Pre-marital sex is an individual choice

... says city-based author Anita Nair, reacting to the act being called ‘immoral’ by a Delhi court recently.
It’s about individual choice: “This is perhaps one of the silliest rulings I have ever heard. Doesn’t the judiciary have more pressing matters to take care of instead of looking the sex lives of citizens? It is an individual’s choice who to have sex with, marriage or no marriage, and is entirely their business.As long as it is consensual and there is no exploitation or abused involved, it should remain an individual’s decision and shouldn’t be anybody’s business, let alone the state’s.”
Interpretations of religion are subjective: “Interpretations are subjective. As far as I have read, there are no tenets that say that God has stated this, but everything depends on how one interprets these things.”
Responsibility of a sexual act must be shared: “The responsibility doesn’t lie on just one person. The sexual act happens when two individuals agree upon it, and the equation changes when there is non-compliance. The men should have the equal responsibility of being decent human beings too.”
“When a grown up, educated and office-going woman subjects herself to sexual intercourse with a friend or colleague on the latter's promise that he would marry her, she does so at her own peril. She must be taken to understand the consequences of her act and must know that there is no guarantee that the boy would fulfil his promise.”
“She must understand that she is engaging in an act which not only is immoral but also against the tenets of every religion. No religion in the world allows premarital sex.”
“Every act of sexual intercourse between two adults on the assurance of promise of marriage does not become rape, if the assurance or promise is not fulfilled later on by the boy.”
— As told to Taniya Talukdar