Jordan ends rapists’ marriage loophole

When is Malaysia going to follow suit and treat a rapist as a criminal and not a potential husband for the very woman or girl he raped. Save tax payers money, after the rapist is found guilty of rape, cut off his penis and done away with future rapes he may commit

Hanging wedding dresses in Beirut, Lebanon

[BBC] – A law which protected rapists from punishment if they married their victims has been scrapped in Jordan.

The Jordanian cabinet revoked Article 308 on Sunday, after years of campaigning by women’s activists, as well as Muslim and Christian scholars and others. The law had meant rapists could avoid a jail term in return for marrying their victim for at least three years.

Its supporters said the law protected a victim’s honour and reputation.

‘A dream come true’

But last year, it was amended so a rapist could only use the loophole to marry his victim if she was aged between 15 and 18 and the attack was believed to have been consensual. Then in February, a royal committee suggested the law should be scrapped in its entirety.

At the time, the move was welcomed by activist Lailla Naffa as a “dream that has come true,” according to the Jordan Times. However, the fight to end the loophole in other Middle Eastern countries is far from over.

As Jordan was abolishing Article 308, Lebanese activists were hanging wedding dresses along Beirut’s famous sea front, in protest against Lebanon’s version of the law. They are hopeful it will be scrapped in May, and activists hope the repeal in both countries could lead to change in countries like Iraq, the Philippines and Tunisia, where similar laws exist, according to Equality Now.

A spokesman for the human rights group, which fights for women and children across the world, told the BBC: “With rape and sexual abuse impacting nearly a billion women and girls over their lifetimes, a repeal in Jordan and Lebanon would be crucial examples showing how change is possible in the Arab region, and around the world, for countries with similar exemptions.

“Morocco, Egypt and Ethiopia have closed similar loopholes, and amendments are pending in Bahrain.”