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December 29, 2016

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Tables turning on Myanmar鈥檚 males

MYANMAR'S government is drafting a law that could see men jailed for up to seven years for getting a woman pregnant but not marrying her, a senior official said yesterday.

The provision is part of tough new legislation designed to strengthen women’s rights as the country opens up after half a century of military rule.

A social welfare department chief said the new law would criminalise domestic violence for the first time and make gang rape a capital offense.

If passed in parliament, the law would also carry a penalty of up to five years in prison for any man who refuses to marry a woman after they have lived together, and up to seven years if the woman is pregnant.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar is a socially conservative country, where gender stereotypes are deeply entrenched and sex remains a taboo topic. The Burmese language has no word for female genitalia and any garments worn on a woman’s lower half are considered unclean.


 

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