Thai Law Allows Husbands To Rape Wives, Vice-versa!!

A husband can rape his wife and for the sake of gender equality, the Thai Justice Ministry will allow the wives to rape their husbands, too!

"Don't laugh. That is exactly what the Justice Ministry says in its draft amendment of the law regarding rape," Bangkok Post's Assistant Editor Sanitsuda Ekachai wrote in her column today.

Under the Justice Ministry's draft amendments to the rape and divorce laws which was criticised in the National Legislative Assembly last week, rape and sexual offences will be punishable with a jail term from four to 20 years and a fine of 8,000 to 40,000 bahts, unless it involves marital partners.

Sanitsuda said although the amendments would bring several improvements to the current laws on sexual violence and divorce, continuing to endorse marital rape is totally unacceptable.

The existing law does not protect wives from rape by their husbands while homosexuals don't have protection either as women are defined as the only victims of rape and sexual offence.

The amendment will also protect homosexuals from rape and sexual harassment.

The writer said the laws on divorce and marital compensation support men's sexual promiscuity as it allows the husbands to use adultery as grounds for divorce but not for the wives.

"To sue for divorce, the wife must prove her husband financially supports and publicly honours another woman as wife. Proving the husband's unfaithfulness alone will not suffice," she said.

The draft is the ministry's response to years of pressure from human rights groups to redress gender violence and inequality in Thai law but it ends up being farcical because of the mechanical approach to justice and its refusal to tackle the oppression of women. (D. Arul Rajoo, Bernama)

***** Looks like compared to those dolts we are years ahead. Strange, that despite so much progress women have made in every field and discipline they are still given the short end of the stick when it comes to legislative reforms.
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