The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was shocked to read that a “Christian” pastor used a national ecumenical service to try and derail the move to criminalise marital rape.

What is especially glaring is this is a man who fell victim to violence in 2016 when he was gunbutted by armed intruders who also attempted to sexually assault a female family member (Tribune, January 15, 2016).

Did anyone question his account of events and suggest, “He does lie?”

Do only married women lie? Doesn’t a jury decide “who does lie?”

At the time, the pastor said the crime problem was out of control because “society keeps making excuses for criminals”.

FYI, violence against women is out of control because of people who “keep making excuses for rapists” and politicians who pander to them.

Stuck in a time warp, they refuse to accept that rape, in the words of Supreme Court Justice J Denise Lewis-Johnson, is “a most heinous act of cruelty”. They think it’s ok for men to rape their wives.

It’s particularly disturbing that Rex Major was allowed to use such divisive language at a service designed to unify the nation ahead of the 50th Anniversary of Independence celebrations.

Instead, it underlined the fact that 50 years on, a woman is still legally her husband’s sex slave and does not have the same right to pass her Bahamian citizenship on to her children as a man does.

ATHENA DAMIANOS

Nassau,

May 23, 2023.