A women's rights group reported yesterday that most women involved in marital rape hesitate to press charges against their spouses although prosecution for this crime has become mandatory in Taiwan.
This is also despite a law that has recently been enacted to protect victims of marital violence.
"Few married women realize the fact that they can say no to their husbands and that it's marital rape when they're forced to have unwanted sexual intercourse or penetration," said Lin Fang-hao (林方皓), president of the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation (台北市婦女救援基金會).
The organization invited lawyers, medical doctors and academics to participate in yesterday morning's seminar aimed at addressing the issue of marital violence and how to deal with the problem.
Yu Ting-lin (游庭麟), a presiding judge at the Panchiao District Court, encouraged abused women to report their misfortune to authorities.
"What we see more at court is complaints of physical assault instead of rape offenses. Chances are most of the victims are reluctant to hurt their spouse's feelings," she said.
Yu added that although the Domestic Violence Prevention Law (家庭暴力防治法), which went into effect in June 1998, allows the victim of marital violence to obtain restraining orders against the abusive spouse, more people obtain it on the grounds of physical assault, which carries a lighter punishment, instead of sexual abuse.
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