A new report by the women's rights group Equality Now has shed light on Arab states' failure to adequately prosecute crimes of rape and protect victims, with the group urging governments to carry out legal reforms.
The report, titled 'In Search of Justice: Rape Laws in the Arab States', covers all 22 members of the Arab League.
"Equality Now’s analysis of rape laws and how they are implemented in League of Arab States countries reveals how rape laws across the region remain profoundly inadequate, leaving survivors without justice while routinely allowing perpetrators to escape accountability," Dr Dima Dabbous, Equality Now's representative in the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement to The New Arab.
Dabbous, who co-authored the report, emphasised that most legal systems in the region "still define rape in terms of force, ignoring the central principle of consent".
"Such narrow definitions of rape fail to consider when coercion, manipulation, and abuse of power are involved. Not one Arab League country has explicitly criminalised marital rape, and in some, husbands are still granted a so-called ‘right’ to sex regardless of consent," she said.
The report highlights that some countries in the region do recognise that sexual abusers can exploit positions of authority, with harsher penalties for those who abuse their roles.
However, it adds that none of the Arab League states have adopted laws that "comprehensively reflects the broad spectrum of circumstances where exploiting a position of trust, dependency, or vulnerability could negate consent, such as relationships involving teachers and students, family members, or a religious leader and a follower".
Barriers for survivors
The report also sheds light on the difference between how rape is defined in Arab League states and the international law definition, which defines it as "any act of sexual penetration, no matter how slight, using any body part or object, committed without the victim’s full and informed consent".
Many countries examined in the study only consider vaginal penetration by a penis as rape, with all other non-consensual forms of abuse being considered lesser offences with lighter penalties.
"All other forms of rape, using objects or other bodily parts, or where the victim is not female and the perpetrator is not male, is not recognised as rape, but as sexual assault, which receives a minor penalty compared to rape. This means most of the victims of rape are also not even recognised as victims of rape," Dabbous said.
For survivors of rape, expectations of reports within 72 hours and invasive medical exams act as significant barriers. Cases are often dismissed due to survivors having to prove that they physically resisted - evidence which is not always available.
Equality Now has urged that its report be used as a "blueprint for concrete, coordinated action", with several key suggestions made, including raising the age of marriage to 18, criminalising marital rape, and removing legal and procedural requirements "that make it burdensomely difficult to prove rape".