ingotshani” “he was sexually assaulted by a homosexual” loosely thrown around, igniting feelings of shame in the victim. It is not uncommon to criminalise male rape. South Africa is a good example as they have repealed the common law offence of rape and replaced it with a statutory definition under their Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007 (Act No. 32 of 2007)which applies to all genders (male, female and other) and defines rape in the following manner; “Any person ("A") who unlawfully and intentionally commits an act of sexual penetration with a complainant ("B"), without the consent of B, is guilty of the offence of rape.” 4.1.6 Marital Rape Although more women [78%] than men [75%] thought that it is possible for a woman to be raped by her husband, a surprising number of men believed in the possibility of marital rape. However, of those who said they did not know if it was possible, men were a greater number as compared to women. Awareness around the criminality of marital rape could be attributed to the existence of a law, as provided for in the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act, which states unequivocally that the fact that a victim of rape was the spouse of the person accused of rape does not suffice as a defence.32 This is further supported by the Domestic Violence Act33 which protects women from sexual abuse in intimate relationships with such abuse defined as “any conduct that humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates the sexual integrity of the complainant.” Effectively, the law makes it a criminal offence for a man to rape his wife. However, the problem of marital rape remains underreported and unresolved. At the time of writing this report, the law criminalising marital rape has been in place since 2010, yet not a single conviction has successfully been secured in the courts. Part of the problem is the belief that a married woman cannot be raped by her husband because, when he pays lobola for her, he has also bought unrestricted rights of access to conjugal sex. The “so what…he is her husband” attitude prevents women from reporting cases of marital rape as they are often not taken seriously by the police or are advised to go back home and talk to their husbands because this is a “domestic issue.” Often when women try to report, they are interrogated as to why it had to come to that for the man to rape his own wife. The police dismiss such cases asking the woman “waimbomunyimirei” “why were you refusing him sex in the first place” perpetuating the belief that women should always say yes to sex. The prevalence of this attitude in the wider society means that law enforcement officials such as the police, the prosecution and even the judiciary are not spared socialisation to these prejudices. This leads to the tendency for men’s behaviour to be excused when marital rape occurs and interferes with the effective investigation, prosecution, and sentencing of cases of marital rape. This problem is not unique to Zimbabwe; it is a global phenomenon. Some South African judges have illustrated that they carry such prejudices onto the bench as reflected in their judgements. For instance in the case of S v Modise,34 Judge Gura of the High Court of South Africa, Bophuthatswana Provincial Division dealing with a case of marital rape said; “This is a man whose wife joined him in bed, clad in panties and a nightdress. When life was still normal between them, they would ordinarily have made love. The appellant must, therefore, have been sexually aroused when his wife entered the blankets. The desire to make love to his wife must have overwhelmed him, hence his somewhat violent behaviour.” 32 33 34 Section 68(a) of the Criminal Law Codification (and Reform) Act. The Domestic Violence Act [Chapter 5:16] Section 3 (2)(b) Ezekiel Modise v The State CA NO.: 113/06 Paragraph 19 Available on Saflii at http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZANWHC/2007/73.pdf