The controversial ruling once again shines a spotlight on the issue of marital rape in India, which refuses to criminalise it.

Summary

An Indian court acquitted a man convicted of raping his wife, who later died, citing that marital rape is not a crime in India.

The ruling has sparked outrage, renewing calls to criminalize marital rape. Activists argue the decision is legally valid but morally unacceptable.

India’s outdated laws do not recognize non-consensual sex within marriage as rape.

Despite widespread domestic violence, resistance from the government and conservative groups has stalled reform efforts.

  • lka1988English
    52·
    4 days ago

    Fear is an extremely powerful motivator. I’m going to assume you haven’t had to deal with that personally before, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but fear in these situations can absolutely cause people to defend their abusers, else they get beaten and/or raped again for not “taking his side”. My wife was in that situation in her last marriage; if he wanted sex, she could either just go with it so she didn’t get beaten, or she could say “no”, at which point he would get angry and rape her anyway.

    Being isolated with zero support system and then being shamed (like you’re doing) for just trying to survive is what keeps those women in those situations.

    • commander@lemmings.worldEnglish
      27·
      4 days ago

      They shouldn’t be getting with these abusers in the first place. Most women end up in these situations because they value the wrong things.

      I go back to my point of “there are plenty of women who are okay with this because their husbands who support it are making money and buying them things.”

      They chose these relationships. The sooner we can educate more women on why their reasoning for getting with these people is flawed, the sooner we can stop it from happening.

      Nobody is holding a gun to their head saying “hey, marry this dickbag!” It’s usually for social clout, i.e. he buys them things they can show off to their peers.

      • lka1988English
        52·
        4 days ago

        I’ll give you one more chance to quit moving the goalposts.

        In most of these situations, the abuser is putting on a face. This happened to me, so I speak from experience. I married a wonderful woman, and over time she became more controlling, snappier, wanted me to spend less and less time with my parents/siblings/friends until any mention of them made her angry, etc, etc… To the point that I was isolated completely with no support system when the violence started.

        Point is, the person that becomes the abuser rarely shows their true colors until the victim is already heavily invested, especially when they’re “trapped” with kids or other things.