The Devil's Excrement

I have been surprised by how little has been said about the fact that the new Penal Code maintains the discrimination against women when it comes t adultery, the new Code was rewritten, but should have been written to comply with all aspects of the new Constitution.

The new Venezuelan Constitution guarantees equality to men and women in its Article 21 which says: “All persons are equal under the law”. Not content with that, it continues in part 1 and 2 of that article:

1. Discriminations based on race, sex, creed or social conditions will not be allowed…
   
2. The law guarantees the legal and administrative conditions so that this equality under the law is real and effective…

Sounds pretty strong, no? Well, the recently approved penal Code keeps treating women and men quite differently and seems to reflect the machista society we live in. For example:

Article 394. The woman that commits adultery will be punished with prison of six months to three years. The same penalty will be applied to the coauthor of the adultery.

Notice that it does not say “and vice versa” at the end. It really says this is the punishment for women who commit adultery and if a woman commits it, the man she did it with will be subject to punishment. But it does not say it is a crime for a man to commit adultery.

That this is the case actually becomes quite clear in the next article of the law:

Article 395. The husband that maintains a concubine in the conjugal home, out of it, if the fact is well known, will be punished with prison of three to eighteen months. The punishment will produce de facto the loss of marital power. The concubine will be punished with prison of three months to a year.

So, these two articles together say. A married woman who commits adultery will be punished and so will her partner in committing the crime. For a man to commit a crime, the woman has to live in then home of the man or she has to maintain her in notorious fashion. Outrageous discrimination, no? Where are women and feminist groups? Where was the Attorney General? Where was the Cabinet’s lawyer (Who is woman)?

That this was the intent of the legislator is clearly expressed in Article 398, where it says that these crimes will be exempt from punishment when:

1. In the case of the accusation by the husband, when the woman can prove that the husband had committed the crime specified in Art. 395, or had forced or exposed his wife to prostitution or incited or favored corruption.
   
2. In the case of the accusation by the woman, when the husband proves that she too committed the crime described in Article 394.

To top it all off, if the accusing partner dies during the process or during prison, the punishment ends, possibly inducing all sorts of interesting criminal intrigues.

So my friends, if you are a married woman there is not much you can do. If you are a man, single or married, beware of married woman. And if you are a married man, don’t have a notorious concubine, or be very discreet. But single women or one night stands are really OK.

Women groups should take notice, no?

This entry was posted on May 22, 2005 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Venezuela.