High Court questions legal provisions that legalise ‘marital rape’

The High Court has questioned legal provisions that bar married women from seeking justice for rape by their husbands asking why it should not order the government to nullify the sections of the law.

Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Mohi Uddin Shamim issued a rule on Tuesday, ordering the law secretary, the women and children’s affairs secretary and the home secretary to respond.

The judges issued the rule after hearing a writ petition by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust or BLAST, BRAC, Naripokkho and Manusher Jonno Foundation. The petitioners challenged sections 375 and 376 of the Bangladesh Penal Code and section 9 (1) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.

According to the sections of the Penal Code, if a man rapes his wife and if she is more than 12 years old, he cannot be tried for the incident while the related section of the Act has no clear definition of rape.

In Bangladesh, 27 percent of married women get raped by their husbands, said Sharmin Akter, one of the lawyers for the petitioners, citing a Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics survey.

But the married women’s inability to seek justice due to the sections of the law discriminates them with unmarried women, which is unconstitutional, said Akter.

They filed the petition after a 14-year-old died on Oct 25 at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital due to excessive bleeding after what the media said was “rape” by her husband. The girl was married off to a 35-year-old returnee from the United Arab Emirates on Sept 20.