Rape of a wife by her
husband is legal in Swaziland under newly-documented Indigenous Swazi Law and
Custom. A man can also legally rape his lover.
The Times
of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the
kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch,
reported on Wednesday (3 August 2016) that the document states, ‘A husband
cannot rape his wife.’
The newspaper reported that
the 317-page document called The
Indigenous Law and Custom of the Kingdom of Swaziland (2013) had been
presented to the King.
The newspaper reported the document
was compiled by Professor Frances Pieter Whelpton, a Professor of Law at the
University of South Africa.
The Times reported, ‘Under Chapter 7, which addresses offences
(emacala) in Swaziland, rape is said to be committed only if the woman forced
is not the man’s wife or lover.
When defining rape in Swaziland, it says in the past, penetration was not an essential element. ‘Throwing a female to the ground and grabbing hold of her in an unsuccessful move to ravish her amounts to rape. However, every act of intercourse is supposed to be accompanied by a struggle because the woman is not supposed to submit to the man,’
In 2015, a report from A US
organisation ABCNewspoint stated that Swaziland had the fourth
highest rate of rape in the world. It said there were 77.5 registered cases of
rape among 100,000 people.
In July 2015, it was reported to
the Swazi Parliament that there had been 124 cases of rape in Swaziland in the
previous three months. This was an increase of 11.7 percent when compared to
the same period from April to June 2014 when 111 cases were reported. The
figures revealed 51.6 percent of the 124 rape cases were committed against
children aged 17 years and below.
Rape and sexual abuse of
children is common in Swaziland. In 2008, Unicef
reported that one in three girls in Swaziland were sexually abused, usually
by a family member and often by their own fathers - 75 percent of the
perpetrators of sexual violence were known to the victim.
Many men in Swaziland
believed was all
right to rape children if their own wives were not giving them enough sex.
In 2009, men who were interviewed during the making of the State of the Swaziland Population report said they ‘“salivate” over
children wearing skimpy dress codes because they are sexually starved in their
homes.’
See also
IN SWAZILAND, CHILD RAPE NOT UNUSUAL
No comments:
Post a Comment