Marital Rape In India: When Saying No Is Not An Option
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Abstract
Rape is an act said to be committed when a man had a sexual intercourse with a women against her will or without her consent. From a woman's perspective, if she chooses not to have intercourse with a specific man and the man chooses to proceed against her will, he has perpetrated a criminal act of rape. Marital rape being a type of rape is committed by the husband on her wife by having a sexual intercourse against her will or without her consent. Amongst all types of rape, marital rape is the most invidious type of rape yet largely unnoticed form of sexual violence.
In India women are considered as a private property of a husband to whom he is entitled to use in whichever way he wants to. Although society recognizes that family violence is a serious and pervasive problem, often requiring intervention by the criminal justice system, marital rape has not raised the public eyebrow, despite its alarming frequency. Statistics indicate that one out of every seven women "who has ever been married, has been raped by a husband at least once, and sometimes many times over many years."
According to Susan Brownmiller, “Rape became not only a male prerogative but man’s basic weapon of force against woman, the principal agent of his will and her fear. His forcible entry into her body, despite her physical protestations, became the vehicle of the victorious conquest of her being, the ultimate test of his superior strength, the triumph of his manhood….”
This paper deals with the concept of marital rape in India and its effect on the society. Marital rape is the type of rape which is not criminalized in India as it is constituted within a marriage and in India marriage is considered as a sacrament in which a husband holds a license to treat his wife in whatever way he wants. According to them marriage is a license to sex and if a woman refuses to her husband for not having sex then they are justified in using force on her or even raping her.
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