Is my body left naked behind?
Or you left me like a rotten apple,
The soaked tear eyes want to know the dilemma
But!! Do you care to answer the same?
Why? When? How? Are the interrogated questions asked by me again and again with each passing day but there is no end to it. Why did this happen to me and when did I turn like this? Is it a deep and miserable question of each woman, who is breathing each second in fear of being used as a product of others pleasure? One such woman is Mera, who being the caretaker and housewife for the whole society, is just a piece of game for her husband in the deep dark nights. Is she not any individual or not a human who has her own feelings and emotions or does her value is so worthless that his husband can mold her for sexual pleasure. These are some of the feelings urged by each mind who is suffering with the patriarchal criteria of marital rape.
Marital rape is one of the stereotype concepts of the society where sexual intercourse with one’s spouse is performed without spouse’s consent. The basic concept of permission for consent is never being the part; instead it comes with the acts of harassment and physical violence. It is a form of sexual and domestic abuse which was historically recognized as the masculinity of the men, but now classified in terms rape of in the various International Conventions and forms the offence to be criminalized.
Can we skip to the next day?
My heart was asking in a deep vein
‘No’, he said with the lustful eyes
Alas! I stayed awake for the next day.
The issue of violence against women catches the attention of people’s eyes from the second half of the 20th century which was the growing era of women empowerment and harassment against them for a long time. Marital rape is a chronic form of violence against the victim, taking place due to abusive relations in the complex web of state governments, cultural values and societal ideologies and practices, cutting the perception of individuality and equality in the victim’s mind. The seeds of non – consensual sex between married couples derive from the traditional form of marriage, religious doctrines and superiority of men over women causing cultural subordination of a wife to a husband, resulting as a crime of violence on the other hand. The biased idea about marriage and sexuality was started to be challenged in Western Countries since 1960s and 70s with the second wave of feminism directing the acknowledgement of woman’s rights and self-determination of matters relating to her body, consent and livelihood in different sectors.
Creeping outside the windows in sigh
She welcomes the closing night
No more tolerance and scars from his side
Can the Law be my guardian to stand beside?
The criminalization of marital rape started to be recognized from the late 20th century which included removal of statutory exemptions from provisions of rape, judicial decisions, and legislative references in statutory law preventing the use of marriage or creation of specific offences of marital rape. In some countries, non – consensual sexual relations involves coercion for which the person can be prosecuted under general statutes like battery or assault laws. Yet, according to the recent National Family Health Survey, about 30% of Indian women aged 18 – 49 are being the prey of spousal violence. If we talk about the sexual violence in India, the average Indian woman is 17 times more likely to face the domestic abuse or violence from her husband than anyone else, which is around 724,115 women.
Women are highly at risk for being raped by their spouse under following circumstances
- Women married to a dominating husband who views them as a property.
- Women who are in abusive relationships.
- Women who are pregnant
- Women suffering from disease or undergoing operation.
- Women who are divorced
There is a myth that marital rape is less than other forms of sexual violence. There are many physical and mental effects of marital rape –
- Physical injury includes vaginal and anal areas, soreness, bruising, torn muscles, vomiting and fatigue.
- Women are raped commonly suffers from broken bones, bloody nose, wounded and blackened eyes.
- Short term effects such as anxiety, fear, shock, depression and suicidal thoughts and behavior.
- Long term symptoms include sleeping disorder, unhealthy diet, depression, intimacy problems, sexual dysfunction and negative trauma.
- Additionally it causes miscarriage, stillbirth, unwanted pregnancy, HIV and infertility.
One of the scholar said that ‘When a woman seat beside a stranger, she has fear of being harassed but when a woman live with her husband, she has fear of being raped by a rapist’ which is also a gift of male dominance. So what has the law done for it? Does any law make it or any rigorous punishment which can punish for the crime? It is still a loophole when it comes under the ambit of marital rape. Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, prohibits rape also includes an exception that “Sexual Intercourse by a man with his own wife who is not under 15 years of age, is not rape”. This truly means that its husband’s right over the body of the wife and the concept that wife can refuse sex with him is not accepted largely. So how is our law justifiable when they are not providing justice? Though, the justice is working on the ‘marital rape immunity’, by putting up issues like consent, female sexual autonomy but not feeling the urge to implement laws on concept which is a combination of patriarchal belief and ideas.
To me, your fair doors are the only space
Not only for freedom but for my voice to be raise
Let me be, your voice My Lord
I don’t want any scars, just medicine of justice to heal.
This is the point where law should be broken because Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which ensures, “the state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or equal protection of the laws within the territory of India” is unable to guarantee equality to all the female victims who have been raped by their own husbands. It should be renounced due to the change of era where each person has an established legal identity yet the married women are discriminated of equal protection from rape and sexual harassment. Laws need to be breached in order to create a society where Article 21 of the Indian Constitution stating “no person shall be denied of his life and liberty except according to the procedure established by law “is not just for a few individuals but for the whole society to protect their health, dignity, safe environment etc. Lastly, the law need to be violated to protect our rights, privacy, liberty, bodily integrity which is being caged by the dehumanizing acts of the people, with a thought that each individual is same for law and if the law is not equitable, it should be broken because it is made ‘by the people and for the people’, and if the person cannot get justice for the same, it is more like a ‘dry branch of a tree with no bearing of fruits’.
