Rape is a grievous offence against women and the criminal should be made to face the law for justice to be made for the victim. The victim would have a sense that the state cares for her welfare and protection. It would send a strong signal to others that you cannot rape somebody and not be dealt with.
The prosecution of a rapist shows that rape is not condoned and rapists should not be allowed to prowl and pounce and go their way as if they are not living among humans where there is no law and order.
Therefore, it is strange and everything against fairness and justice for a rapist to escape justice by offering to marry his victim.
A 25-year-old man, Dawlat Khan who was convicted for rape has been freed by a Pakistan court after he married his victim in out-of-court settlement brokered by the council of elders, according to his lawyer this week.
Khan was sentenced in May to life imprisonment for raping a deaf woman he is related to through extended family.
He was apprehended after the victim gave birth to a baby earlier this year, and a paternity test proved he was the child’s biological father.
Is this a reward for his crime, an applause for being a rapist, a violator of women? This so-called out-of-court settlement sends a wrong signal that you can commit such a repulsive act and go scot free by offering to marry the victim.
The victim may not have a say in the matter, she would accept her parents’ decision to save face in order to avoid shame and stigma. In this case in particular where pregnancy occurred, the parents may feel happy to shift her and her baby to the rapist as a husband and father.
At the end she would have to live with the reality of living with her violator transformed into a husband. A husband is supposed to be caring and a protector, not a man that was and would continue to be a nightmare for the rest of your life.
The children of such marriages would not be happy when they learn what their father had done to their mother. They would feel tainted and may even hate the father.
However, such a blatant shameful decision should not be allowed to take root or else the gains made to fight abuse against women may have a setback.
It brings women back to the era where it was the norm to abuse, violate and even kill them and heavens would not fall, in manner of speaking, because they were taken as sub-human.
Besides, even if a rapist repents and escapes justice by whatever means, he should not marry his victim, even though bewildered parents and elders may think it is the best solution. Only that the pain and anguish of the victim is not taken into consideration. What if the victim one day decides to take revenge and kill him? Then she would be charged for murder!
All people of good will and conscience should rise up against such a decision that undermines the gravity of the criminal offence of rape.
The authorities and the courts should make sure that offenders are punished so as not to ‘legalise’ rape by allowing the culprits to go if they agree to marry their victims.
