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21 Queen's L.J. 221 (1995-1996)
A Different Form of Apartheid - The Legal Status of Married Women in South Africa

handle is hein.journals/queen21 and id is 233 raw text is: A Different Form of Apartheid? The Legal Status of Married Women in South Africa Jacqueline Krikorian In South Africa, a husband has had many rights over his wife's person, property, and actions. Women have been deemed to be inferior to their husbands and pigeon.holed into certain categories, depending on their type of marriage, the year in which they were married, and their racial classification. Common, statutory, and customary laws have been used to legitimize the inequality and oppression that women experienced. These have combined to form another type of apartheid, which continues to operate through the current hierarchical pattern of marital reform. Although improvements to the legal status of women in a civil marriage were made in December 1993, politicians largely ignored the rights of women in customary marriages as the 1994 elections approached. As such, it is unclear whether women married under customary law will be denied the benefits of the equality provisions of the new Bill of Rights. Introduction I. The Legal Status of Women in a Civil Marriage A. The Marital Rape Exemption Under Common Law B. Asian, Coloured and White Women Married Before 1984 C. Black Women Married Before 1988 D. Asian, Coloured and White Women Married After 1984, and Black Women Married After 1988 E. Recent Statutory Reforms 11. Women Married Under Customary Law A. The Wife's Legal Status B. Limited Reforms III. Tentative Observations Conclusion * This paper was written as an individual research project during the winter 1994 term at the Faculty of Law, Queen's University. I would like to thank Bev Baines, Ian Farlam and Paul Farlam for their encouragement and valuable comments on earlier drafts. J. Krikorian