Mar. 11, 2024 – ZNS Bahamas

Equality Bahamas founder, Alicia Wallace featured in ZNS Bahamas on March 11, 2024.

From ZNS Bahamas:

Equality Bahamas organized a women’s march and expo over the weekend just a day after International Women’s Day.

Director of Equality Bahamas, Alicia Wallace spoke with ZNS News about the event. She said, “we can take some time as women and as girls to take care of ourselves in this space and to advocate for the rights that we want which include: criminalizing marital rape; ensuring that women have equal citizenship, we’re able to pass on citizenship to our children and to our spouses; ensuring that there is comprehensive sexuality education. There are so many things that we need to do in this country to make it good, not just for tourist but for those of us who live her, especially women.”

Equality Bahamas is an organization that promotes women and LGBTQ+ rights.

 

Watch the interview below.

March 8, 2024 – The Tribune 

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia Wallace featured in the International Women’s Day supplement in The Tribune on March 8, 2024.

From The Tribune:

The criminalization of marital rape has long been a hot potato. Everyone who has been a
parliamentarian or senator over the past two decades, at least, knows that marital rape is an
issue that needs to be addressed, yet there has been little action to amend the Sexual Offenses
Act. No political party has shown true interest in ending gender-based violence against women
and few politicians have clearly, unequivocally stated their support for criminalizing marital rape or that marital rape is rape. More politicians have avoided the topic or said, in some way, that it is a “private matter” when other forms of domestic violence and the same sexual violence committed by non-spouses are not relegated to the private realm.

The Sexual Offences Act Section 3 has a definition of rape that excludes spouses as
perpetrators. The issue with the definition is in five words. The definition begins, “Rape is the act of any person not under fourteen years of age having sexual intercourse with another person who is not his spouse [without con

sent].” “Who is not his spouse” creates a spousal exception to the violent act of rape.

In 2018, there was a draft bill to amend the Sexual Offences Act to criminalize marital rape, and it failed to remove “who is not his spouse” from the definition of rape. There were other
unacceptable terms including an absurd temporal limitation. Equality Bahamas rejected this
amendment bill and presented the elements that need to be included in a bill to criminalize
marital rape through the #Strike5ive campaign.

Remove “who is not his spouse” from the definition of rape in Section 3. Marital rape is rape.
Women have bodily autonomy, and this includes the right to say “no” to anyone, including their spouses. A marriage license must not be license to rape.