Recently, I have become fascinated by a certain social custom known as “rehabilitating marriage.” This is when a man has raped an unmarried, virgin woman, and either to make restitution for the act or to avoid criminal prosecution, the rapist agrees to marry his rape victim. This marriage is typically performed in order to free the raped woman from the dishonor of having lost her virginity while unmarried. The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that, within this system, the act of rape is not formally considered a criminal act in itself, nor is it seriously considered a personal violation of the woman’s bodily autonomy. Rather, the rape is more so considered a violation of the social morality of the society; it is a public dishonor upon the raped woman and her family.
I first learned about the basic concept of rehabilitating marriage from the Bible. It appeared to have been practiced in ancient Israel, according to Deuteronomy 22:28-29 --
>If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
Furthermore, it is established elsewhere in the same chapter that a rapist is only given a true punishment -- by execution -- if his victim is a married woman.
I would surmise that this practice was not unique to the Israelites but was a relatively common practice of the ancient Near East. As I understand, rehabilitating marriage is still practiced even today in some countries, primarily in parts of the Middle East and Africa. Rehabilitating marriage also appears to be closely connected to the arranged marriage system, in which a young woman’s virginity is highly prized in society, and her relationships and sexuality are as much the business of her family and community as they are the business of herself and her mate.
Rehabilitating marriage would seem like a very foreign concept to the sensibilities of a modern person in the West. A woman’s sexual purity and honor are considered of far less importance than her personal dignity and bodily autonomy. Rape in the modern West is commonly considered a heinous crime in and of itself, and is often considered comparable to murder in severity, and in court is often sentenced accordingly with a similar punishment.
But I don’t know if this has always been the case in the Western world, such as in Europe and North America. I recently saw a movie called The Last Duel. The story takes place in Europe in the Middle Ages, and a married woman is raped by another man who is a rival of her husband. During the course of the story, it is acknowledged that the rape was not really considered a crime against the woman so much as it was a crime against her husband’s honor. Hence, one might speculate that if the woman had been a maiden at the time of her rape, she may have been encouraged into a rehabilitating marriage with the rapist. Recently, I was surprised to learn that rehabilitating marriage has been practiced in Europe as recently as the 20th century. In 1965, an unmarried woman from Sicily named Franca Viola was raped by a man named Filippo Melodia. Afterwards, Franca was expected to engage in rehabilitating marriage to Filippo, as per the norm of Sicilian society at the time. However, Franca made the revolutionary choice to refuse the marriage. Rehabilitating marriage – the practice of restoring a raped woman’s honor and/or expunging a rapist’s criminal record through marriage – was not abolished in Sicily until 1981.
I have a lot of questions about this custom, and feel free to answer any that you please:
- At what point in the history of the West was the act of rape against a woman considered an evil in and of itself, regardless of the woman’s marital or social status?
- Besides Sicily, are there other examples of countries in Europe which practiced rehabilitating marriage?
- Was this custom ever practiced in North America, from the colonial period to today?
- Inasmuch as rehabilitating marriage has been practiced in the West, what are the societal dynamics that led to its general abolishment in the West?
- Is rehabilitating marriage only a feature of arranged marriage and its corresponding culture, or has it existed even outside of cultures which practiced arranged marriage?
- Inasmuch as rehabilitating marriage has been practiced in Europe or North America, does its practice come from the Bible and Judeo-Christian tradition, or was it practiced for separate reasons?
- A modern family in the West would take issue with their loved one getting married to the moral degenerate who raped her; how did Western families who practiced rehabilitating marriage justify this arrangement?