A session court of Sindh has sentenced a man to three years imprisonment after he was convicted of marital rape. The lawyer of the woman claimed this was the first conviction of ‘marital rape’ in the country.

Additional session Judge (South) Ashraf Hussain Khowaja pronounced his judgment on January 15 which is being celebrated among women all over the country.

He sentenced the man to three-year rigorous prison and charged a penalty of Rs 30,000.

The court added that if the convicted will fail to pay the fine the imprisonment would be extended for a month.

The First Information Reported (FIR) had been lodged under section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in 2022, on the complaint of the man’s wife. She accused him of an unnatural physical relationship which led her to suffer in piles.

The judge noted that the medical evidence was supporting the claim of the victim. On the other hand, the convicted man failed to defend his allegations that his wife loved somebody which is why she implicated him falsely.

The woman tied the knot with the convicted man on July 23, 2022. She later filed a case saying that her husband sodomised her despite her trying to stop him. She informed her mother-in-law, who didn’t say anything to him, she said, adding that then she disclosed her ordeal to her sister and brother.

However, the said decision of the first conviction of ‘marital rape’ is being appreciated by the social media users. They believe that the decision has defined marital rape which people think doesn’t exist.

Asma Jahangir’s legal aid cell termed the decision a ‘seminal judgement’.

However, officials belonging to different governmental and non-governmental organizations believe that the number of rape or marital rape cases in official documents are far lower than actual cases because people don’t want two report such cases as they think this dishonours the family.