A CAMPAIGN to make marital rape a crime is gathering steam on the Internet. More than 1,000 people have signed a petition that will be handed to the Prime Minister.
The organisers of the 'No To Rape' campaign - three young professionals - are asking the Government to abolish a controversial law that grants immunity to husbands who force their wives to have sex with them.
Signatories of the petition launched on July 1 include former Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong , law academic Chan Wing Cheong, playwright Ovidia Yu and TV host Anita Kapoor.
The issue was a hot topic in and out of Parliament when the Penal Code came under review two years ago. MPs and civil society groups had called for the exemption to be thrown out. The statute, handed down from colonial days, was tweaked then to offer some protection to a married woman under certain circumstances, such as when she has applied for divorce or a personal protection order.
But that was clearly not enough for the organisers. 'The reason we're seeking a change in law is that the current provisions are inadequate,' said Ms Wong Pei Chi, 25, a bank officer and one of the organisers. She said any rape is a physical assault.
Since the legal review two years ago, Ms Wong and two friends - Ms Jolene Tan, 26, a charity fund-raiser based in Britain, and Mr Mark Wong, 28, a freelance designer - began to research the topic and put the campaign together. They have since launched a website, notorape.com, started a Facebook group and are on Twitter.
In their research, the trio found that while there are no statistics on marital rape cases in Singapore, police figures showed that in an overwhelming majority of rapes, the victims knew the attackers. The number of legal protection orders taken up here - 2,500 in 2007 - also suggested marital rape could be an issue.
One victim, a mother of three, said she had no recourse during her 12-year marriage, which ended in 1997 when she walked out. 'I hope the law can be changed to protect all women,' said the 57-year-old secretary, who declined to be named.
Ms Kerry Wilcock, manager of direct services at women's welfare organisation the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), said many women here are unfamiliar with their rights and do not usually seek help for marital rape.
She has seen only one case recently - a Chinese national in her 30s married to a Singaporean man who sexually abused her every night. 'The authorities see rape as a seizable offence only after physical violence has happened in a marriage. That's the problem now,' said Ms Wilcock.
--ST
If wife dont want, men will eat out. Simple.
Originally posted by limywv:actually... how on earth do you rape your wife...??
forcefully lor.
AWARE is bringing out bad name for women. trust me. they always thought that they are doing things for the women status.
if they want to be on equal term with man. why don't they request girls in singapore to serve in the army too?
not as a solider but as admin. possible. and can be done. but why i don't see them doing these things?
women rights. ha.. just making a joke out of it isn'it?
They are setting up more & more rules to actually 'endanger' the future of Singaporeans in my opinion.
This will only lead to more divorces, unfair punishments, people migrating to other countries etc.
Women in Singapore are pretty much protected by laws nowadays, & it's already enough & great for them. No offense, but giving them too much protection is gonna spoilt them. I can see people mis-using this law if it passes.
Why would the ladies get married and not have sex? Even if they doesn't want to have sex & being force to by the husband (when they hit them, cause i can only thing of hitting as a form of being force into having sex or threatening), they can always report the cases as a physical/mental abuse thingy. So what is up for them to make this as a crime when physical & mental abuse is already a crime in the first place? They are trying to set this law which is kinda pointless & this gonna start to irritate a lot of guys around.
i think this boils down to respecting each other...
yes, i do agree that women can and should reject their husbands' advances if they are maybe "not in the mood", after a quarrel, during menses, on very hectic weekdays or special occasion like in-laws staying over but there is a limit on the number of rejections. you can't be rejecting 100% of his advances and expect him to feel "okay" about it... even 90% seems awkward...
if you are saying the husband has a psychologically sexual disorder issue; sure, send him to IMH or seek professional help. if he does rape then this calls for strict and severe actions from the authorities. but before you even deem any incident as rape, i believe one must know the "head and tail" of the full story before you should condemn the husband.
i'm not saying i'm against such movement but this is not an issue that can be judged base on "surfaced" evidence.
great...more prcs`can use marital rape as excuse to gain citizenship
how does AWARE define marital rape?
If a couple's relationship goes down that road, Marital Rape! Whats the point of staying married and suffer? Divorce lah. Educate the women, tell them that they can walk out of their unhappiness.
can authorities from AWARE reading this thread define what is your definition of marital rape?