Cold SnapDragon

It would appear at first glance , that the premise underlying the Sexual Assault Ordinance is what may be the most complete expression of patriarchy imaginable: the ownership of some women by certain men. This basic premise seems to be evidenced over and over in the text of the Ordinance through what is made a criminal offence and what it not, and a theme which seems to run through the substantive amendments to the Indian Penal Code is that men who would historically have been considered to own or have various rights to specific women would not be held to be criminally liable for sexually assaulting those women. The Indian Penal Code, as Madhu Mehra has said , "continues to be steadfast to its patriarchal moorings." The most glaring example of this is, of course, the non-criminalisation of marital rape of women with two exceptions: where the wife is under sixteen years of age or where the wife is ‘living separately under a decree of separation or under any custom or usage’ —...