Ugandan Court Voids Gender-Biased Adultery Law
KAMPALA, 24 June: Ugandas Supreme Court recently nullified (ophævede) a law that made adultery (utroskab) criminal for women, but not men. The constitutional case also strengthened womens rights on divorce and inheritance.
A group of womens rights advocates, Law and Advocacy for Women in Uganda, in April, brought a separate case before the Ugandan Supreme Court, arguing that the 1995 national constitution ensures equal protection under the law.
The court agreed and struck down criminal adultery, a profound victory for womens rights here. Now, husbands and wives are equal before the laws of adultery. Sort of.
While the laws now apply equally – adultery is decriminalized for both sexes – the real life consequences of adultery for women and men remain gravely different.
Across Uganda, where polygamy for men is legal, adultery committed by husbands is widely tolerated, while adultery committed by wives results in shame and stigma, says Irene Mulyagonja, a family law lawyer in Kampala.
“Almost Every Husband Commits Adultery”
While most couples opt for the monogamous or “civil” marriage over the polygamous or “customary” marriage, Mulyagonja says “almost every husband in the country commits adultery, even those in civil marriages; it is almost 100 percent.”
Makerere University Faculty of Law Dean Sylvia Tamale agrees – Most Ugandan husbands have mistresses or secret wives, even if they are in civil marriages. Monogamy does not fit here. It is totally alien. But women are shunned if they commit adultery, said she.
The differing attitudes toward male and female sexual entitlements are what made the ruling so important. – The unjust adultery law was part and parcel of womens struggle for sexual autonomy. And the control and regulation of our sexuality is central to our subordinate (undergivne) status, says Tamale.
Outcry Stirred
The Supreme Court ruling stirred plenty of outcry in this largely Christian East African nation. Many church-based groups argued that it promoted immorality, promiscuity and Western decadence.
The decision headlined both of the countrys major newspapers and was followed for weeks with letters to the editor decrying it as the destruction of marriage and the decline of a morally upright culture.
A group of parliamentarians threatened to pass a law criminalizing adultery for both sexes. – But they knew they could not do that. Because they would all be thrown in prison, says Tamale.
A cartoon in the popular New Vision newspaper depicted members of parliament fleeing the chambers when the proposed criminalization was mentioned.
Kilder: womens e-news og The Push Journal
