The University of The Bahamas conducted a study on marital rape which revealed that one in twelve or some 4,000 women have been raped by their husbands.
President of the Bahamas Christian Council has reacted to the findings of the study. He spoke with reporters on the issue saying, “that means three hundred plus women, I don’t know the timeline, have been raped, unacceptable. I think the data can be the catalyst of a strong conversation as clergy. As I ‘ve spoken to the clergy, we’ve got work to do.”
Fernander maintains that marriage is not a government institution but a God one and that the church must do more. He said, “if marriage is done right, God’s way, you would respect your wife and you would never ever want to hurt your wife cause she is bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. And let’s broaden it to spouse, spousal abuse that is taken place in our society, that’s where we started. We started talking about spousal abuse, whether male or female, its real.”
Bishop Fernander went on saying, “you may not see marriage the way I see marriage, but you don’t see your wife the way I see my wife. I’ve been married for over twenty five years, I would never every think about laying a hand on my wife or taking sex from my wife, I love her too much to want to harm her. I think she love me the same way. We live our life understanding there will be days that we won’t be engaging in sex and if that is a day its not happening.”
The Prime Minister has taken the stance that women should contact the authorities about incidences of rape. The Christian Council president agrees. He said, “if you are being raped, if you are being abused, report it, start a file. I’m an ex-policeman, start a file and you may see some things work in your favor that you don’t think works in this country.”
