Women gearing up to fight ‘marry your rapist’ law
IRAQ could be next to abolish the controversial ‘‘marry your rapist’’ law. Iraqi women are ramping up pressure to abolish a law that lets rapists off the hook if they marry their victims, after Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon scrapped similar articles last year.
Activists plan to demonstrate and use billboards to condemn the controversial law before parliamentary elections next month in the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim, conservative society.
‘‘We want to say to the Iraqi Government — give women justice,’’ Rasha Khalid, a lawyer and member of Baghdad Women’s Association, a local rights group, said.
‘‘Iraq has to keep up with its surrounding neighbours like Tunisia and Lebanon and other countries that abolished this law,’’ she said.
Egypt repealed its law in
1999, and Morocco overhauled its law in 2014 following the suicide of a 16yearold girl and the attempted suicide of a 15yearold, both of whom were forced to marry their rapists.
Khalid wants to raise awareness so voters can demand change going into the polls, as Iraq struggles to recover from a threeyear war with Islamic State militants.
Intisar alJubory, who has pushed for the amendment to be put on parliament’s agenda, said ‘‘mass pressure’’ was needed.
‘‘The repeal of this article preserves the dignity of women victims [against] the greatest humanitarian crime of rape,’’ the female parliamentarian said.
Women were often forced to marry their rapist to protect family honour and avoid societal shame, said Suad AbuDayyeh, Middle East consultant for the rights group Equality Now, which is urging reform to end the ‘‘revictimisation’’ of women.
‘‘It is a clear violation of their rights,’’ she said, adding the law rewarded men for committing rape.
Many women reject the law, which also exists in Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya and Syria.
‘‘I was under constant stress, unhappy, feeling disgusted,’’ Sabiha, a 32yearold Iraqi woman who was pressured into marrying her rapist, a relative, told Equality Now.
‘‘I took every opportunity to initiate fights with him until I forced him to leave me.’’
The repeal of this article preserves the
dignity of women victims [against] the greatest humanitarian
crime of rape