Singapore: ‘No To Rape’ campaign
In Singapore, raping your wife is not treated as rape.
But it should be.
This is the main message of the ‘No To Rape’ campaign published in the Facebook page of the group. The organizers aim to abolish the marital rape immunity law in Singapore.
The ‘No To Rape’ campaign advocates one simple idea: sexual violence by any person, against any person, is criminal violence. Consequently, non-consensual sexual penetration, regardless of whether the victim and perpetrator are married to each other, should be treated as rape
The group has already gathered more than 3,000 signatures for the petition which will be delivered to the Prime Minister
We would like to thank everyone who has given his or her support to the No To Rape petition to abolish marital rape immunity in Singapore. Twenty minutes ago, our petition has officially come to a close with over 3,600 signatures.
Over the next few days, we will be putting together the data collected before presenting it to our Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, by email and in hard copy.
Barnyard Chorus observes that “Rape culture in Singapore is a phenomenon that has really caught us by surprise and disturbed us when it finally reared its unabashedly ugly, misogynistic andabhorrent head.”
Syinc is supportive of the ‘No to Rape’ campaign
Let's just look at one facet of how maddeningly awful this is.
When a strange man rapes a stranger, it's highly unlikely that they'll ever have to face each otehr again.
When a husband rapes a wife, they'll be seeing each other everyday. In fact, the abuse is more than likely to keep going on. Perhaps, everyday.
When someone who promised to love and protect you through thick and thin commits such a horrific act – this leaves indelible scars deep within a person's psyche.
The Temasek Review explains why the cause involves everyone
This campaign brings together women and men, the young and the old, people from different races, believers in various faiths and those of no faith at all. Whatever your background, all of us have a shared interest in this. Everyone deserves the protection of the law from violence, no matter who commits it. Rape is a beating, a form of abuse, that just happens to be carried out using a sexual organ instead of a fist.
The ‘No To Rape’ campaign has produced several ads urging Singaporeans to support the petition drive
Bu some netizens are not supportive of the campaign. Toolang comments at The Online Citizen blog
The poor response shows that if every couple supports the campaign to make marital rape into law, the Police would be kept very busy throughout the year and have no time to keep Singapore safe and secure from crimes and terrorism except to investigate what thousands of couple do every night on bed, to assess whether excessive force was used on the partner. If excessive force was indeed used and tantamount to marital rape, the Police may take months to investigate. In the meantime, the couple reconciles and settles another round of pleasure on bed to resolve the dispute and do not want to pursue further. All the Police efforts go down the drain. I would suggest the researchers go down to the High and Family Courts and understand the family and domestic problems thoroughly first before embarking on this campaign.
Btan believes the organizers failed to gather enough signatures because it lacks genuine public support
Petitioners are still in denial. The lack of signature is not because of lack of publicity or drive but because most people know this petition is silly and nonsensical.
The petitioners insult the people, especially women, by assuming they cannot take care of themselves when they have the full weight of the law behind them.
It is better they direct their energies to more worthy cause, like establishing a genuine two-party system in Singapore where our citizens are not whipped like slaves and foreigners entering en mass diluting our national spirit.The house is burning and they are worrying about a bad hair day?
Get your priorities right.
The ‘No To Rape” campaign also has a Twitter account.
2 comments
Marital rape is traumatic. Everyday, the wife does not know what to do next. She can’t even leave their abode for the sake of the children. She feels like a ‘comfort woman’ just because no law protects her rights.
In my opinion, ‘marital rape’ ought to be a ‘crime’ on the statute book, that is, the ‘penal code’ concerned, as a ‘misdemeanor’ at least, if not a ‘felony’, which can be availed of by a needy woman as and when she deems it fit to complain thereunder in view of the circumstances of ‘estrangement’ between them or the ‘forcefulness’ or ‘violence’ of the act violating the ‘dignity of her person’ . The bogey often raised that ‘frivolous and vexatious complaints’ may be filed thereunder resulting in wasting the time of the law enforcement agencies, which might be better utilized in pursuing / preventing other traditional crimes and acts of terrorism, is not to be countenanced as the ‘value’ sought to be protected here through the imposition of criminal sanctions is that any ‘sexual intercourse’ between a man and a woman has to be with the ‘consent’ of the woman competent to give the same and also, that there can be no such thing as ‘implicit consent’ to the same ‘at all times and in all circumstances’ by reason only of the marital vow. Repeated acts of that kind should also be sufficient ground for ‘preventive orders’ like ‘separate residence and maintenance for a period’ or an ‘order of judicial separation’ or as one of the grounds for ‘divorce’ or ‘dissolution of marriage’. In such cases, the custody of the children should also be given to the mother in order to show that ‘any kind of violence within the family’ as a ‘socially recognized institution’ will not be tolerated. It should be borne in mind by the law enforcement agencies in such cases that we are living in ‘modern times’ when women are educated and emancipated and have a separate identity of their own and can ‘contract’ freely and hold ‘property’ in their own names. No longer are they to be treated, as in medieval times, as ‘chattels’ or ‘property’ of their menfolks, or their identity merged with that of their husbands upon marriage, for all purposes, giving any ‘implicit’ rights to sexual intercourse at all times regardless of their consent or the circumstances which make them say ‘no’ at times. The suggested ‘penal offence’ lies within the ambit of ‘dignity’ of a ‘human person’ requiring the protection of ‘penal sanction’ for violation of the same. This is the trend all over the modern civilized world.