bill to criminalise marital rape. The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, would repeal section three of the current law by removing the words “who is not a spouse” from the definition of rape.
However, some advocates fear the government will not act and make the bill law.
Comments
carltonr61 1 year, 11 months ago
We need a referendum by prospective wives to get an opinion on their future within marriage. This is impact full and affects all marriage relationships in deeper ways beyond no means no while religious leaders call for live and compromise within marriage. That both women and men would own their bodies and lives in marriage brings new dimensions to bonding, friction and compromises. If both parties live outside of compromise on all issues of marriage and simply stake out any hardened position we would be swimming down uncertainty. Men could developed no us no also on any issue also so sounds like war.
carltonr61 1 year, 11 months ago
The Bahamas national problems and red lines Hotspots for social suffering remain diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, gambling until poverty strikes University of Bahamas research into Parent-Child-Adult analysis, masking of political persons as professionals and illegal Marijuana gang murders. Across the globe political UN driven mandates are being seen to end in failure. Though nations made laws on marriage rape there remains only those exposed to politics and press scrutiny limelight that came before the courts but with almost zero convictions according to data. Assault with violence was always a crime in domestic cases. Rape alone has never seen conviction yet remains a global pressure narrative.
sheeprunner12 1 year, 11 months ago
Most of these 242 political elite wives live with men who are abusers ...... Do they expose them???
Why not?????
carltonr61 1 year, 11 months ago
That over 80% of births are to single mothers in The Bahamas eclipsing the less than 15% married women and their view point it becomes obvious which view will prevail not withstanding they have no horse in the race. The least the UN could produce is credible longitudinal data on the percentage of marritial rape. We are just lead to a belief that women alone should be the intimate aggressors to fondle first without permission but if men do the same with our wives it is termed aggression of a sick mind husband. Some funding should be used to bring down the unwed mothers rate besides the well funded other social agendas we are politically blind to. The percentage of criminals in jail from single mother households is above 95% but it is zero political risk to focus on the evil perception of the squewed created UB lateral non scientific data as it fit the political narrative fog.
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