KUALA LUMPUR — Amid growing debate on the issue of marital rape in Malaysia, the Islamic leader of the country’s second-largest state and a hardline Islamist group have come out separately to say that a Muslim does not need his wife’s consent to have sex with her.

Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria said men can always have sexual intercourse with their spouses even if the woman does not agree, saying a Muslim woman has no right to reject her husband’s demand.

“Even the Prophet says even when they’re riding on the back of the camel, when the husband asks her, she must give,” said Mr Harussani.

“So, there’s no such thing as rape in marriage. This is made by European people, why should we follow?”

Echoing Mr Harussani, a spokesman of Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir Malaysia (HTM) has claimed it is sinful for a Muslim woman to reject sex with her husband and that Islam permits her to do so only if she is ill, if she is exhausted and not merely tired, or if intercourse will harm her health.

“Even if it’s by force, it’s not sinful for him; the sin is on his wife,” the spokesman, Mr Abdul Hakim Othman, said.

“But if he hits or kicks his wife in order to have sex, that’s wrong. You have to look at the level of their struggle. If it doesn’t harm her, it’s okay, but if it harms her, it’s wrong.

“The wife, though, must know that it’s wrong to reject him,” he added.

Debate has been growing in Malaysia on what constitutes marital rape, following an awareness campaign by opposition lawmaker Yeo Bee Yin. The campaign, named “Rape is rape. No excuse”, lists sex with one’s own wife without her consent as rape.

The campaign has drawn Malaysian Muslims to take to social media to say that marital rape does not exist in Islam, even if a Muslim has non-consensual sex with his wife.

“Your body is to be used by your husband, to put it crudely. When you marry a woman, there’s no need to get consent (for sex), no need at all,” said Mr Hakim.

He also said a Muslim woman cannot reject her husband’s sexual advances on the basis that she has “no mood”, but stressed that a Muslim man is similarly obligated to fulfil his wife’s requests for sex.

“Those are the rights of husband and wife ... When you have premarital sex, it’s sinful. But if you do it with your wife or husband, you get blessings,” he added.

The spokesman of the conservative Muslim group told a forum earlier that according to several hadiths, a woman who rejects sex with her husband will be “cursed by angels throughout the night”. Hadiths are sayings and actions attributed to Prophet Muhammad.

In Malaysia, marital rape is not a legal offence, but a husband may be prosecuted and imprisoned for a term of up to five years for forcing his wife to have sex by threatening violence or harming her.

“It’s not the act of rape that’s an offence; it’s putting the fear,” said Ms Meera Samanther, president of the Association of Women Lawyers.

“There’s this view that women are the property of husbands. That archaic view is still there,” the women’s rights activist added.

Ms Meera also said the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality, a coalition of women’s rights groups, has been lobbying since the 1980s for marital rape to be criminalised.

Criminal lawyer Geethan Ram said he knew of cases in which both Muslim and non-Muslim women lodge police reports about being raped by their spouses, but the complainants do not continue to have their cases prosecuted in court.

The former deputy public prosecutor said women do not want to proceed with prosecution of their rape complaints because some of them are homemakers who are financially dependent on their husbands, and noted that the women would still have to continue living with their husbands after they have been charged with rape.

“(There’s also the) misconception that they are duty-bound to provide sex since they are married,” said Mr Geethan, noting that this misconception is not unique to Muslim women, but is prevalent among “most women, even the educated”.

THE MALAY MAIL