The government should work more at preventing bad marriages rather than wasting resources by penalizing adulterers, women rights advocates said yesterday.
The government’s refusal to decriminalize adultery is unfair and discriminatory to women, they said.
Awakening Foundation chairwoman Fan Yun (范雲) said adultery should be resolved by the couple in question and the government had no right to meddle with personal problems in the bedroom.
Taiwan is one of the few remaining countries in the world where extramarital sex can be punished by a heavy fine or a maximum of three years in prison.
“The law might seem like a lifesaver for women with cheating husbands, but in reality, it only restricts women’s right to break free from an awful marriage,” Fan said.
Article 1052 of the Civil Code stipulates that an individual who seeks a divorce must present evidence to show his or her spouse has committed bigamy, engaged in a sexual act with another person, purposefully abandoned the family, has the intention to murder, has been abusive, is chronically ill or missing for more than three years.
Fan said to collect evidence against their husbands, most women hire private investigators to catch their spouse having sex with another person. The process is not only expensive and unreliable, but also puts the women at risk of libel for invasion of privacy.
Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), one of the founding members of the organization, said there have been cases in which the court threw out evidence provided by women because they failed to present an actual condom that contained the bodily fluid of both her husband and his partner.
“Which means even if you have pictures of them naked in bed, it is still useless,” she said.
A recent study conducted by a National Science Council researcher indicated that between 1999 and 2005, 50 percent of the women who sued their spouses for adultery withdrew their lawsuits, while only 23 percent of the husbands dropped charges against their allegedly cheating wives.
“In this society, it is still widely viewed that when a man cheats on his wife, it is nothing serious. But when a wife has an affair, she is a slutty tramp,” said Yu, calling the stereotype unfair and untrue.
By treating adultery as a crime, the government is also taking away an adult’s freedom to engage in consensual sex, National Taiwan University law professor Chen Chao-ju (陳昭如) said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS