Marital Rape: A Crime Undefined

Kamya Jain, OP Jindal Global University

When a stranger does it, he doesn't know me, I don't know him. He's not doing it to me as a person, personally. With your husband, it becomes personal. You say this man knows me. He knows my feelings. He knows me intimately, and then to do this to me - it's such a personal abuse (Finkelhor, D., & Yllo, K. (1985)).

Rape is the most heinous act a man can perform against a woman. The victim here, the woman, dies a hundred deaths even though she is alive. Despite the reality that this was not her fault, the victimized woman is typically treated harshly and led to feel she is the perpetrator of her rape. Consequently, society looks at the offenders with a softer, more forgiving eye. Women everywhere are discriminated against in terms of employment, pay, opportunities and so much more but they are also harassed, stalked, wolf-whistled, solicited for dowry, domestically and physically abused, forced to marry at a young age, and in the worst-case scenario, raped. India is one of the countries, where women are heavily discriminated against in various spheres and are domestically abused and sexually harassed1 by their husbands, who are not even penalised due to the absence of law for this offence. When one spouse engages in non-consensual sexual activity with the other, or when consent is extorted by threats or fear of bodily damage, it is known as marital rape. In easier words, the terms marital rape and spousal rape are most often used in reference to the acts that are in reality ‘wife rape’ (Pagelow 1988). Even in this 21st century, where women and men are said to have equal standing before the law, India has failed to provide such a foothold to its women by not considering marital rape as a criminal offence.