When is rape not considered rape?

[Draggingtree]

Reuters:

When is rape not considered rape?

 

By Thin Lei Win

March 19, 2013

I had always thought – naively as it turns out – that rape is when a person forces another person, either physically or by using threats, to have sex and/or when there’s an absence of a clear ‘yes’.

 

Apparently not.

 

According to the laws in some of Southeast Asia’s fast-developing nations, rape within a marriage isn’t rape. Or if you go by some of the decisions handed down by the courts, it’s not rape if there isn’t a physical struggle or the perpetrator is in his 60s.

 

Politicians and law enforcement officials raise doubts that a rape has occurred if the victim and the perpetrator know each other or if the female victim is behaving in an ‘unladylike’ way, for example getting drunk, staying out late or being overly friendly with members of the opposite sex.

 

I came across these laws, judgements and comments when I was researching a story on how difficult it is for female rape victims to get access to justice in Thailand.

 

I found rape-related laws that are discriminatory and weakly enforced and archaic societal attitudes about women, not just in Thailand but in other middle-income countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines. What I didn’t find was a dedicated shelter for rape victims of all ages in Bangkok, a city of some 9 million people.

 

WHAT RAPE?