A member
of parliament and member of the Royal Family in Swaziland (eSwatini) Senator Princess Phumelele
said women had a duty to allow their husbands to have sex with them and they
should not refuse.
She also criticised
parliament for passing the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act in
2018.
The eSwatini
Observer (formerly Swazi
Observer) reported, ‘She said it was wrong for women to be allowed to
refuse their spouses conjugal rights yet it was their responsibility to do so.’
It added, ‘She said she
wondered how the Act was passed by Parliament because some of the legislators
were against it, seeing that they cause more violence as it would be difficult
for men to accept that their wives would sometimes refuse to help them
sexually.’
The Observer
reported she said if wives wanted to be sexually satisfied, the husbands had to
be responsible for that satisfaction. If any of the parties wanted sexual
satisfaction, there should be no reason for the other party to refuse.
Later, Women and Law in
Southern Africa (WLSA) Director Xolani Hlatjwako said, ‘Women have the right to
say no in any circumstance, even if they’re married. We had advocated for the
inclusion of marital rape in the SODV for this very reason: so that it may be
known that women are not objects for men’s sexual pleasure.’
She told the Observer,
‘Princess Phumelele, for someone in her position, owes the nation an apology
and should retract her statement.’
The Princess, along with all other Senators in
Swaziland, is not elected but appointed by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch.
In April 2018 Princess
Phumelele told a consultative meeting with the Senate
Deputy Prime Minister’s office portfolio committee that
married women who did not want to be raped by their husbands
should avoid sleeping in the bedroom.
The Swazi
Observer, reported at the time that the Princess, ‘said in the event a wife
was not in the mood to engage in sexual activities they should not sleep in the
same room as their husbands so that they don’t find themselves in a tricky
situation.
‘She said long ago Swazi women would go back home in
the event they were faced with such problems in their marital home.’
The newspaper reported her saying, ‘Do not allow him
to touch or play with you because he might think you are playing hard to get.’
In traditional Swazi culture women are treated as
children who are owned by their menfolk (usually their husbands or fathers.)
They have no legal rights.
In October 2017, four
in six married women interviewed by a newspaper
in Swaziland said their husbands had the right to rape them. The Swazi News reported some wives said
their husbands deserved sex whenever they wanted.
See also
Princess's
‘solution’ to marital rape
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