When No Means No

India is considered the worst country for women due to sexual violence. Women are often seen as chattel and raped. In some nations, violence is needed for the crime to be seen as rape. Only a change of mindset can tackle this horrendous crime

- Maithili Shaan Katari Libby

Guess the places where these occurred:

A: One in 20 women has been raped here.

B: Every 16 minutes a woman is raped here.

C: The highest prevalence rate of physical and sexual violence against women in Europe.

D: 40,000 reported rape cases a year, of which only 10% lead to convictions.

Answers: A is Europe, B is India, C is Denmark, and D is South Africa

THE issue here is about consent. Consensual sex requires consent. Intercourse without consent tantamounts to rape. This is fairly straightforward. This basic aspect appears to have been overlooked the world over.

Spanish judges in 2018 had cleared five men (“the wolf pack”) of gangraping a teenager because they did not see any resistance from her. She said she froze in terror, but the judge did not accept this. Spontaneous protests by women broke out across Spain, with many saying they believed her, and they were her wolf pack. Spain had seen nothing like it, and within months, the government agreed to amend the laws, and the wolf pack was found guilty of rape and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Until this point in Spain, violence or intimidation was needed for it to be classified as rape. The same goes for 22 countries in Europe. Only nine countries call lack of consent rape. Poland has no marital rape law, and the sentence is approximately two years for convicted rapists. India too has no such law.