Summary of Laws

On March 5 2004, Equality Now launched a year-long campaign urging governments to revoke sex discriminatory laws with the release of its report, Words and Deeds: Holding Governments Accountable in the Beijing +10 Review Process. The Beijing +10 report highlights discriminatory laws in countries from all geographical regions of the world and includes countries of varied economic backgrounds. The list of discriminatory laws and countries featured in this report is not exhaustive, but is intended as a representative sampling of the kinds of discriminatory laws still in force in most parts of the world.

The different laws highlighted in this report relate to discrimination experienced by women as equal partners in marriage, as citizens, and as contributors to the economy. Listed below is a summary of all the laws featured in the report.

Algeria: Several laws in Algeria’s Family Code of 1984 restrict women’s rights in marriage by providing for polygamy, requiring a male marriage guardian, barring Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims, mandating wife obedience, and restricting grounds for divorce for women more narrowly than for men.

Australia: Section 43(1) of the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 expressly allows discrimination against women in Defence Force positions involving combat duties.

Bangladesh: Article 2(i) of the Citizenship Order, 1972, confers citizenship based on the birth and residence of the male parent or grandparent.

Bolivia: Article 60 of the General Labor Law bars women from working at night except in the fields of nursing and domestic service.

Cameroon: Article 74 of the Civil Status Registration (Ordinance No. 81-02 of 29 June 1981) provides that a husband may object to his wife’s exercise of a trade in the interest of their marriage or children.

Chile: Article 1749 of the Civil Code establishes the legal presumption that men head the household and control marital property.

China: Chapter VII, Section 59 of the Labour Act (1994) bars women from engaging in mining or other forms of intense physical labor that the state specifies.

Haiti: Article 269 of the Penal Code, in cases of adultery, pardons a husband who murders his wife or her partner.

Iran: Several Articles of the Penal Code provide that in cases of adultery which is punishable by stoning and flogging, the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man, the method of stoning prescribed for women is more severe than for men, blood money for a murdered Muslim woman is half that for a man, and women may be imprisoned or fined for failure to wear prescribed Islamic dress.

Israel: In Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law (5713-1953), the State of Israel cedes jurisdiction over marriage to a sex discriminatory religious law, which provides that divorce depends solely on the will of the husband.

Japan: Articles 731 and 733 of the Civil Code of Japan allows sixteen-year-old girls to be married, while the age of marriage for boys is eighteen, and prohibits women, but not men, from remarrying for six months after the dissolution or annulment of a marriage.

Kenya: Sections 90 and 91 of the Constitution of Kenya provide that children of Kenyan fathers, but not mothers, are citizens, and that spouses of Kenyan men, but not women, can become citizens.

Latvia: Sections 53, 136, and 138 of the Labour Law restricts, on the same terms as it restricts child labor, the hours and type of work women are legally permitted within a year after having a child or while they are pregnant or nursing.

Lebanon: Article 522 of the Penal Code stops the prosecution or execution of the penalty when the perpetrator of a rape, kidnapping, or statutory rape marries the person he has raped or kidnapped.

Lesotho: The Deeds Registry Act (No. 12 of 1967) provides that women married in community of property may not have immoveable property registered in their name.

Madagascar: Article 92 of the Labor Code (Law # 94-029 of Aug. 25, 1995) forbids the employment of women in night work except with special authorization at the employer’s request.

Malaysia: Section 375 of the Penal Code provides without exception, in other words even if she is unwilling or forced, that sexual intercourse by a man with a woman to whom he is married is not rape.

Mali: Articles 7 and 32 of the Code of Marriage and Guardianship, 1962 provide that men have the right to opt for polygamy, and that women must obey their husbands.

Monaco: Article 3 of Law No. 1155 on Nationality (December 18, 1992), which provides that spouses of Monegasque men, but not of women, may acquire Monegasque nationality. In addition, Monaco recently amended Article 1 of Law No. 1155, which, in regulating passing of nationality from parents to children, had given Monegasque mothers lesser rights than fathers. The change is welcome, but the law remains facially discriminatory. Mothers, in passing on their nationality rights, remain confined to specific categories, while fathers’ blanket rights are preserved.

Nigeria: Section 55(1)(d) of the Penal Code of Northern Nigeria provides that an assault by a man on a woman is not an offense if they are married, if native law or custom recognizes correction as lawful, and if there is no grievous hurt.

Pakistan: Article 17 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 (Law of Evidence) and Section 8 of the Offences of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979 provide that women’s testimony is worth half that of men in certain civil matters, and that it is inadmissible altogether in cases of rape. Proof of rape requires a confession or the testimony of four adult male eye-witnesses.

Philippines: Article 202.5 of the Revised Penal Code defines prostitution as a crime only women can commit.

Poland: Articles 88 and 89 of the Family and Guardianship Code legally favor a child taking its father’s surname and gives fathers rights that mothers do not have over selection of their child’s surname.

Romania: Article 4 of the Family Code of Romania allows sixteen-year-old girls, and in some cases fifteen-year-old girls, to be married, while the age of marriage for boys is eighteen.

Saudi Arabia: The Fatwah on Women’s Driving of Automobiles (Shaikh Abdel Aziz Bin Abdallah Bin Baz), 1990 prohibits women from driving automobiles.

South Korea: Articles 781 and 984 of the Civil Act prefer men over women as successors to family headship and require children to take their father’s surname unless he is unknown or foreign.

Sudan: Several sections of the Muslim Personal Law Act of Sudan, 1991 provide that the contract of marriage for a woman shall be mediated by a male guardian, confer different rights in marriage for men and women, and mandate wife obedience.

Syria: Article 548 of the Penal Code provides that a man who catches his wife or sister in an act of adultery and kills her, or her partner, shall benefit from an exemption of penalty.

Tanzania: Sections 10(2), 13(1), and 15 of the Law of Marriage Act, 1971, as amended, allows men to contract polygamous marriage, and permits marriage of fifteen-year-old girls, while the age of marriage for boys is eighteen.

United Kingdom: Section 85(4) of the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 allows discrimination against women in combat-related positions in the naval, military, and air forces. Relying on this exception, the Royal Marines instituted a policy barring women from employment.

United States: Sections 309(a) and (c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act confers citizenship on children of U.S. citizen fathers and noncitizen mothers born outside the U.S. only if they meet certain requirements, including their father’s guarantee of financial support, requirements not applicable to children of noncitizen fathers and U.S. citizen mothers. Dissenting from the United States Supreme Court decision upholding the law, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor observed that it adopts a stereotypical sex-based classification that is “paradigmatic of a historic regime that left women with responsibility, and freed men from responsibility, for nonmarital children.” Nguyen v. INS, 533 US 53, 92 (2001) (O’Connor, J., dissenting).

Yemen: Article 40 of the Personal Status Act No. 20, 1992 mandates a wife’s obedience to her husband, including by restricting her movements outside the marital home, and by requiring her to have sexual intercourse with him.

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