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Singapore: ‘No To Rape’ campaign

Categories: East Asia, Singapore, Human Rights, Law, Women & Gender

In Singapore, raping your wife is not treated as rape.

But it should be.

This is the main message of the ‘No To Rape’ [1] campaign published in the Facebook page [2] 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 [3] 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 [4] 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 [5] 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 [6] 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 [7] 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 [7] 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 [8] account.