I read with outrage the Bar Council's objection to the proposed amendment to the Penal Code on aggravated rape citing reasons that it could be abused by women to get back at men. I am further infuriated by its criminal law sub-committee chairperson V Sithambaram's suggestion that the Penal Code only deals with 'cases of husbands who cause hurt or threaten their wives with death in order to have sexual intercourse only if the wife "actually physically hurt".

The arguments put forth clearly illustrates a lack of understanding towards the dynamics of gender violence. Rape is a serious criminal offence that uses sex as a tool to dominate, subjugate and humiliate women. Apart from the physical damage, rape victims are also stigmatised by society and even the service agencies that are supposed to help her because of yet another layer of oppression on women's sexuality a 'good' woman is one that only has sex with one man throughout her life and that's her husband.

Due to the prevailing misconception that rape victims 'asked for it' because they want sex, a rape victim is unjustly labeled as loose, dirty, spoilt and shameful. Both are forms of violence against women. The rape victim and her family suffers insurmountable mental and psychological trauma. Rape is not something women would 'cry wolf' easily.

Would the Bar Council kindly provide us some information on percentage of women who have so far 'cried wolf' if they are so certain as to come out with a statement that this amendment has a great potential for abuse?

Secondly, any person in a violent relationship would tell you that it is not only the physical pain that causes damage. It is the fear of not knowing when the inevitable next round of abuse will occur that keeps a victim in constant fear. Living in fear causes anxiety and depression.

It is a gross injustice that a woman should suffer these mental and psychological trauma just because she wants to claim a right to her body ie, her choice of when or not to having sexual intercourse with her husband. The Bar Council should also understand that it is because of a culture of violence that we have lived and bred that we think that the threat of violence is okay as compared to actual violence. They are both unacceptable.

A lot of work has been done to end violence against women through public education, training and lobbying in the last two decades in Malaysia. Has the Bar Council been listening?