When the law becomes an additional tool of punishment for women - Arin Sweid

Many women's associations, movements and organizations have launched large campaigns to change the law and urge the drafting of legislation guaranteeing equality between the genders and neutralizing some laws that are unfair to women in many Arab countries.

As a tribute to the relentless struggle of women in this context, many Arab countries (such as Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Jordan, and recently Bahrain) have canceled articles that allow rapists to marry their victims in order to avoid legal punishment.

Although rape is considered a crime in all laws of the world, most Arab laws protect the rapist in one way or another, and the law turns into an additional punishment tool for the victim instead of protecting her. While the Syrian Penal Code does not consider violence against women a crime, rather it encourages the perpetration of violence against women in many of its articles, and we refer here to some of them:

The chapter on assault on honor contained in Articles 489 to 508 of the Syrian Penal Code

Article (489) states: “Whoever coerces someone other than his wife, by violence or threat, into sexual intercourse, shall be punished with hard labor for at least fifteen years.” (marital rape): This article does not recognize marital rape; In other words, it gives the husband the right to legally rape his wife.

Article (508) Marriage of the victims of violence to the perpetrator of the crime: “If a valid marriage is concluded between the perpetrator of the crimes mentioned in this chapter and the victim of the offense, the prosecution shall be suspended, and if a ruling has been issued in the case, the execution of the punishment imposed on him shall be suspended.

He shall be returned to prosecution or execution of the penalty before the expiration of three years for the misdemeanor and the expiry of five years after the felony, if the marriage ends either with the divorce of the woman without a legitimate reason or with the divorce adjudged in favor of the victim.

This article has been amended to read as follows:

Article 508 is repealed and replaced with "If a valid marriage is concluded between the perpetrator of one of the crimes mentioned in this chapter and the victim of the offense."

He benefits from a mitigating excuse in accordance with the provisions of Article (241), provided that the penalty is not less than two years imprisonment, and the perpetrator is re-trialed either by divorcing the woman without a legitimate reason or by divorcing the convict in favor of the victim before the expiration of five years.

Cancellation of Article (508), which exempted the aggressor of the victim from punishment in the event of his marriage to her under a marriage contract, and he would be imprisoned for only two years and 5 years if he divorced her.

Through these provisions, we see that marriage encourages perpetrators of sexual violence against women.

In addition to these laws, the offenders benefit from the multiplicity of terms used in this chapter of the Penal Code in terms of describing the crime, the means of proof, the right to complain, and, as a result, the accusation and punishment. Since there are many judicial rulings in sexual assault cases that differ from one case to another; One time, the act is considered rape, another time defloration, a third is fornication, and a fourth is an indecency act. Thus, it is used as a means of defense, and the aggressors evade punishment or receive a simple punishment at best.

I also draw attention to the mitigating excuses that are used as a defense to mitigate punishment in cases of so-called "honor killings" according to Syrian law.

To confront these laws, women's organizations in northern and eastern Syria have worked to spread societal awareness to ensure equality and women's rights, by constantly striving to implement the women's laws that were issued by the Women's Authority in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria in 2014 and are applied within the region to guarantee the rights of all women.

The Women’s Law in North and East Syria, which aims to “protect women from persecution and guarantee complete equality with men in everything,” includes in its thirty articles political rights and the formation of organizations “in a manner that does not violate the social contract,” obtaining their approval of their legislative laws, and “ Equality between men and women in the right to work and wages” and “equality between the testimony of women and the testimony of men in terms of legal value.”

The law also stipulates “preventing a girl from marrying without her consent,” “preventing polygamy,” “criminalizing honor killing,” and “discrimination is a crime punishable by law.” The Democratic Autonomous Administration must combat all forms of violence and discrimination through the development of legal mechanisms. and services to provide protection, prevention and treatment for victims of violence.

Here we must point out that the enactment of laws is a simple part in the framework of women's protection, and the leading role of women in achieving unity must be emphasized by strengthening their joint organization at the level of the Middle East, raising the resistance approach, which is a means of self-protection, and raising the level of societal awareness in this regard to achieve Freedom and victory.

T/ Satt.

ANHA