Marital rape: hidden female narratives

Abstract

This article presents an introductory study, whose main question is: how does gender affect or produce the marital rape narratives of women in Federal District who access the legal system to report domestic violence? To answer this question, the authors used gender as a decolonized category, making a historical exam of the control of female sexuality. To approach the question, the authors consider gender as a decolonial category, and conduct a study of the historical control of female sexuality. Using a qualitative approach, they then proceed to field research. The analysis of individual reports of women facing domestic violence, carried out by psychosocial teams of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Federal District and its territories (MPDFT), is combined with the results of questionnaires completed by those who carried out these reports. The findings suggest that marital rape is a kind of violence that stays invisible, under robust social control preventing its exposure to women. Keywords: Marital rape; invisibility; domestic violence.