The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

HOUSE Speaker Patricia Deveaux said she abhors rape but cannot say whether marital rape should be criminalised because she isn’t married.

Her comments to reporters at the House of Assembly after receiving a donation from the Chinese ambassador enraged some Bahamians on social media, the latest to spark a heated debate on the contentious issue.

“…I’m not married,” she said yesterday. “You understand? So, I really don’t think that I’d have a fair balance because, you know, when you’re married and you would have spent years with your husband, I don’t know how to balance the word rape in a relationship.

“So, I mean, I have my personal views that I keep to myself, but in terms of being married, I think it would be an unfair gesture for me to answer because I’m not married.”

 “I’m against rape, yes, I am. With marriage, I’m not going to posture there because, like I said, I am not married and so I don’t know how to balance it against a marriage.

 “Now, if it was a criminal act, it’s a whole different ballgame, but if it’s a man and a woman lying down in a bed, I don’t know how to say that I am totally against it.”

 State Minister for Social Services Lisa Rahming recently said passing legislation criminalising marital rape is a matter of “if,” not “when.” Government officials are considering amending the Sexual Offences Act to make it a crime to rape your spouse.

 The issue has befuddled successive administrations. The Minnis administration vowed to address the issue, but never did, and critics are concerned about how long it is taking the Davis administration to bring a bill to Parliament. 

 Former Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson recently urged the government to outlaw marital rape.  

 “I will say that very clearly, there is something that is marital rape,” she said. “I don’t think that any human being should be subjected to that. And again, I think that the necessary legislation … it is so fundamental, that it requires a systemic approach, and we need to have specific legislation that deals with it, how we will prosecute it, how we will punish it and so forth so that our society sends the strongest message about what we will tolerate in a civilised society in a democracy.”