The world’s craziest anti-women laws

Where in the world can a man abduct a woman, marry her and immediately become impossible to prosecute? That would be Lebanon and Malta.

Where can’t a married woman get divorced without her husband’s permission? Try Israel. In Russia, women are still forbidden from “hard, dangerous and/or unhealthy trades.”

All these laws are still on the books despite the fact that 20 years ago, at the 1995 World Conference on Women, 189 countries signed on to a plan that would incorporate greater gender equality in their penal codes by revoking any discriminatory laws.

Women’s advocacy group, Equality Now, has launched a campaign against 44 governments for their discriminatory laws.

The report, “Ending Sex Discrimination in the Law,” was released on Friday with the intention of launching a worldwide petition campaign and accompanied by the hashtag #UnSexyLaws.

There’s a sliver of light shining on the deep, dark depths of law books and penal codes. The organisation has been releasing similar reports since 1999 and so far made serious strides: more than half of the laws it condemned since 1999 have since been repealed or amended, from Bangladesh to Lesotho.

Still, here we are in 2015 and these horrendous laws—an abominable selection of which are listed below—are still on the books.

India has been struggling to address its sexual assault problem the global outcry over a brutal gang rape and death of young student made headlines across the world in 2012. But a year later, the country added this clause into legislation—“sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.” The country has effectively legalised marital rape.

Similar abominable laws were overthrown in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay, in the past decade.

In Nigeria, violence “by a husband for the purpose of correcting his wife” is considered lawful. Violence is similarly allowed if a parent or schoolmaster is punishing a child, or a “master for the purpose of correcting his servant.”

In China, women can’t “work down the pit of mines,” or do difficult physical labour or, specifically, “other work that female workers should avoid.” In Madagascar, women cannot be employed at night in an “industrial establishment” unless it’s the family business.

In Saudi Arabia, a 1990 Fatwa argues that “women’s driving of automobiles” is prohibited, due to it being “a source of undeniable vices,” such as men and women privately meeting and women removing their veils.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a “wife is obliged to live with her husband and follow him wherever he sees fit to reside.” She also cannot appear in civil court or “sell or undertake commitments” without her husband’s go-ahead.

If the husband agrees, but later changes his mind, he can revoke that privilege. This makes it almost impossible for a woman to open her own business, or do any above-the-table dealings independently.

In Guinea, a similar law applies to women seeking a separate profession from her husband, which is illegal if he objects.”—Thedailybeast.com