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Raičević: More than 90 women raped in marriage

Safe Women’s House sent a note to representatives asking to change the law regulation. They demand that new form of crime act be rape without consent without threat and force, as well as rape in the family, including marriage rape.

Out of 173 women who we have on our lists since January, more than half said that they have experienced marriage rape, Raičević said to Pobjeda.

When women came to report the violence, they said that they had sexual relations against their will after beatings. Raičević said that they were not even aware that they were victims of rape.

A small number of women cites this information in their suits, and police, prosecutors or judges do not ask of this form of violence. Employees of SWH, when accompanying women to police, remind them to mention this fact.

“This is the hardest part of the conversation. We take our time to explain the importance of this information, the special way in which they were hurt. They say that this act even happens in front of their children. We assume this is the reason of their silence”, she said.

She admitted that this behaviour prevents them from forming the suit in the right way. She said that only one woman reported marriage rape during her divorce.

“It is difficult to break the prejudice of woman being at fault for the violence she endures. Even women will sometimes say: She got what she deserved”, she said.

This NGO believes that the crime regulation does not recognize marital rape as a crime, and thus the state implicitly supports this act. They are dedicated to asking stronger punishments for this crime, because that is the only way to send a message that sexual violence in the family is not legitimate nor accepted in the society.

Raičević said that the representatives are willing to cooperate and that they will soon have a meeting at SWH. They will discuss victims of violence in order to better understand the initiative of this organization.

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