pakistan voting to ammend rape law

the parliament in pakistan are voting to ammend their rape laws. one can only hope they will do the right thing.

at present, say, if a married woman is raped or gang-raped and she cannot produce 4 male witnesses to prove her side then she can be prosecuted for adultery.

the religious parties claim a change of the law would allow a 'free sex' society (although isn't their present law basically saying that males can freely have sex with any woman they choose without her consent because the chances of ever getting tried for rape are next to nil).

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Originally posted by justyc
at present, say, if a married woman is raped or gang-raped and she cannot produce 4 male witnesses to prove her side then she can be prosecuted for adultery.

That is a horrible loophole.

A woman is raped every two hours and gang-raped every eight hours in Pakistan, according to the country's independent Human Rights Commission.

Hopefully the law passes, thats a insane rate of rape. and seems like a very serious issue that needs to resolved.

UPDATE -

well done pakistan! they have voted to amend the law and rape cases will no longer be dealt with in sharia courts but will now go to the civil courts.

however, how this will go down amongst the men of pakistan is yet to be seen (and dealt with)

I agree that is a horrible law, but it is the law of Pakistan. I would be glad if Pakistan changed it, as the woman in the rape is a victim not a law breaker.

But some social norms in Pakistan may seem totally wrong to me, and this is one of them, but Pakistan can have any law in its soverign nation.

No they can't. They cannot legitimize a whole bunch of things that are deemed "Crimes against Humanity." Slavery is one, as is Genocide. Institutionalized Rape through "loopholes" should be deemed a "Crime Against Humanity" as well. BTW, we interfere with Middle-Eastern culture every time we fill up the gas tank. And every time we fill up the gas tank we are giving the thumbs up for practices such as these. If I had it my way, I'd put an ultimatum on the table. Either observe basic Human Rights as spelled out in the charter of every civilized country on the planet, or we stop buying Oil off of you. That's not interference in my books. Infact if we were to stop buying their oil just to remove ourselves from that volatile region, that would actually be less interference on our part over there.

[edit on 15-11-2006 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by sardion2000
BTW, we interfere with Middle-Eastern culture every time we fill up the gas tank.

And every time we fill up the gas tank we are giving the thumbs up for practices such as these.
[edit on 15-11-2006 by sardion2000]

This is why I not only refuse to boycott Citgo, I buy my gas exclusivly from Citgo. I know that some people do not have that choice, but I see South America as the lesser of the two evils.