Marital rape: what is it and why don’t Arab countries criminalize it?

Controversy has intensified on the Egyptian and Arab streets in recent times over the subject of marital rape, and opinions were split between calls for its criminalization and denial of its existence.

At a time when more than fifty countries criminalize marital rape and punish it with penalties including imprisonment and a fine, to date none of these countries is Arab.

Hanan Abdel Razek’s report examines the reasons for decriminalizing marital rape.