Saturday, November 19, 2005

Good News...I Guess

I'm surprised there hasn't been more comment about the Mexican Supreme Court ruling that spousal rape is, in fact, rape. The ruling overturns a 1994 decision that spousal rape was merely the 'exercise of conjugal rights'.

It's a good thing, of course...but how disheartening is it that spousal rape was perfectly legal in Mexico, that women were (in at least that respect) legally property, until last week?

The story also has this grim bit of perspective: nearly 90% of all sexual assaults in Mexico go unreported.

The Supreme Court decision brings Mexican law into line with most of the rest of the world:

Only a few countries in the world do not recognize rape within marriage as a crime; India and Malaysia are the two most prominent examples. But the change in laws is relatively recent. In the United States, it was not a crime in all states until 1993.
Good news: only a few countries are still where Mexico was until this week.

Bad news: India, with than 1/8 of the world's population, is one of them.

Shameful news: in the United States, spousal rape was still legal in some states as recently as 1993. We've come so far; we have so far to go.