THE EVIL within bedrooms called marital rape is just another wing of gender-based violence. Unfortunately, it appears to be overlooked by society. A woman interviewed for this paper’s Women Today pullout asked: How can I tell the world that my own husband raped me? 

Some women are aware of marital rape but allow fate to float their life; others are ignorant of what their rights entail. They submit to every whims of their partner and where nature fails them, they still endure the anguish.

But marriage is a mutual agreement, not a one-sided transaction. Because of this, spouses have to live their entire lives with a mutual understanding. This mutuality must transcend sex life in marriage to ensure marital rape has no chance of peeping into bedrooms.

But the world is never fairer than desired. Some men live with the mantra that "a little bit of force is not a bad thing if it will get their wives to submit to them.” This is wrong. Advocates in the anti-GBV campaigns should let the counselling leaf encompass marital rape.

Let us strive to see the mothers of this nation live a life free of anguish by enabling them and their partners understand the essence of mutuality as a human virtue. Anti-GBV campaigns should inculcate in spouses the knowledge that marital rape is not a Police case—unless it gets out of hand—but instead one that shows a loss of mutuality. This should be easily mended through an understanding between partners.

Anti-GBV campaigns should empower spouses to understand the element of domestic violence to the smallest detail. Currently, the majority perceive GBV with a limited scope -- wife battering and failure by the head of family to meet basic needs. 

Widening the scope of GBV will go a long way in empowering spouses with the ideals of mutual respect. Let’s end the scourge of marital rape in the fight against gender-based violence.