Marital rape is crime, says Taslima Nasrin

KOCHI: Controversial

Bangladesh-born author Taslima Nasrin

said rape is not about sex and it’s an act of masculinity and power. So it’s purely a weapon of subjugation and men have been using it since ages. She was talking at a session on ‘Rape, a weapon of subjugation’ at the Knowledge Festival of Krithi 2019.


“During Bangladesh’s freedom struggle in 1971, the Pakistani army raped more than 200,000

Bangladeshi women

. So had been the case with many similar situations in history,” she said. So, the way-out is to let men become less masculine and women, more masculine.

"When the first two parts of my autobiography with my experiences as a victim were published, they were welcomed by everybody as they were stories of subjugation. But later, when I acquired strength and courage in my life, stood up against discriminations and wrote about them and how I enjoyed sex and all in the third part, all came up against it," Nasrin said.

Women are blamed for rape everywhere, about the way they dress, behave in public, etc. But rape is completely a men’s problem and only spreading awareness and education among men can reduce the number of rapes, she said.

She also criticized the subcontinent governments for not declaring marital-rape as a crime. Even in prostitution, it’s more violence and less sex. Most men see women only as a sex object, slave and child-bearing machine. Actually, it’s not good for men to have slaves as their life partners. “I am sure they will be happier in life they did have equal partners,” Taslima added.

Unfortunately, even a women chief minister like Mamta Banerjee offered money for child rape victims and that way worsened the situation, she alleged. The mandatory death penalty will also not help reduce rapes as this will, on the contrary, will reduce the number of people coming out to report the crime.