Marital Rape

"Marital Rape provides an insightful analysis of the laws, cultural norms, and social practices surrounding marital rape throughout the world. It makes clear that true sex equality requires sexual autonomy in marriage. This book will be a valuable resource for social scientists, lawyers, advocates, and government officials." --Jill Elaine Hasday, JD, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Centennial Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School; author of Family Law Reimagined "Co-edited by two pioneering feminist scholars, Marital Rape helps fill a major gap in the social scientific literature on a topic that continues to receive selective inattention from the media and policymakers. More importantly, this path-breaking volume examines marital rape globally and is interdisciplinary in nature. The editors and contributors should be commended for enhancing our knowledge of one of the world's most compelling social problems." --Walter S. DeKeseredy, MA, PhD, Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences, West Virginia University; co-author, Violence against Women in Pornography "Even though rape within marriage is widespread, research on this phenomenon has been greatly neglected. Marital Rape makes a very important contribution by providing a sophisticated analysis of this form of sexual assault. Taking a comparative perspective, the authors argue that marital rape should be understood in the context of culturally specific ideas about kinship and marriage. The book joins perspectives from anthropology, sociology, human rights, public health, and law to develop an insightful analysis that seeks to reconcile respect for cultural difference with women's entitlement to a good life and human rights." --Sally Engle Merry, MA, PhD, Silver Professor, New York University Department of Anthropology; author of Human Rights and Gender Violence "Marital Rape leverages the careful ethnographic work of anthropology to document wide ranging and fluid understandings of sex, consent and rape in marriage. Anthropologists in particular point to the importance of understanding the lived experience of sexual violence for the design of effective and culturally sensitive public policy and practice." --Anthropology News