Despite the #MeToo wave, rape remains, in the collective imagination, the fruit of a deranged mind that attacks a woman he does not know, at the bend of a dark alley. And yet, the reality is far from this scenario. “Nearly one in two rapes is perpetrated by a spouse or ex-spouse”, alert the members of the French Collective against marital rape in a column published in the columns of Release.
“On average, 121 women are victims of marital rape every day in France”, asserts the collective on its Instagram account. The signatories hope to raise awareness about this crime and attack in particular the “myth of marital duty”. The latter “is at the heart of the absence of the notion of consent in couples”.
An “aggravating circumstance” rarely treated as such
“Many victims testify to having been forced by their partner but do not put the word “rape” on their experience, thinking that their partner is in his right. Many aggressors also admit to forcing their partner, while feeling legitimate to do so under the guise of marital duty, ”explains the forum. However, recalls the collective, rape between spouses has been “considered as an aggravating circumstance” since the 1980s.
However, in society as in the judicial treatment of these cases, there is still a long way to go. In 2018, the columnists of TPMP had also provoked controversy by minimizing marital rape – even by praising the latter, in a particularly shocking debate.
Training day and abolition of “conjugal duty”
“The majority of marital rapes are not taken seriously into account by the courts and are requalified as an offense or dismissed without further action”, indignantly the new collective, adding that in 2016, “70% of rape cases were classified without follow-up”.
This new collective, of which the journalist Giulia Foïs is a member, “aims to raise awareness in society about consent within couples and to fight against marital rape and its consequences through awareness campaigns, militant actions and projects. for better care of victims. In particular, he calls for “a day of compulsory training dedicated to marital rape for all public officials in contact with victims” and the definitive abolition of the notion of “conjugal duty”, still used in the context of divorces.