THE AWARENESS ABOUT MARITAL RAPE AMONG STUDENTS IN INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

NOR KATRINA ANIS BINTI AHMAD GHANI LAWS

DEFINITION
MARRIAGE
Pure and sacred relationship formed in order for people to live in peace and harmony, aligned with the nature of human themselves. It is often regarded as a socially or ritually recognized union or legal contract between spouses that establishes rights and obligations between them, their children, and their in-laws (Haviland, 2011).

MARITAL RAPE
Also known as spousal rape, is non-consensual sex in which the perpetrator is the victim's spouse. It can be equally, or even more, emotionally and physically damaging than rape by a stranger.

 Ticket to gain consent for sexual intercourse and that the wife cannot refuse to consent to it due to the fact that obligation and consent comes together with the marriage itself (Kelly, 1990)

 Williams (1992) had made a statement that a law should treat the domestic rapist with particular leniency in order to distinguish between his crime and that of a stranger rapist Criminal Code of England (1976)
husbands should be dealt with differently from the stranger who rapes.

Sexual intercourse
one of the marital rights or partial immunity to the husband

 New offence
distinction between husband-rapist from stranger-rapist punishment lesser and lesser (Shiels, 1992).

CURRENT SCENARIOS: Husbands/wives have the tendency to conceal their marital affair and succumb to the surrounding hoping for the problem to end.
No means/cannot resort to any alternatives due to lack of knowledge in this area. Surrendering is an act of devotion
Level of understanding is below average.

Problem?
It is the culture and societal perception that the issue is a family matter that is meant to stay within the marriage itself.

OBJECTIVE
To associate the level of understanding of the laws available with the awareness of marital rape among the students of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as well as to analyse the perception of students in IIUM towards this issue of marital rape.

Research Questions
1. How much are they aware about the issue of marital rape? 2. How aware are they about the laws governing marital rape?

PURPOSE
To increase awareness of:
marital rape especially among students so that they can convey the information to the right channel in order to spread the awareness. several other countries are facing this catastrophe of marital rape without them knowing about it.

A step towards minimizing the issue of marital rape itself which is to curb from within.

METHODOLOGY
Participants 31 students from IIUM quantitative nature Gender bias was intended to be avoided but inevitable. Tools and materials Questionnaire consisting of 11 statements.
Statements 1 to 6 = Research question 1, Statements 7 to 4 and 11 = Research question 2.

Procedure Survey.
Via Google online survey. Lessen the use of paper and to make interpretations of data easier. Respondents of different backgrounds and kuliyyah for non-bias environment.

Data Analysis Recorded in a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel.

converted into bar graphs and pie charts.

RESULTS

FIRST PART:
1st research question
To scrutinize the degree of awareness in marital rape issue

Degree of awareness in marital rape issue

35 30 25

20 Yes 15 No

10

0 Students having heard of marital rape Lack of governmental campaign leads to non-awareness Experience on marital rape Prior knowledge on the issue

Degree of awareness on severity of marital rape

1 2 3 1 9 13 3% 29% 42%

4
5

5
3

16%
10%

Students view on the governments effort in curbing the issue

YES NO

18 13

58% 42%

SECOND PART:
2nd research question
To measure their awareness of the related existing laws applicable in the country as well as outside of the countries

Questions pertaining to the awareness of the governing legislation

30

25

20 Yes 15 No

10

0 Do you have knowledge of programme aimed at curbing this issue? Do you think non-governmental organisation should spread awareness to the students about marital rape?

Knowledge of Related applicable law

Yes, in Malaysia Yes,outside Malaysia

7 3

23% 10%

Yes, both I am not aware

9 12

29% 39%

Understanding towards the punishment of the marital rape offender.

DEGREE NO OF PARTICIPANTS PERCENTAGE (%)

1 2 3 4 5

4 8 13 4 2

13% 26% 42% 13% 6%

DISCUSSION RESEARCH QUESTION 1

Majority of the respondents did not have adequate knowledge on the issue of marital rape.
58% of the respondents agreed that lack of government campaign leads to the poor knowledge pertaining to this issue.
Government might not have done enough action and exposure towards the public. People of rural areas might not have sufficient knowledge.

 The response regarding the personal experience as well as experience handling person in that situation.
Only 6% out 31 students taking the survey has ever experience it Others do not have any experience pertaining to the issue. They were not aware of the issue most probably due to the fact that lack of exposure being given to educate the public. Probability that the respondents do not even know what marital rape is.

As a consequence, they were not able to detect the situation occurring within their surroundings.

DISCUSSION RESEARCH QUESTION 2

Awareness of the legislation in Malaysia 39% of the respondents are not aware,. Danger on the understanding of the local legislation due to the fact that the exception in Section 375 of the Penal Code. Malaysia does not have specific legislation regarding the issue of marital rape.
Only legislation regarding normal rape, domestic violence and causing hurt.

This might be the reason why government does not really emphasise more on this issue.

DIFFERENT SCENARIO OUTSIDE OF MALAYSIA

Daniel (1990) stated that,

no distinction should now be drawn as to whether or not the rape victim is married to the accused. The law in Scotland is similar to that of many parts of the US, albeit the process there was mainly achieved by way of legislation.

IMPLICATION
New legislation specifying the crime of marital rape from the viewpoint of IIUM students.
The proposed idea is for the government to take away the exception in Section 375.

Students may refer to improve their knowledge on issue of marital rape.

Better solutions in near future

Lecturers will know the level of students understanding to help them improve their knowledge in this field.

LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATION

Not familiar with certain words.
Words such as marital rape might be understood by law students, but not among students of other faculties. Cannot answer the questions. Improve the clarity of the questions.

Future researchers advised to look for respondents outside the university environment
to measure the understanding among people living in rural areas as compared to urban areas. Current study is conducted among educated circle of community.