title: Richard III (play)

text: One of the central themes of "Richard III" is the idea of fate, especially as it is seen through the tension between free will and fatalism in Richard's actions and speech, as well as the reactions to him by other characters. There is no doubt that Shakespeare drew heavily on Sir Thomas More's account of Richard III as a criminal and tyrant as inspiration for his own rendering. This influence, especially as it relates to the role of divine punishment in Richard's rule of England, reaches its height in the voice of Margaret. Janis Lull suggests that "Margaret gives voice to the belief, encouraged by the growing Calvinism of the Elizabethan era, that individual historical events are determined by God, who often punishes evil with (apparent) evil".


title: Richard III (play)

text: Thus it seems possible that Shakespeare, in conforming to the growing "Tudor Myth" of the day, as well as taking into account new theologies of divine action and human will becoming popular in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, sought to paint Richard as the final curse of God on England in punishment for the deposition of Richard II in 1399. Irving Ribner argued that "the evil path of Richard is a cleansing operation which roots evil out of society and restores the world at last to the God-ordained goodness embodied in the new rule of Henry VII".


title: Richard III (play)

text: Scholar Victor Kiernan writes that this interpretation is a perfect fit with the English social perspective of Shakespeare's day: "An extension is in progress of a privileged class's assurance of preferential treatment in the next world as in this, to a favoured nation's conviction of having God on its side, of Englishmen being ... the new Chosen People". As Elizabethan England was slowly colonising the world, the populace embraced the view of its own Divine Right and Appointment to do so, much as Richard does in Shakespeare's play.


title: Richard III (play)

text: However, historical fatalism is merely one side of the argument of fate versus free will. It is also possible that Shakespeare intended to portray Richard as "a personification of the Machiavellian view of history as power politics". In this view, Richard is acting entirely out of his own free will in brutally taking hold of the English throne. Kiernan also presents this side of the coin, noting that Richard "boasts to us of his finesse in dissembling and deception with bits of Scripture to cloak his 'naked villainy' (I.iii.334–348) ... Machiavelli, as Shakespeare may want us to realise, is not a safe guide to practical politics".


title: Richard III (play)

text: Kiernan suggests that Richard is merely acting as if God is determining his every step in a sort of Machiavellian manipulation of religion as an attempt to circumvent the moral conscience of those around him. Therefore, historical determinism is merely an illusion perpetrated by Richard's assertion of his own free will. The Machiavellian reading of the play finds evidence in Richard's interactions with the audience, as when he mentions that he is "determinèd to prove a villain" (I.i.30). However, though it seems Richard views himself as completely in control, Lull suggests that Shakespeare is using Richard to state "the tragic conception of the play in a joke. His primary meaning is that he controls his own destiny. His pun also has a second, contradictory meaning—that his villainy is predestined—and the strong providentialism of the play ultimately endorses this meaning".


title: Richard III (play)

text: Literary critic Paul Haeffner writes that Shakespeare had a great understanding of language and the potential of every word he used. One word that Shakespeare gave potential to was "joy". This is employed in Act I, Scene III, where it is used to show "deliberate emotional effect". Another word that Haeffner points out is "kind", which he suggests is used with two different definitions.


title: Richard III (play)

text: The first definition is used to express a "gentle and loving" man, which Clarence uses to describe his brother Richard to the murderers that were sent to kill him. This definition is not true, as Richard uses a gentle façade to seize the throne. The second definition concerns "the person's true nature ... Richard will indeed use Hastings kindly—that is, just as he is in the habit of using people—brutally".


title: Richard III (play)

text: Haeffner also writes about how speech is written. He compares the speeches of Richmond and Richard to their soldiers. He describes Richmond's speech as "dignified" and formal, while Richard's speech is explained as "slangy and impetuous". Richard's casualness in speech is also noted by another writer. However, Lull does not make the comparison between Richmond and Richard as Haeffner does, but between Richard and the women in his life. However, it is important to the women share the formal language that Richmond uses. She makes the argument that the difference in speech "reinforces the thematic division between the women's identification with the social group and Richard's individualism". Haeffner agrees that Richard is "an individualist, hating dignity and formality".


title: Richard III (play)

text: Janis Lull also takes special notice of the mourning women. She suggests that they are associated with "figures of repetition as anaphora—beginning each clause in a sequence with the same word—and epistrophe—repeating the same word at the end of each clause". One example of the epistrophe can be found in Margaret's speech in Act I, Scene III. Haeffner refers to these as few of many "devices and tricks of style" that occur in the play, showcasing Shakespeare's ability to bring out the potential of every word.


title: Richard III (play)

text: Throughout the play, Richard's character constantly changes and shifts and, in doing so, alters the dramatic structure of the story.


title: Richard III (play)

text: Richard immediately establishes a connection with the audience with his opening monologue. In the soliloquy he admits his amorality to the audience but at the same time treats them as if they were co-conspirators in his plotting; one may well be enamored of his rhetoric while being appalled by his actions. Richard shows off his wit in Act I, as seen in the interchanges with Lady Anne (Act I, Scene II) and his brother Clarence (Act I, Scene I). In his dialogues in Act I, Richard knowingly refers to thoughts he has only previously shared with the audience to keep the audience attuned to him and his objectives. In 1.1, Richard tells the audience in a soliloquy how he plans to claw his way to the throne—killing his brother Clarence as a necessary step to get there. However, Richard pretends to be Clarence's friend, falsely reassuring him by saying, "I will deliver you, or else lie for you" (1.1.115); which the audience knows—and Richard tells the audience after Clarence's exit—is the exact opposite of what he plans to do. Scholar Michael E. Mooney describes Richard as occupying a "figural position"; he is able to move in and out of it by talking with the audience on one level, and interacting with other characters on another.


title: Richard III (play)

text: Each scene in Act I is book-ended by Richard directly addressing the audience. This action on Richard's part not only keeps him in control of the dramatic action of the play, but also of how the audience sees him: in a somewhat positive light, or as the protagonist. Richard actually embodies the dramatic character of "Vice" from medieval morality plays—with which Shakespeare was very familiar from his time—with his "impish-to-fiendish humour". Like Vice, Richard is able to render what is ugly and evil—his thoughts and aims, his view of other characters—into what is charming and amusing for the audience.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In the earlier acts of the play, too, the role of the antagonist is filled by that of the old Lancastrian queen, Margaret, who is reviled by the Yorkists and whom Richard manipulates and condemns in Act I, Scene III.


title: Richard III (play)

text: However, after Act I, the number and quality of Richard's asides to the audience decrease significantly, as well as multiple scenes are interspersed that do not include Richard at all, but average Citizens (Act II, Scene III), or the Duchess of York and Clarence's children (Act II, Scene II), who are as moral as Richard is evil. Without Richard guiding the audience through the dramatic action, the audience is left to evaluate for itself what is going on. In Act IV, Scene IV, after the murder of the two young princes and the ruthless murder of Lady Anne, the women of the play—Queen Elizabeth, the Duchess of York, and even Margaret—gather to mourn their state and to curse Richard; and it is difficult as the audience not to sympathise with them. When Richard enters to bargain with Queen Elizabeth for her daughter's hand—a scene whose form echoes the same rhythmically quick dialogue as the Lady Anne scene in Act I—he has lost his vivacity and playfulness for communication; it is obvious he is not the same man.


title: Richard III (play)

text: By the end of Act IV everyone else in the play, including Richard's own mother, the Duchess, has turned against him. He does not interact with the audience nearly as much, and the inspiring quality of his speech has declined into merely giving and requiring information. As Richard gets closer to seizing the crown, he encloses himself within the world of the play; no longer embodying his facile movement in and out of the dramatic action, he is now stuck firmly within it. It is from Act IV that Richard really begins his rapid decline into truly being the antagonist. Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt notes how Richard even refers to himself as "the formal Vice, Iniquity" (3.1.82), which informs the audience that he knows what his function is; but also like Vice in the morality plays, the fates will turn and get Richard in the end, which Elizabethan audiences would have recognised.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In addition, the character of Richmond enters into the play in Act V to overthrow Richard and save the state from his tyranny, effectively being the instantaneous new protagonist. Richmond is a clear contrast to Richard's evil character, which makes the audience see him as such.


title: Richard III (play)

text: The earliest certain performance occurred on 1633, when Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria watched it on the Queen's birthday.


title: Richard III (play)

text: Colley Cibber produced the most successful of the Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare with his version of "Richard III", at Drury Lane starting in 1700. Cibber himself played the role till 1739, and his version was on stage for the next century and a half. It contained the lines "Off with his head; so much for Buckingham" – possibly the most famous Shakespearean line that Shakespeare did not write – and "Richard's himself again!". The original Shakespearean version returned in a production at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1845.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In 2011 film actor Kevin Spacey starred in an Old Vic production which subsequently toured the United States, directed by stage and film director Sam Mendes. Spacey had played the role of Richard's henchman, the Duke of Buckingham, in the Pacino film.


title: Richard III (play)

text: Basil Rathbone played Richard III in the 1939 Universal horror film "Tower of London", which was directed by Rowland V. Lee. The film was later remade by Roger Corman in 1962 with Vincent Price (who had played Clarence in Lee's film) in the lead role. While both films are influenced by the characterisation and structure of Shakespeare's play, neither includes any dialogue from it.


title: Richard III (play)

text: The most famous player of the part in recent times was Laurence Olivier in his 1955 film version. Olivier's film incorporates a few scenes and speeches from Shakespeare's "Henry VI, Part 3" and Cibber's rewrite of Shakespeare's play, but cuts entirely the characters of Queen Margaret and the Duchess of York, and Richard's soliloquy after seeing the ghosts of his victims. Olivier has Richard seduce Lady Anne while mourning over the corpse of her husband rather than her father-in-law as in the play. Olivier's rendition has been parodied by many comedians, including Peter Cook and Peter Sellers. Sellers, who had aspirations to do the role straight, appeared in a 1965 TV special on The Beatles' music by reciting "A Hard Day's Night" in the style of Olivier's Richard III. The first episode of the BBC television comedy "" in part parodies the Olivier film, visually (as in the crown motif), Peter Cook's performance as a benevolent Richard, and by mangling Shakespearean text ("Now is the summer of our sweet content made o'ercast winter by these Tudor clouds ...")


title: Richard III (play)

text: Richard Loncraine's 1995 film, starring Ian McKellen, is set in a fictional fascist England in the 1930s, and based on an earlier highly successful stage production. Only about half the text of the play is used. The first part of his "Now is the winter of our discontent..." soliloquy is a public speech, while the second part is a private monologue. The famous final line of Richard's "A horse, my kingdom for a horse" is spoken when his jeep becomes trapped after backing up into a large pile of rubble.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In 1996, Al Pacino made his directoral debut and played the title role in "Looking for Richard", analysing the plot of the play and playing out several scenes from it, as well as conducting a broader examination of Shakespeare's continuing role and relevance in popular culture. Also in 1996, a pristine print of "Richard III" (1912), starring Frederick Warde in the title role, was discovered by a private collector and donated to the American Film Institute. The 55-minute film is considered to be the earliest surviving American feature film.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In 2002 the story of Richard III was re-told in a movie about gang culture called "King Rikki" (also known as "The Street King").


title: Richard III (play)

text: In 2017, Italian director Roberta Torre realized a musical drama film, inspired on Shakespeare's play, named "Bloody Richard".


title: Richard III (play)

text: BBC Two aired a new adaptation of "Richard III" in 2016 as part of "The Hollow Crown" series, with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the king. Executive producer Pippa Harris commented, "By filming the "Henry VI" plays as well as "Richard III", we will allow viewers to fully appreciate how such a monstrous tyrant could find his way to power, bringing even more weight and depth to this iconic character."


title: Richard III (play)

text: Abraham Lincoln was renowned for his love of Shakespeare, and of "Richard III" in particular. This fed Confederate propaganda, especially in Virginia, where residents of Richmond saw Lincoln as a Richard-like tyrant and identified their capital city with the Earl of Richmond, the hero of Shakespeare's play. Some interpreted Richard's Act IV speech as an omen favorable to the South:


title: Richard III (play)

text: The connection between Lincoln and the play was indelibly printed on history when on 14 April 1865, within a fortnight of the president's visit to the defeated city, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Shakespearean actor known for playing both Richard and Richmond. Booth's notorious, final words from the stage were ""Sic semper tyrannis"".


title: Richard III (play)

text: The 2010 film, "The King's Speech", features a scene where the king's speech therapist Lionel Logue, as played by Geoffrey Rush, auditions for the role by reciting the lines, "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun [or son] of York". Shakespeare critic Keith Jones believes that the film in general sets up its main character as a kind of antithesis to Richard III. The same antithesis was noted by conservative commentator Noah Millman.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In the "Red Dwarf" episode "Marooned", Rimmer objects to Lister's burning of the "Complete Works of Shakespeare" in an attempt to maintain enough heat to keep him alive. When challenged, Rimmer claims he can quote from it and embarks upon the soliloquy: "Now! ... That's all I can remember. You know! That famous speech from "Richard III" – 'now, something something something something'."


title: Richard III (play)

text: The phrase "Winter of Discontent" is an expression, popularised by the British media, referring to the winter of 1978–79 in the United Kingdom, during which there were widespread strikes by local authority trade unions demanding larger pay rises for their members.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In the 1949 Looney Tunes cartoon "A Ham in a Role", the dog actor says the Catesby and Richard III's lines, "Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost! A horse, A horse, My kingdom for a horse!" before being kicked out of the window by a Goofy Gophers-hauled horse.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In the 1993 Mel Brooks film "", the character Robin of Locksley, played by Cary Elwes, says "A horse, my kingdom for a horse!" as he arrives in England in the opening scene.


title: Richard III (play)

text: The film "Being John Malkovich" has many Shakespeare allusions, including a scene in which Malkovich is shown rehearsing "Richard III" lines "Was ever woman in this humour woo'd? / Was ever woman in this humour won?" where Richard is boasting about using power, lies, and crime to seduce Lady Anne. As Visual Cultures professor Lynn Turner notes, this scene anticipates a parallel scene in which Craig uses deceit to seduce Maxine through Malkovich. Mariangela Tempera has noted that the subservience of Lady Anne in the scene contrasts with the self-assertiveness of the actress playing Lady Anne as she seduces Malkovich offstage.


title: Richard III (play)

text: Adam Sandler's 2011 film "Jack and Jill" features Al Pacino reprising his role of Richard III, although the movie scenes are modified as Pacino interacts with the audience in a heavily comedic way. Multiple reviewers who panned the film regarded Pacino as the best element of the film.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In " V for Vendetta" when V confronts Father Lilliman, he quotes the line "And thus I clothe my naked villany in old odd ends stol'n forth of holy writ, and seem a saint when most I play the devil."


title: Richard III (play)

text: In "Freaked", an arrogant movie star who has been transformed into a "hideous mutant freak" makes use of his deformity by performing the opening soliloquy, condensed by a local professor in subtitles for the "culturally illiterate" to the more succinct "I'm ugly. I never get laid." One reviewer mentioned this as the best example of how the film seamlessly moves between highbrow and lowbrow culture.


title: Richard III (play)

text: In "The Goodbye Girl", an ambitious actor played by Richard Dreyfuss is forced by his off-Broadway producer to play Richard III as a caricature of a homosexual. Elliot Garfield (Dreyfuss) describes his performance as "putrid".


title: Richard III (play)

text: In the 1975 film "L'important c'est d'aimer", directed by Andrzej Żuławski, a production of "Richard III" in French is a "mise en abyme" for the drama enveloping the characters in the film.


title: Richard III (play)

text: The manga "Requiem of the Rose King" by Aya Kanno, which began in 2013, is a loose adaptation of the first Shakespearean historical tetralogy. It depicts Richard III as intersex instead of hunchbacked.


title: Richard III (play)

text: The title of Alistair MacLean film "Where Eagles Dare" is inspired by Richard's complaint that the "world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch." (Quoted in Act I, Scene III)


title: Richard III (play)

text: Shakespeare, and the Tudor chroniclers who influenced him, had an interest in portraying the defeat of the Plantagenet House of York by the House of Tudor as good conquering evil. Loyalty to the new regime required that the last Plantagenet king, Richard III, be depicted as a villain. The historical inaccuracies in the play can be attributed partly to Shakespeare's sources, such as "Holinshed's Chronicles", the writings of John Rous, Polydore Vergil and Thomas More, and partly to artistic licence. Some of these inaccuracies are listed below in the order in which they either appear or are referred to in the play.


title: Richard III (play)

text: Richard was not personally responsible for the death of his wife's first husband, Edward of Westminster (the son of Henry VI), nor that of her father, the Earl of Warwick (and in "Henry VI, Part 3" Richard is not portrayed as being responsible for Warwick's death). Edward of Westminster and Warwick were killed in the battles of Tewkesbury and Barnet, respectively. Richard, then eighteen, took part in both battles, but no contemporary records indicate him as being involved directly in either death. Shakespeare's sources do not identify Richard as being involved in the death of Henry VI, who was probably murdered on the orders of Edward IV. Richard and his wife, Anne Neville, had known each other for a long time before they married, having spent much of their childhood in the same household. Henry VI's widow, Queen Margaret, would not have been seen at court in the period covered by this play; she became Edward IV's prisoner and returned to France in 1475. Richard's elder brother, Clarence (George, Duke of Clarence), was executed by Edward IV for treason in 1478, when Richard was in the North of England, where he continued to live until Edward IV died five years later.


title: Richard III (play)

text: Richard returned from the North to fulfil Edward IV's wish that he rule as Lord Protector. It was the Plantagenet tradition that a future king (in this case Edward V, the elder of the "princes in the tower") would stay in the royal apartments of the Tower of London while awaiting his coronation. No one knows why the "princes in the tower" disappeared or what happened to them. Richard took the throne by an Act of Parliament, on the basis of testimony claiming that Edward IV's marriage to Queen Elizabeth (Elizabeth Woodville) had been bigamous. Contemporary rumours that Richard had murdered his own wife appear baseless; she is thought to have died of tuberculosis. There is no surviving evidence to suggest that he planned to marry his niece, Elizabeth of York, although rumours about this plan did circulate. However, at the time he was also negotiating a marriage for Elizabeth with a Portuguese prince, Manuel, Duke of Beja (later Manuel I of Portugal).


title: Richard III (play)

text: At the Battle of Bosworth there was no single combat between Richard and Richmond (Henry Tudor), although it has been suggested that Richard had hoped for one. Richard spotted Richmond in his rearguard surrounded by French pikemen and led a cavalry charge against him. Richard was steered away from Richmond by Sir Rhys ap Thomas. The Stanleys (Thomas, Lord Stanley, and his younger brother, Sir William Stanley) only entered the fray in support of Richmond when they saw that Richard was vulnerable; when he saw the Stanleys, Richard cried "Treason". Richard fell from his horse after it lost its footing in a marshy area; he was offered a new horse but declined. Now on foot, Richard was hacked to death.


title: Richard III (play)

text: The only contemporary reference to Richard having any deformities was the observation that his right shoulder was slightly higher than his left, which is now known to have been caused by his scoliosis of the spine. After the discovery of Richard's remains in 2012 it became clear that he might have been slightly hunched, but the degree and direction of the curvature was not as serious as that of a spinal kyphosis.


title: Sodomy law

text: A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term "sodomy" are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood by courts to include any sexual act deemed to be "unnatural" or "immoral". Sodomy typically includes anal sex, oral sex, and bestiality. In practice, sodomy laws have rarely been enforced against heterosexual couples, and have mostly been used to target homosexual couples.


title: Sodomy law

text: As of December 2022, 65 countries as well as four sub-national jurisdictions have laws criminalizing homosexuality. In 2006 that number was 92. Among these 66 countries, 42 criminalize not only male homosexuality but also female homosexuality. In 11 of them, homosexuality is punished with the death penalty.


title: Sodomy law

text: In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed an LGBT rights resolution, which was followed up by a report published by the UN Human Rights Commissioner which included scrutiny of the mentioned codes.


title: Sodomy law

text: The Middle Assyrian Law Codes (1075 BC) state: If a man has intercourse with his brother-in-arms, they shall turn him into a eunuch. This is the earliest known law condemning the act of male-to-male intercourse in the military.


title: Sodomy law

text: In the Roman Republic, the "Lex Scantinia" (which is first described in documents dating back to 50 BCE) imposed penalties on those who committed a sex crime "(stuprum)" against a freeborn male minor. The law may also have been used to prosecute male citizens who willingly played the passive role in same-sex acts. The law was mentioned in literary sources but enforced infrequently; Domitian revived it during his program of judicial and moral reform. It is unclear whether the penalty was death or a fine. For adult male citizens to experience and act on homoerotic desire was considered permissible, as long as their partner was a male of lower social standing. Pederasty in ancient Rome was acceptable only when the younger partner was a prostitute or slave.


title: Sodomy law

text: Most sodomy related laws in Western civilization originated from the growth of Christianity during Late Antiquity. Intolerance of same-sex acts appears to have intensified in the Roman empire in the late 4th century; in 390 the emperor Theodosius ordered that male prostitutes were to be publicly burned, although it is uncertain to what extent this decree was actually carried out. Note that today some Christian denominations allow gay marriage and the ordination of gay clergy.


title: Sodomy law

text: Starting in the 1200s, the Roman Catholic Church launched a massive campaign against sodomites, especially homosexuals. Between the years 1250 and 1300, homosexual activity was radically criminalized in most of Europe, even punishable by death.


title: Sodomy law

text: In England, Henry VIII introduced the first legislation under English criminal law against sodomy with the Buggery Act of 1533, making buggery punishable by hanging, a penalty not lifted until 1861.


title: Sodomy law

text: Following Sir William Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws of England", the crime of sodomy has often been defined only as the "abominable and detestable crime against nature", or some variation of the phrase. This language led to widely varying rulings about what specific acts were encompassed by its prohibition.


title: Sodomy law

text: In 1786 Pietro Leopoldo of Tuscany, abolishing death penalty for all crimes, became not only the first Western ruler to do so, but also the first ruler to abolish death penalty for sodomy (which was replaced by prison and hard labour).


title: Sodomy law

text: In France, it was the French Revolutionary penal code (issued in 1791) which for the first time struck down "sodomy" as a crime, decriminalizing it together with all "victimless-crimes" (sodomy, heresy, witchcraft, blasphemy), according with the concept that if there was no victim, there was no crime. The same principle was held true in the Napoleon Penal Code in 1810, which was imposed on the large part of Europe then ruled by the French Empire and its cognate kings, thus decriminalizing sodomy in most of Continental Europe.


title: Sodomy law

text: In 1830, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil signed a law into the Imperial Penal Code. It eliminates all references to sodomy.


title: Sodomy law

text: During the Ottoman Empire, homosexuality was decriminalized in 1858 as part of wider reforms during the Tanzimat period.


title: Sodomy law

text: In 1917, following the Bolshevik Revolution led by V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky, Russia legalized homosexuality. However, when Joseph Stalin came to power in 1920s, these laws were reversed until homosexuality was effectively made illegal again by the government.


title: Sodomy law

text: During the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938), there was a movement to repeal sodomy laws. It has been claimed that this was the first campaign to repeal anti-gay laws that was spearheaded primarily by heterosexuals.


title: Sodomy law

text: After the publishing of the 1957 Wolfenden report in the UK, which asserted that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence", many western governments, including many U.S. states, repealed laws specifically against homosexual acts. However, by 2003, 13 U.S. states still criminalized homosexuality, along with many Missouri counties, and the territory of Puerto Rico, but in June 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in "Lawrence v. Texas" that state laws criminalizing private, non-commercial sexual activity between consenting adults at home on the grounds of morality are unconstitutional since there is insufficient justification for intruding into people's liberty and privacy.


title: Sodomy law

text: There have never been Western-style sodomy related laws in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Poland, or Vietnam. Additionally, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were part of the French colony of Indochina; male homosexual acts have been legal throughout the French Empire since the issuing of the aforementioned French Revolutionary penal code in 1791.


title: Sodomy law

text: This trend among Western nations has not been followed in all other regions of the world (Africa, some parts of Asia and Oceania and even in six out of the 13 countries in the Caribbean Islands), where sodomy remains a crime. For example, male homosexual acts, at least in theory, could result in life imprisonment in Barbados until 2022, and can theoretically still result in life imprisonment in Guyana, although the legislation is not enforced.


title: Sodomy law

text: As of 2022, sodomy related laws have been repealed or judicially struck down in all of Europe, North America, and South America, except for Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.


title: Sodomy law

text: In Africa, male homosexual acts remain punishable by death in Mauritania and some parts of Nigeria and Somalia. Male and sometimes female homosexual acts are minor to major criminal offences in many other African countries; for example, life imprisonment is a prospective penalty in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. A notable exception is South Africa, where same-sex marriage is legal.


title: Sodomy law

text: In Asia, male homosexual acts remain punishable by death in Afghanistan, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Anti-sodomy laws have been repealed in Israel (which recognises but does not perform same-sex marriages), Japan, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, and Thailand.


title: Sodomy law

text: Upon colonisation in 1788, Australia inherited laws from the United Kingdom including the Buggery Act of 1533. These were retained in the criminal codes passed by the various colonial parliaments during the 19th century, and by the state parliaments after Federation.


title: Sodomy law

text: Following the Wolfenden report, the Dunstan Labor government introduced a "consenting adults in private" type legal defence in South Australia in 1972. This defence was initiated as a bill by Murray Hill, father of former defence minister Robert Hill, and repealed the state's sodomy law in 1975. The Campaign Against Moral Persecution during the 1970s raised the profile and acceptance of Australia's gay and lesbian communities, and other states and territories repealed their laws between 1976 and 1990. The exception was Tasmania, which retained its laws until the Federal Government and the United Nations Human Rights Committee forced their repeal in 1997.


title: Sodomy law

text: Male homosexuality was decriminalised in the Australian Capital Territory in 1976, then Norfolk Island in 1993, following South Australia in 1975 and Victoria in 1981. At the time of legalization (for the above), the age of consent, rape, defences, etc. were all set gender-neutral and equal . Western Australia legalised male homosexuality in 1989 – Under the "Law Reform (Decriminalization of Sodomy) Act 1989", as did New South Wales and the Northern Territory in 1984 with unequal ages of consent of 18 for New South Wales and the Northern Territory and 21 for Western Australia. Then since 1997, the states and territories that retained different ages of consent or other vestiges of sodomy laws have tended to repeal them later; Western Australia did so in 2002, and New South Wales and the Northern Territory did so in 2003. Tasmania was the last state to decriminalise sodomy, doing so in 1997 after the groundbreaking cases of "Toonen v Australia" and "Croome v Tasmania" (it is also notable that Tasmania was the first jurisdiction to recognize same-sex couples in Australia since 2004 under the "Relationships Act 2003"). In 2016, Queensland became the final Australian jurisdiction to equalise its age of consent for all forms of sexual activity at 16 years, after reducing the age of consent for anal sex from 18 years.


title: Sodomy law

text: Before the December 2022 court ruling that struck down buggery and gross indecency laws in Barbados, same-sex and different-sex anal and oral sex were criminalised in Barbados under Chapter 154, Sections 9 and 12 of the "Sexual Offences Act." Section 9 criminalised "buggery," regardless of whether the act was done in private and consensual, or whether it was done between two men or a man and a woman. Section 12 criminalised "serious indecency," which was defined as any act "involving the use of the genital organs for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire." Punishment for "buggery" was life imprisonment, while the maximum penalty for "serious indecency" was ten years in prison if the act was committed on or towards a person aged 16 or older. The law was rarely enforced, however.


title: Sodomy law

text: Same-sex sexual acts became legal in Botswana on 11 June 2019. Previously, sodomy, whether heterosexual or homosexual, was criminalised, punishable by up to seven years' imprisonment. The law criminalising such sexual activity applied to both men and women. Initially, its application was limited to men only (similar to other colonies of the British Empire), however, a Botswana court found this to be discriminatory and that the law should apply to women as well.


title: Sodomy law

text: Brazilian criminal law does not punish any sexual act performed by consenting adults, but allows for prosecution, under statutory rape laws, when one of the participants is under 14 years of age and the other an adult, as per Articles 217-A of the Brazilian Penal Code. Pedophilic acts are also criminalized by the Children and Teenager Statute, in articles 241-A to 241-E. Article 235 of the Brazilian Military Criminal Code – DL 1.001/69-, however, does incriminate any contact deemed to be libidinous, be it of a homosexual nature or not, made in any location subject to military administration. Since the article is entitled "Of pederasty or other libidinous acts", gay rights advocates claim that, since the Brazilian armed forces are composed almost exclusively of males, the article allows for witch-hunts against homosexuals in the military service. This article of the Military Criminal Code has been ruled partially unconstitutional by the Brazilian Supreme Court (ADPF 291), in a 2019 decision that considered incompatible with the Constitution the expressions "Of pederasty or others" (mentioned in the entitlement) and "homosexual or not" (contained in the article).


title: Sodomy law

text: Before 1859, the Province of Canada prosecuted sodomy under the English Buggery Act. In 1859, the Province of Canada enacted its own buggery law in the Consolidated Statutes of Canada as an offence punishable by death. Buggery remained punishable by death until 1869. A broader law targeting all homosexual male sexual activity ("gross indecency") was passed in 1892, as part of a larger update to the criminal law of the new dominion of Canada. Changes to the "Criminal Code" in 1948 and 1961 were used to brand gay men as "criminal sexual psychopaths" and "dangerous sexual offenders." These labels provided for indeterminate prison sentences. Most famously, George Klippert, a homosexual, was labelled a dangerous sexual offender and sentenced to life in prison, a sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1967. He was released in July 1971.


title: Sodomy law

text: Sodomy was decriminalized after the "Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69" (Bill C-150) received royal assent on 27 June 1969. The offences of buggery and "gross indecency" were still in force, however the new act introduced exemptions for married couples, and any two consenting adults above the age of 21 regardless of gender or sexual orientation. The bill had been originally introduced in the House of Commons in 1967 by then Minister of Justice Pierre Trudeau, who famously stated that "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation".


title: Sodomy law

text: Revisions to the "Criminal Code" in 1987 repealed the offence of "gross indecency", changed "buggery" to "anal intercourse" and reduced the age exemption from 21 to 18. Section 159 of the "Criminal Code" continued to criminalize anal sex in general, with exemptions (provided no more than two people are present) for husbands and wives, and two consenting parties above the age of 18.


title: Sodomy law

text: Subsequent case law held that section 159 was unconstitutional, thus anal sex was "de facto" legal between any two or more consenting persons above the age of consent (14). In the 1995 Court of Appeal for Ontario case "R. v. M. (C.)" the judges ruled that the law was unconstitutional on the basis that the specific exemptions based on marital status and age infringed on the equality rights guaranteed by section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and constituted discrimination based on sexual orientation. A similar decision was made by the Quebec Court of Appeal in the 1998 case "R. v. Roy". In a 2002 decision regarding a case in which three people were engaged in sexual intercourse, the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta declared section 159 in its entirety to be null, including the provisions criminalizing the act when more than two persons are taking part or present.


title: Sodomy law

text: NDP MP Joe Comartin introduced private member's bills in 2007 and 2011 to repeal section 159 of the "Criminal Code", however neither passed first reading.


title: Sodomy law

text: In June 2019, C-75 passed both houses of the Parliament of Canada and received royal assent, repealing section 159 effective immediately and making the age of consent equal at 16 for all individuals.


title: Sodomy law

text: Consensual sex between two same-sex adults was decriminalized in 1999, but with a higher age of consent set at 18. Since August 2022, the age of consent was equalised to 14 with heterosexuals under a recently implemented law.


title: Sodomy law

text: Sodomy was never explicitly criminalized in China, but private sex between unmarried people was illegal until 1997, and same-sex marriage is not legal in China. The Chinese Supreme Court ruled in 1957 that voluntary sodomy was not a criminal act. Private sex in any form between two consenting adults does not currently violate any laws. However, if someone under 18 is involved, the adult partner will be prosecuted. In a notable case in 2002, a man who had anal intercourse with a teenager was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.


title: Sodomy law

text: In Hong Kong "Homosexual Buggery" is prohibited. Before 2014, according to the Crimes Ordinance Section 118C, both of the two men must be at least 16 to commit homosexual buggery legally or otherwise both of them can be liable to life imprisonment. Sect 118F states that committing homosexual buggery not privately is also illegal and can be liable to imprisonment for 5 years.


title: Sodomy law

text: "Heterosexual Buggery". A man who commits buggery with a girl under 21 can also be liable for life imprisonment (Sect 118D) while no similar laws concerning committing heterosexual buggery in private exist.


title: Sodomy law

text: In 2005, Judge Hartmann found these 4 laws: Sect 118C, 118F, 118H, and 118J were discriminatory towards gay males and unconstitutional under the Hong Kong Basic Law and contrary to the Bill of Rights Ordinance in a judicial review filed by a Hong Kong resident. It was believed that the age of consent had been reduced from 21 to 16 for any kind of homosexual sex acts. In 2014, the ordinance was amended according to the judgement.


title: Sodomy law

text: Since the Penal Code of 1791, France has not had laws punishing homosexual conduct "per se" between over-age consenting adults in private. However, other qualifications such as "offense to good mores" were occasionally retained in the 19th century "(see Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès)".


title: Sodomy law

text: In 1960, a by Paul Mirguet added homosexuality to a list of "social scourges", along with alcoholism and prostitution. This prompted the government to increase the penalties for public display of a sex act when the act was homosexual. Transvestites or homosexuals caught cruising were also the target of police repression.


title: Sodomy law

text: In 1981, the 1960 law making homosexuality an aggravating circumstance for public indecency was repealed. Then in 1982, under president François Mitterrand, the law from 1942 (Vichy France) making the age of consent for homosexual sex higher (18) than for heterosexual sex (15) was also repealed, despite the vocal opposition of Jean Foyer in the National Assembly.


title: Sodomy law

text: Paragraph 175, which punished "fornication between men", was eased to an age of consent of 21 in East Germany in 1957 and in West Germany in 1969. This age was lowered to 18 in the East in 1968 and the West in 1973, and all legal distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual acts were abolished in the East in 1988, with this change being extended to all of Germany in 1994 as part of the process of German Reunification.


title: Sodomy law

text: In modern German, the term "Sodomie" has a meaning different from the English word "sodomy": it does not refer to anal sex, but acts of Zoophilia. The change occurred mostly in the middle of the 19th century, at least in the last decade of the century. Only the moral theology of the Roman Catholic church changed not until some time after World War II to the term "homosexuality".


title: Sodomy law

text: In Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, male homosexual acts (but not heterosexual anal sex) have been decriminalised in Gibraltar since 1993, where the age of consent was 18 for male homosexual acts. Then under a Supreme Court decision in April 2011, the age of consent became 16, regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender. At the same time, under the same decision, heterosexual anal sex was also decriminalised as well. In August 2011, the new gender-neutral "Crimes Act 2011" was approved, which sets an equal age of consent of 16 regardless of sexual orientation, and reflects the decision of the Supreme Court in statute.


title: Sodomy law

text: Homosexuality in Hungary was decriminalized in 1962, Paragraph 199 of the Hungarian Penal Code from then on threatened "only" adults over 20 who engaged themselves in a consensual same-sex relationship with an underaged person between 14 and 20. Then in 1978 the age was lowered to 18. Since 2002, by the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Hungary repealed Paragraph 199 – Which provided an equal age of consent of 14, regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender. Since 1996, the "Unregistered Cohabitation Act 1995" was provided for any couple, regardless of gender and/or sexual orientation and from 1 July 2009 the "Registered Partnership Act 2009" becomes effective, and provides a registered partnership just for same-sex couples – since that opposite-sex already have marriage, this would in-turn create duplication.


title: Sodomy law

text: Homosexuality has been legal in Iceland since 1940, but equal age of consent was not approved until 1992. Civil union was legalised by Alþingi in 1996 with 44 votes pro, 1 con, 1 neutral and 17 not present. Those laws were changed to allow adoption and artificial insemination for lesbians 27 June 2006 among other things. Same-sex marriage was legalised in 2010.


title: Sodomy law

text: On 2 July 2009, in the case of "Naz Foundation v National Capital Territory of Delhi", the High Court of Delhi struck down much of S. 377 of the IPC as being unconstitutional. The Court held that to the extent S. 377 criminalised consensual non-vaginal sexual acts between adults, it violated an individual's fundamental rights to equality before the law, freedom from discrimination and to life and personal liberty under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The High Court did not strike down S. 377 completely – it held the section was valid to the extent it related to non-consensual non-vaginal intercourse or to intercourse with minors – and it expressed the hope that Parliament would soon legislatively address the issue.


title: Sodomy law

text: India does not recognize same-sex unions of any type. On 11 December 2013, the Supreme Court of India overturned the ruling in "Naz Foundation v. National Capital Territory of Delhi", effectively re-criminalizing homosexual activity until action was taken by parliament. However, on 12 July 2018, a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India started hearing a review petition over its 2013 judgment. Then on 6 September 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the part of S. 377 de-criminalizing consensual homosexual activities, but upheld that other aspects of S. 377 criminalizing unnatural sex with minors and animals will remain in force.


title: Sodomy law

text: In the Republic of Ireland, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 abolished the offence of "buggery between persons". For some years prior to 1993, criminal prosecution had not been made for buggery between consenting adults. The 1993 Act created an offence of "buggery with a person under the age of 17 years", penalised similar to statutory rape, which also had 17 years as the age of consent. The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 replaced this offence with "defilement of a child", encompassing both "sexual intercourse" and "buggery". Buggery with an animal is still unlawful under Section 69 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. In 2012, a man was convicted of this offence for supplying a dog in 2008 to a woman who had intercourse with it and died; he received a suspended sentence and was required to sign the sex offender registry, ending his career as a bus driver.


title: Sodomy law

text: The State of Israel inherited its sodomy ("buggery") law from the legal code of the British Mandate of Palestine, but it was never enforced against homosexual acts that took place between consenting adults in private. In 1963, the Israeli Attorney-General declared that these laws would not be enforced. However, in certain criminal cases, defendants were convicted of "sodomy" (which includes oral sex), apparently by way of plea bargains; they had originally been indicted for more serious sexual offenses.


title: Sodomy law

text: In the late 1960s, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that these laws could not be enforced against consenting adults. Though unenforced, these laws remained in the penal code until 1988, when they were formally repealed by the Knesset. The age of consent for both heterosexuals and homosexuals is 16 years of age.


title: Sodomy law

text: In 1786, Pietro Leopoldo of Tuscany, abolishing death penalty for all crimes, became not only the first Western ruler to do so, but also the first ruler to abolish death penalty for sodomy (though this was replaced with other sentences such as terms in prison or of hard labour).


title: Sodomy law

text: The Code Napoléon made sodomy legal between consenting adults above the legal age of consent in all Italy except in the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Austria-ruled Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, and the Papal states.


title: Sodomy law

text: In the newborn (1860) Kingdom of Italy, Sardinia extended its legal code on the whole of Northern Italy, but not in the South, which made homosexual behaviour legal in the South and illegal in the North. However the first Italian penal code (Codice Zanardelli, 1889), decriminalised same-sex intercourse between consenting adults above the legal age of consent for all regions; a law that has not changed since it was enacted.


title: Sodomy law

text: In the Meiji Period, sex between men was punishable under the sodomy laws announced in 1872 and revised in 1873. This was changed by laws announced in 1880 (). Since that time no further laws criminalizing homosexuality have been passed.


title: Sodomy law

text: In Macau, according to the Código Penal de Macau ("Penal Code of Macau") Article 166 & 168, committing anal coitus with whomever under the age of 17 is a crime and shall be punished by imprisonment of up to 10 years (committing with whoever under 14) and 4 years (committing with whoever between 14 and 16) respectively.


title: Sodomy law

text: Sodomy is illegal in Malaysia. The sodomy laws are sometimes enforced using Section 377 of the Penal Code which prohibit carnal intercourse against the order of nature.


title: Sodomy law

text: The age of consent in Malaysia is 16. Punishment for voluntarily committing carnal intercourse against the order of nature shall be up to twenty years imprisonment and whipping, while punishment for committing the same offence but without consent is punished by no less than five years imprisonment and whipping.


title: Sodomy law

text: There was the notable case involving Anwar Ibrahim, former Leader of the Opposition and deputy prime minister who was convicted of sodomy crime under Section 377B of the Penal Code. However, it is debatable whether or not the sodomy law can be enforced consistently.


title: Sodomy law

text: According to an unofficial translation of Section 250 of the Mauritius Criminal Code of 1838, "Any person who is guilty of the crime of sodomy ... shall be liable to penal servitude for a term not exceeding 5 years."


title: Sodomy law

text: The Offences Against The Person Act of 1867 changed the penalty of buggery from execution to life imprisonment for "Buggery". In 1961 in a revision of the Crimes Act, the penalty was reduced to a maximum of 7 years between consenting adult males.


title: Sodomy law

text: Homosexual sex was legalised in New Zealand as a result of the passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986. The age of consent was set at 16 years, the same as for heterosexual sex.


title: Sodomy law

text: No explicit anti-gay criminal law exists, but government media depicts LGBT people negatively and some gay couples have been executed for being "against the socialist lifestyle".


title: Sodomy law

text: Poland is one of the few countries where homosexuality has never been considered a crime. Forty years after Poland lost its independence, in 1795, the sodomy laws of Russia, Prussia, and Austria came into force in the occupied Polish lands. Poland retained these laws after independence in 1918, but they were never enforced, and were officially abandoned in 1932.


title: Sodomy law

text: In the past, in Russia sexual activity between males was criminalized by state law on 4 March 1934. Sexual activity between females was not mentioned in the law. On 27 May 1993, homosexual acts between consenting males were decriminalized.


title: Sodomy law

text: Following a ruling of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court on August 29, 2022, consensual same-sex intercourse between adults in private is no longer illegal in Saint Kitts and Nevis.


title: Sodomy law

text: Previously, Sections 56 and 57 of the "Offences Against the Person Act" criminalized same-sex sexual activity. The Court ruled that the sections violated the Saint Kitts and Nevis constitutional provisions guaranteeing a right to privacy and freedom of expression. The ruling had immediate effect.


title: Sodomy law

text: In 2011, the government of St. Kitts and Nevis said it had no mandate from the people to abolish the criminalization of homosexuality among consenting adults. However, despite the existence of the law on the books, there had been no known prosecution of same-sex sexual activity according to the government.


title: Sodomy law

text: The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia restricted the offense in 1959 to only apply to homosexual anal intercourse, with the maximum sentence reduced from 2 to 1 year imprisonment. In 1994, male homosexual sexual intercourse was officially decriminalised in the Republic of Serbia, a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The age of consent was set at 18 years for anal intercourse between males and 14 for other sexual practices. An equal age of consent of 14 was later introduced on 1 January 2006, regardless of sexual orientation or gender.


title: Sodomy law

text: Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code criminalise "outrage of decency" and additionally punish commission, solicitation, or attempted male same-sex "gross indecency", with "imprisonment of up to two years". Section 377 was added by the British colonial administration in 1858, replacing Hindu law at the time which did not criminalise consensual same-sex activity. In October 2007, Singapore repealed section 377 of the Penal Code and reduced the maximum sentence for male-male sex to a maximum term of 2 years' imprisonment under the maintained section 377A. The section has generally not been enforced, and applications of the section by lower courts have been overturned by the High Court.


title: Sodomy law

text: On 29 November 2022, the Parliament of Singapore voted to repeal Section 377A, effectively legalising homosexuality in the country.


title: Sodomy law

text: The common-law crimes of sodomy and "commission of an unnatural sexual act" in South Africa's Roman-Dutch law were declared to be unconstitutional (and therefore invalid) by the Witwatersrand Local Division of the High Court on 8 May 1998 in the case of "National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice", and this judgment was confirmed by the Constitutional Court on 9 October of the same year. The ruling applied retroactively to acts committed since the adoption of the Interim Constitution on 27 April 1994.


title: Sodomy law

text: Despite the abolition of sodomy as a crime, the Sexual Offences Act, 1957 set the age of consent for same-sex activities at 19, whereas for opposite-sex activities it was 16. This was rectified by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007, which comprehensively reformed the law on sex offences to make it gender- and orientation-neutral, and set 16 as the uniform age of consent. In 2008, even though the new law had come into effect, the former inequality was retrospectively declared to be unconstitutional in the case of "Geldenhuys v National Director of Public Prosecutions".


title: Sodomy law

text: Sexual relationships between members of the same sex are legal under civilian law, but are regarded as sexual harassment in the Military Penal Code.


title: Sodomy law

text: Sweden legalized homosexuality in 1944. The age of consent is 15, regardless of whether the sexual act is heterosexual or homosexual, since equalization in 1978. The Swedish Criminal Code (SFS 1962:700), chapter six ('About Sexual Crimes'), shows gender-neutral terms and does not distinguish between sexual orientation.


title: Sodomy law

text: Bestiality was legalized at the same time as homosexuality, i.e. in 1944. It was again criminalized in 2014. The relevant legal provision is today found in Chapter 2, 10 § of the Swedish Animal Welfare Act of 2018: "It is forbidden to perform sexual acts with animals. The prohibition does not cover acts performed for veterinary reasons or in connection with breeding or for similar legitimate reasons." Violations of this provision is punishable with a fine or with imprisonment for a maximum of two years (Chapter 10, 2 § of the above Act).


title: Sodomy law

text: In Taiwan, the Criminal Code of Republic of China Article 10 officially defines anal intercourse to be a form of sexual intercourse, along with vaginal and oral intercourse. The age of consent is 16, and Article 277 and the Child and Youth Sexual Transaction Prevention Act Article 22 make it a criminal offense to engage in sexual contact with minors. The law is written in gender neutral terms and does not discriminate against homosexual conduct.


title: Sodomy law

text: In Turkey, homosexual acts had already been decriminalized by its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire in 1858.


title: Sodomy law

text: Sodomy is usually interpreted as referring to anal intercourse between two males or a male and a female. In England and Wales sodomy was made a felony by Henry VIII's Act of 1533, which was part of the attack on the monasteries, though had been a crime punished by the clergy until 1534. The Act of 1533 also criminalised sex with animals. Section 61 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, entitled "Sodomy and Bestiality", defined punishments for "the abominable Crime of Buggery, committed either with Mankind or with any Animal". The punishment for those convicted was the death penalty until 1861 in England and Wales, and 1887 in Scotland. James Pratt and John Smith were the last two to be executed for sodomy in England in 1835. However, all homoerotic acts could be prosecuted under the 1533 law as they were all treated by the courts as "attempts" to commit the felony (sodomy) whether there had been an actual attempt to commit anal intercourse or not. This interpretation was in place by at least the 1690s. Thereafter, it was possible to prosecute all homoerotic acts, invitations, or suggestions as "attempts" to commit the felony or conspiracies to arrange it. Between 1806, when reliable figures begin, and 1900, there were more than 8,000 cases of what were called "unnatural offences," including 404 capital sentences and 56 executions (all before 1835). Some confusion over the state of the law and what it covered has resulted from the intervention of Henry Labouchere, who, in 1885 introduced a clause to the Criminal Law Amendment Act that outlawed "gross indecency" between men "in public and private." Many historians have assumed as a result that before that date homoerotic acts were not covered by the law, or were only prosecuted if committed in public. This is not the case. Labouchere's Amendment added nothing to the law except another way of describing what was already illegal. Following the Wolfenden report, sexual acts between two adult males, with no other people present, were made legal in England and Wales in 1967, in Scotland in 1980, Northern Ireland in 1982, UK Crown Dependencies Guernsey in 1983, Jersey in 1990 and Isle of Man in 1992.


title: Sodomy law

text: The definition of sodomy was not specified in these or any statute, but rather established by judicial precedent. Over the years the courts have defined buggery as including either


title: Sodomy law

text: but not any other form of "unnatural intercourse", the implication being that anal sex with an animal would not constitute buggery. Such a case has not, to date, come before the courts of a common law jurisdiction in any reported decision. In the 1817 case of "Rex v. Jacobs", the Crown Court ruled that oral intercourse with a child aged 7 did not constitute sodomy., but it could still be prosecuted as an "attempt" to commit the felony.


title: Sodomy law

text: At common law consent was not a defence nor was the fact that the parties were married. In the UK, the punishment for buggery was reduced from hanging to life imprisonment by the Offences against the Person Act 1861. As with the crime of rape, buggery required that penetration must have occurred, but ejaculation is not necessary.


title: Sodomy law

text: In England, the first relaxation of the law came from the Wolfenden Report, published in 1957. The key proposal of the report was that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence". However, the law was not changed until 1967, when the Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised consensual "homosexual acts" as long as only two men were involved, both were over 21 and the acts happened in private. The Act concerned acts between men only, and anal sex between men and women remained an offence until 1994.


title: Sodomy law

text: In the 1980s and 1990s, gay rights organizations made attempts to equalize the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual activity, which had previously been 21 for homosexual activity but only 16 for heterosexual acts. Heterosexual sodomy, however, ironically remained illegal until the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill, although it was mainly applied in cases of anal rape. Efforts were also made to modify the "no other person present" clause so that it dealt only with minors. In 1994, Conservative MP Edwina Currie introduced as part of the 1994 bill an amendment which would have lowered the age of consent to 16. The amendment failed, but a compromise amendment which lowered the age of consent to 18 was accepted. 1 July 1997 decision in the case "Sutherland v. United Kingdom" resulted in the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 which further reduced it to 16, and the "no other person present" clause was modified to "no minor persons present".


title: Sodomy law

text: It was not until 2000, with the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000, that the age of consent for anal sex was reduced to 16 for men and women. In 2003, the Sexual Offences Act significantly reformed English law in relation to sexual offences, introducing a new range of offences relating to underage and non-consensual sexual activity that were concerned with the act that occurred, rather than the sex or sexual orientation of those committing it. Buggery in as much as it related to sexual intercourse with animals (bestiality) remained untouched until the Sexual Offences Act 2003, when it was replaced with a new offence of "intercourse with an animal".


title: Sodomy law

text: Today, the universal age of consent is 16 in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 brought Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the United Kingdom on 2 February 2009 (prior to that, the age of consent for both heterosexual and homosexual intercourse was 17). The three British Crown dependencies also have an equal age of consent at 16: since 2006, in the Isle of Man; since 2007, in Jersey; and since 2010 in Guernsey.


title: Sodomy law

text: Sodomy laws in the United States were largely a matter of state rather than federal jurisdiction, except for laws governing the US Armed Forces. In the 1950s, all states had some form of law criminalizing sodomy. In the early 1960s, the penalties for sodomy in the various states varied from imprisonment for two to ten years and/or a fine of US$2,000. Illinois became the first American jurisdiction to repeal its law against consensual sodomy in 1961; in 1962, the Model Penal Code recommended all states do so.


title: Sodomy law

text: In the 1986 "Bowers v. Hardwick" decision upholding Georgia's sodomy law, the United States Supreme Court ruled that nothing in the United States Constitution bars a state from prohibiting sodomy.


title: Sodomy law

text: By 2002, 36 states had repealed all sodomy laws or had them overturned by court rulings. In 2003, only 10 states had laws prohibiting all sodomy, with penalties ranging from 1 to 15 years imprisonment. Additionally, four other states had laws that specifically prohibited same-sex sodomy. On June 26, 2003, the US Supreme Court in a 6–3 decision in "Lawrence v. Texas" struck down the Texas same-sex sodomy law, ruling that this private sexual conduct is protected by the liberty rights implicit in the due process clause of the United States Constitution, with Sandra Day O'Connor's concurring opinion arguing that they violated equal protection. This decision invalidated all state sodomy laws insofar as they applied to noncommercial conduct in private between consenting civilians.


title: Sodomy law

text: The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has ruled that the "Lawrence v. Texas" decision applies to Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which is a ban on sodomy in the US Armed Forces. In both "United States v. Stirewalt" and "United States v. Marcum", the court ruled that the "conduct falls within the liberty interest identified by the Supreme Court", but went on to say that despite the application of "Lawrence" to the military, Article 125 can still be upheld in cases where there are "factors unique to the military environment" that would place the conduct "outside any protected liberty interest recognized in "Lawrence"." Examples of such factors could be fraternization, public sexual behavior, or any other factors that would adversely affect good order and discipline. Convictions for consensual sodomy have been overturned in military courts under the "Lawrence" precedent in both "United States v. Meno". and "United States v. Bullock".


title: Sodomy law

text: As of 2022, 14 states still had laws against consensual sodomy; in 2013, police in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, arrested gay men for "attempted crimes against nature" despite the law having been ruled unconstitutional and unenforcable.


title: Sodomy law

text: Zimbabwe's Former President Robert Mugabe has waged a violent campaign against homosexuals, claiming that before colonization, Zimbabweans did not engage in homosexual acts. His first major public condemnation of homosexuality came during the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in August 1995. He told the audience that homosexuality:


title: Sodomy law

text: In September 1995, Zimbabwe's parliament introduced legislation banning homosexual acts. In 1997, a court found Canaan Banana, Mugabe's predecessor and the first President of Zimbabwe, guilty of 11 counts of sodomy and indecent assault. Banana's trial proved embarrassing for Mugabe, when Banana's accusers alleged that Mugabe knew about Banana's conduct and had done nothing to stop it. Regardless, Banana fled Zimbabwe only to return in 1999 and served one year in prison for his homosexual acts. Banana was also stripped of his priesthood.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: In Islam, nikah is a contract between two people. Both the groom and the bride are to consent to the marriage of their own free wills. A formal, binding contract – verbal or on paper – is considered integral to a religiously valid Islamic marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom and bride. Divorce in Islam can take a variety of forms, some executed by a husband personally and some executed by a religious court on behalf of a plaintiff wife who is successful in her legal divorce petition for valid cause.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: In addition to the usual marriage until death or divorce, there is a different fixed-term marriage known as ("temporary marriage") permitted only by the Twelver branch of Shi'ite for a pre-fixed period. There is also Nikah Misyar, a non-temporary marriage with the removal of some conditions such as living together, permitted by some Sunni scholars.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: In Islamic law, marriage – or more specifically, the marriage contract – is called , which already in the Quran is used exclusively to refer to the contract of marriage. In the Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, is defined as "marriage; marriage contract; matrimony, wedlock". (In some marriages in some predominantly Muslim cultures such as in Pakistani culture, there may be a delay between the "nikkah" and the actual enjoinment of the couple. This is called "rukhsati" in desi culture— i.e. when the wife leaves her family's home to move in with her husband, having been assured that her husband has obtained a good job and home and has received her "mahr." This should not be confused with Islamic tradition though, as it is a distinctly cultural practice).


title: Marriage in Islam

text: In Arabic-speaking countries, marriage is commonly called "zawāj" (, from the Quranic term "zawj" (), referring to a member of a pair), and this term has recently gained currency among Muslim speakers of other languages as well. The marriage contract is known by different names: Literary Arabic: ', "matrimony contract"; / ALA-LC: '; ; "marriage" and or (, ) for the certificate. The marriage celebration may be called "ʿurs / zawāj" (), "ezdewaj/arusi" (Persian), "shaadi" (Urdu), "biye/biya" (Bengali) or "düğün" (Turkish).


title: Marriage in Islam

text: In Arabia before the advent of Islam in the 7th century CE, a variety of different marriage practices existed. The most common and recognized types of marriage at this time consisted of: marriage by agreement, marriage by capture, marriage by mahr, marriage by inheritance, and "Mot'a" or temporary marriage. In Mesopotamia, marriages were generally monogamous, except among royalty, who would have harems consisting of wives and concubines. The Sasanian society followed Zoroastrianism, which viewed women to be possessions in marriage, although consent was required in both marriage and divorce.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: According to Islamic sources, most women in the pre-7th century Arabia had little control over their marriages. They were rarely bound by contract for marriage or custody of children and their consent was rarely sought. Women were seldom allowed to divorce their husbands and their view was not regarded for either a marriage or divorce. However, in the transitional age from non-Islamic to Islamic society, elite women could divorce and remarry without stigma. They were given the power to negotiate the terms of their marriage contract, and could even initiate divorce.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Muhammad had reformed the laws and procedures of the common marriage practices that existed during his prophethood. The rules of "marriage by agreement (marriage through consent)" were reformed and a strict set of rules and regulations were put in place. The practice of "marriage by inheritance" was forbidden. Several chapters and verses from the Quran were revealed which banned such practices.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Under the Arabian "Jahiliyyah" law, Islamic sources allege that no limitations were set on men's rights to marry or to obtain a divorce. Islamic law limited men to four wives at one time, not including concubines. () The institution of marriage was refined into one in which the woman was somewhat of an interested partner. 'For example, the dowry, previously regarded as a bride-price paid to the father, became a nuptial gift retained by the wife as part of her personal property' Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a "status" but rather as a "contract". The essential elements of the marriage contract were now an offer by the man, an acceptance by the woman, and the performance of such conditions as the payment of dowry. The woman's consent, given either actively or by silence, was required. Furthermore, the offer and acceptance had to be made in the presence of at least two witnesses.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: As in many religions, marriage is encouraged in Islam, family life is considered a "blessing" and a source of stability. One source lists five Quranic verses (Q.24:32, 25:74, 40:8, 30:21, 5:5) encouraging marriage to "discourage immorality". A BBC page for GCSE WJEC (secondary education) religious studies states, "For Muslims, marriage was created by Allah to provide a foundation for family life and the whole of society."


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Islamic marriages require acceptance (, ), of the groom, the bride and the consent of the custodian () of the bride. The wali of the bride is normally a male relative of the bride, preferably her father. The wali can only be a free Muslim, unless the bride is of the Christian or Jewish faith; in such cases the bride should be given away by someone from her religious background. The bride is normally present at the signing of the marriage contract.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: The () is a technical term of Islamic law which denotes the guardian of a bride. In traditional Islam, the literal definition of , which means "custodian" or "protector", is used. In this context, it is meant that the silence of the bride is considered consent. In most schools of Islamic law, only the father or the paternal grandfather of the bride can be .


title: Marriage in Islam

text: If the conditions are met and a and contract are agreed upon, an Islamic marriage ceremony, or wedding, can take place. The marital contract is also often signed by the bride. The consent of the bride is mandatory. The Islamic marriage is then declared publicly, in (), by a responsible person after delivering a sermon to counsel and guide the couple. It is not required, though customary, that the person marrying the couple should be religiously well-founded in knowledge. The bridegroom can deliver the sermon himself in the presence of representatives of both sides if he is religiously educated, as the story goes about Imam Muhammad bin Ali around 829 AD. It is typically followed by a celebratory reception in line with the couple's or local customs, which could either last a couple of hours or precede the wedding and conclude several days after the ceremony.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: According to Islam, both men and women have rights over each other when they enter into a marriage contract, with the husband serving as protector and supporter of the family most of the time, from his means. This guardianship has two aspects for both partners:


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Several commentators have stated that the superiority of a husband over his wife is relative, and the obedience of the wife is also restrictive.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Women are also reminded that in case the husband is not fulfilling his responsibilities, there is no stigma on them in seeking divorce. The Quran re-emphasizes that justice for the woman includes emotional support, and reminds men that there can be no taking back of the or bridal gifts given to women unless they are found guilty of sexual immorality . In cases where the agreement was to postpone payment of the , some husbands will pressure their wives and insist on the return of what he gave her in order to agree to the dissolution of the marriage. "Where the husband has been abusive or neglectful of his responsibilities, he does not have the right to take his wife's property in exchange for her freedom from him. Unfortunately, most couples refuse to go to the judge and binding arbitration for these issues even though the Quran says:" And if you fear a breach between them, then appoint an arbiter from his folk and an arbiter from her folk. If they (the arbiters) desire reconciliation, Allah will affect it between them. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware."


title: Marriage in Islam

text: ("donatio propter nuptias") differs from a marriage dowry or gift, in that it is mandatory for a Muslim marriage and is paid by the groom to the bride. The amount of money or possessions of the is paid by the groom to the bride at the time of marriage for her exclusive use. The does not have to be money, but it must have monetary value. Therefore, "it cannot be love, honesty, being faithful, etc., which are anyway traits of righteous people." If the marriage contract fails to contain an exact, specified mahr, the husband must still pay the wife a judicially determined sum.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: With prior mutual agreement, the mahr may also be paid in parts to the bride with an amount given by the groom to the bride at the signing of the marriage contract, also called a (in ), and the later portion postponed to a date during the marriage, also called a (in ). Various Romanized transliterations of and are accepted. Such an agreement does not make the full amount of the mahr any less legally required, nor is the husband's obligation to fulfill the agreement waived or lessened while he fulfills his obligations to reasonably house, feed, or cloth the wife (and any children produced from the union) during the marriage.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Quran [5:5] "Today, all good food is made lawful for you. The food of the people of the scripture is lawful for you. Also, you may marry the chaste women among the believers, as well as the chaste women among the followers of previous scripture, provided you pay them their due dowries. You shall maintain chastity, not committing adultery, nor taking secret lovers. Anyone who rejects faith, all his work will be in vain, and in the Hereafter he will be with the losers."


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Quran [60:10] "O you who believe, when believing women (abandon the enemy and) ask for asylum with you, you shall test them. GOD is fully aware of their belief. Once you establish that they are believers, you shall not return them to the disbelievers. They are not lawful to remain married to them, nor shall the disbelievers be allowed to marry them. Give back the dowries that the disbelievers have paid. You commit no error by marrying them, so long as you pay them their due dowries. Do not keep disbelieving wives (if they wish to join the enemy). You may ask them for the dowry you had paid, and they may ask for what they paid. This is GOD's rule; He rules among you. GOD is Omniscient, Most Wise."


title: Marriage in Islam

text: The marriage contract is concluded between the "wali" (guardian) of the bride and the bridegroom and bride. The "wali" of the bride can only be a free Muslim. The "wali" of the bride is normally a male relative of the bride, preferably her father. According to most scholars, if the bride is a virgin, the "wali mujbir" can not force the bride into the marriage against her proclaimed will. Furthermore, according to Khomeini and Ali al-Sistani, both of whom are Shi'ite scholars (having the degrees mujtahid and marja'), and also almost all contemporary scholars, the marriage is invalid without the bride's free consent and no obligation can make marriage official and legal.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: A notable example of this is the Hanafi school (the largest of the four classical schools of Islamic thought), which holds that a bride's permission is required if she has reached puberty. They also hold that if a bride was forced into marriage before reaching puberty, then upon attaining puberty she has the option to nullify the marriage if she wishes. A "wali" other than the father or the paternal grandfather of the bride, then called "wali mukhtar", needs the consent of the bride. If the bride is silent about the issue, i.e. her "wali" expressed his intention to marry her off to a certain man, and she did not object to it, then consent is assumed via her lack of objection.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet said: "A non-virgin woman may not be married without her command, and a virgin may not be married without her permission; and it is permission enough for her is to remain silent (because of her natural shyness)." (Al-Bukhari:6455, Muslim & Others).


title: Marriage in Islam

text: It is reported in a Hadith that A'ishah related that she asked the Prophet : "In the case of a young girl whose parents marry her off, should her permission be sought or not?" He replied: "Yes, she must give her permission." She then said: "But a virgin would be shy, O Messenger of Allaah!" He replied: "Her silence is [considered as] her permission." (Al-Bukhari, Muslim, & Others)


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Children in some Muslim sub-cultures who defy their parents' wishes may in practice, suffer penalties supported by the community. International awareness, campaigns and organizations such as the U.K.'s Forced Marriage Unit have recognized the severity of this human rights issue and their rescue and support services extend beyond the borders of U.K. territories. Some countries have instituted prison time for parents who try to coerce their children into such unions.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Divorce in Islam can take a variety of forms, some initiated by the husband and some initiated by the wife. The theory and practice of divorce in the Islamic world have varied according to time and place. Historically, the rules of divorce were governed by the Sharia, as interpreted by traditional Islamic jurisprudence, and they differed depending on the legal school. Historical practice sometimes diverged from legal theory. In modern times, as personal status (family) laws were codified, they generally remained "within the orbit of Islamic law", but control over the norms of divorce shifted from traditional jurists to the state.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Hanafi/Ottoman rules on divorce were fragile and complex. The husband in repudiating his wife could declare an irrevocable or revocable divorce. The irrevocable divorce was immediate and the women could not be remarried until after a specific waiting period. An example of a waiting period would be having to wait for three menstrual circles from the time of the divorce. Or, if the husband died, the woman must wait four months and ten days after his death. If the woman was pregnant, she must wait until after the child is born. If the divorce was revocable, the divorce is not final until after the waiting period. However, they could remarry if it was a revocable divorce. Many couples did get remarried after a revocable divorce.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: The women's ability to divorce was much different and much more limited. If the woman finds out the husband has some disease or is impotent, the judge gives the husband a year to consummate the marriage before divorce is allowed. Also, the women can divorce by using the "option of puberty" in which the women would have to provide witnesses of the menstrual blood. Finally, a woman could use the "hul", which is a Turkish word, for divorce. This is when the woman asks the husband for a divorce and he repudiates her for consideration. After that, essentially it is trading property for the person.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: The Qur'an encourages cooperation in marriage, this is done by giving specific rules to follow. One verse says "Consort with them honorably; or if you are averse to them, it is possible you may be averse to a thing, and God set in it much good". Divorce could lead to women losing their morality or purity if certain values were not followed correctly. The Qur'an exemplifies that divorce is not meant to be the man getting back at the woman. It is to allow the man and the women to peacefully spit up for the good of each other. They also allow for multiple remarriages between the same couple. The couple can divorce and get back together up to two times but after the second remarriage, the divorce is final and there are not more remarriages allowed.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: To revisit the rights of divorcing and who has them and does not have them, the reason the man typically gets the right to divorce is that his judgment is thought to be more balanced than the woman. Again, the only reason the woman can ask for a divorce is if there is something significantly wrong with the man. Divorce was supposed to be reserved for last case scenarios and not something that was used for harm. The Qur'an says "Divorce must be pronounced twice and then (a woman) must be retained in honor or released in kindness", which exemplifies that it was supposed to be honorable for both man and woman if it needed to be done. It was not taken lightly and it was a big decision on both party's part.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: In certain sections of the "Jahiliyyah" Arab tradition, the son could inherit his deceased father's other wives (i.e. not his own mother) as a wife. The Quran prohibited this practice. Marriage between people related in some way is subject to prohibitions based on three kinds of relationship. The following prohibitions are given from the male perspective for brevity; the analogous counterparts apply from the female perspective; e.g., for "aunt" read "uncle". The Quran states:


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Seven relations are prohibited because of consanguinity, i.e. kinship or relationship by blood, viz. mothers, daughters, sisters, paternal aunts, maternal aunts, and nieces (whether sister's or brother's daughters). In this case, no distinction is made between full and half relations, both being equally prohibited. Distinction is however made with step relations i.e. where both the biological mother and father of a couple wishing to marry are separate individuals for both parties, in which case it is permitted. The word "mother" also connotes the "father's mother" and "mother's mother" all the way up. Likewise, the word "daughter" also includes the "son's daughter" and "daughter's daughter" all the way down. The sister of the maternal grandfather and of the paternal grandmother (great aunts) are also included on an equal basis in the application of the directive.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Marriage to what is sometimes described as foster relations in English are not permitted, although the concept of "fosterage" is not the same as is implied by the English word. The relationship is that formed by suckling from the breast of a wet nurse. This is what is meant by "fosterage" in Islam in the quotation below. In Islam, the infant is regarded as having the same degree of affinity to the wet nurse as in consanguinity, so when the child grows up marriage is prohibited to those related to the wet nurse by the same degree as if to the child's own mother.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: A "hadith" (reports) confirm that fosterage does not happen by a chance suckling, it refers to the first two years of a child's life before it is weaned. Islahi writes that "this relationship is established only with the full intent of those involved. It only comes into being after it is planned and is well thought of".


title: Marriage in Islam

text: The daughter-in-law is prohibited for the father, and the mother-in-law, the wife's daughter, the wife's sister and daughters of the wife's siblings (nieces), the maternal and paternal aunts of the wife are all prohibited for the husband. However, these are conditional prohibitions:


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Interfaith marriages are recognized between Muslims and Non-Muslim People of the Book (usually enumerated as Jews, Christians, and Sabians). Historically, in Islamic culture and traditional Islamic law Muslim women have been forbidden from marrying Christian or Jewish men, whereas Muslim men have been permitted to marry Christian or Jewish women. It is lawful for Muslim men to marry Jewish or Christian women but not a polytheist woman ().


title: Marriage in Islam

text: According to the Sharia (Law), Muslims are allowed to practice polygyny. According to the Quran, a man may have up to four legal wives only if there is a fear of being unjust to non-married orphan girls. Even then, the husband is required to treat all wives equally. If a man fears that he will not be able to meet these conditions then he is not allowed more than one wife.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: A bride-to-be may include terms in her marriage contract that require monogamy for her husband or require her consent before he marries another wife.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: A woman cannot marry after divorce or the death of her husband for a certain period. This period is known as iddah.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: In today's world, Muslims practice Islamic marital laws in a multitude of ways all over the globe. In the United States, for example, 95% of Muslim American couples included in a 2012 study by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding had completed both the Nikkah and had obtained a civil marriage license, which is required to have a marriage legally recognized in the United States. The study also shares that “In some cases, the Islamic marriage contract is completed once the couple has decided to get married, but cohabitation occurs later after the wedding reception. In other cases, the Islamic marriage contract is completed simultaneously with the civil marriage and is followed immediately by the wedding reception.”


title: Marriage in Islam

text: There is ongoing debate about whether or not Sharia should be recognized in western countries like the United States and Australia that would allow for the Nikkah to be recognized as a legally valid marriage. There are also other elements to the Islamic marriage rituals that have difficulty being acknowledged in courts, according to the study, including the Mahr, or the dowry. Women who are denied their dowry do not have a clear path to legal contestation in either the US or Canada.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Studies have also shown that even young Muslim Americans who might describe themselves as "not very religious" embrace the rituals of their faith at important moments of transition – birth, death, and marriage. These occasions motivate reaffirmation of emotional and behavioral touchstones, even for those who do not practice their faith by attending mosque, praying or fasting regularly.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: When it comes to divorce, the 2014 study conducted by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding states that, "Two divorce rates commonly cited for American Muslims include 32.33% and 21.3%, respectively." Within the United States and Canada, many Muslim couples interviewed in the study mention that they value a religious divorce and its proceedings. Some turn to religious figures to help them navigate the divorce process, while many still go through the courts to terminate the civil marriage. Divorced Muslim women today also face the stigmas associated with being divorced within the North American Muslim community that can make it difficult for them seek remarriage.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: Gender roles and ideas about marriage have also shifted since the early onset of Islam when many of the rules around marriage were established. ISPU reports that "the most frequent source of marital conflict in this study was conflict over changing gender roles and expectations," citing a nation-wide increase in women in higher education and professional jobs over the past three decades, and says that they “In many cases are trying to integrate childrearing and family life with professional goals”.


title: Marriage in Islam

text: In March 2017, Salamet Memetimin, an ethnic Uyghur and the Communist Party secretary for Chaka township's Bekchan village in Qira County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, China, was relieved of her duties for taking her nikah marriage vows at her home. In interviews with "Radio Free Asia" in 2020, residents and officials of Shufu County (Kona Sheher), Kashgar Prefecture (Kashi) stated that it was no longer possible to perform traditional Uyghur nikah marriage rites in the country.


title: Palawan

text: Palawan (), officially the Province of Palawan (; ), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of . The capital city is Puerto Princesa. Palawan is known as the Philippines' "Last Frontier" and as the Philippines' "Best Island".


title: Palawan

text: The islands of Palawan stretch between Mindoro island in the northeast and Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island (), measuring long, and wide.


title: Palawan

text: In 2019, it was proposed to divide Palawan into three separate provinces, though it was rejected by the local population in a 2021 plebiscite.


title: Palawan

text: The early history of Palawan was determined by a team of researchers led by Robert Bradford Fox. They found evidence in the Tabon Caves that humans have lived in Palawan for more than 50,000 years. They also found human bone fragments, from an individual known as Tabon Man, in the municipality of Quezon, as well as tools and other artifacts.


title: Palawan

text: Two articulated phalanx bones of a tiger, besides another phalanx piece, were found amidst an assemblage of other animal bones and stone tools in Ille Cave near the village of New Ibajay. The other animal fossils were ascribed to macaques, deer, bearded pigs, small mammals, lizards, snakes and turtles. From the stone tools, besides the evidence for cuts on the bones, and the use of fire, it would appear that early humans had accumulated the bones. Additionally, the condition of the tiger subfossils, dated to approximately 12,000 to 9,000 years ago, differed from other fossils in the assemblage, dated to the Upper Paleolithic. The tiger subfossils showed longitudinal fracture of the cortical bone due to weathering, which suggests that they had post-mortem been exposed to light and air. Tiger parts were commonly used as amulets in South and Southeast Asia, so it may be that the tiger parts were imported from elsewhere, as is the case with tiger canine teeth, which were found in Ambangan sites dating to the 10th to 12th centuries in Butuan, Mindanao. On the other hand, the proximity of Borneo and Palawan also makes it likely that the tiger had colonized Palawan from Borneo before the Early Holocene.


title: Palawan

text: Using the work of Von den Driesch, all chosen anatomical features of appendicular elements' anatomical features which were chosen, besides molars, were measured to distinguish between taxa that had close relationships, and see morphometric changes over ages, though not for pigs or deer. For the latter two, cranial and mandibular elements, besides teeth of deer from Ille Cave were compared with samples of the Philippine brown deer ("Cervus mariannus"), Calamian hog deer ("Axis calamianensis"), and Visayan spotted deer ("Cervus alfredi"), and thus two taxa of deer have been identified from the fossils: "Axis" and "Cervus". Remains of pigs were compared with the Eurasian ("Sus scrofa") and Palawanese wild boar ("Sus ahoenobarbus"). It is known that the Eurasian wild boar was imported as a domesticate to the islands from mainland Southeast Asia to the islands during the Terminal Holocene.


title: Palawan

text: Palawan was a major site for the Maritime Jade Road, one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world, operating for 3,000 years from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE.


title: Palawan

text: Palawan is home to several indigenous groups. The oldest inhabitants are the Palaw'an, Batak, Tagbanwa, and Tau't Bato who are from the interiors and highlands of Palawan, as well as the Calamianes Islands. They traditionally practice animist "anito" religions. Palawan's coastlines were also settled by later groups that are now collectively known as "Palaweños". These groups are the Islamized Molbog people of southern Palawan (possibly originally from Sabah), and the Cuyonon and Agutaynon groups (from the nearby islands of Cuyo and Agutaya).


title: Palawan

text: Palawan was mentioned as "Pulaoan" or "Polaoan" by Antonio Pigafetta in 1521 during Magellan's expedition. They called it ("the land of promise") due to the fact that they were almost starving by the time they reached the island. The local "datu" made peace with the expedition through a blood compact. The ships' crews were welcomed to the island with rice cooked in bamboo tubes, rice wine, bananas, pigs, goats, chickens, coconuts, sugarcane, and other supplies. Pigafetta described the inhabitants as being farmers. Their primary weapons were blowguns with iron tips that could both shoot thick wooden or bamboo darts (some poisoned) and function as spears once their ammunition were exhausted. Pigafetta also described the islanders as keeping roosters for cockfighting.


title: Palawan

text: Before the arrival of the Spanish in the late 15th century Palawan would be conquered and ruled by Bruneian empire and their vassals the Sultanate of Sulu


title: Palawan

text: The northern Calamianes Islands were the first to come under Spanish authority, and were later declared a province separate from the Palawan mainland. In the early 17th century, Spanish friars sent out missions in Cuyo, Agutaya, Taytay and Cagayancillo but they met resistance from Moro communities. Before the 18th century, Colonial Authorities began to build churches enclosed by garrisons for protection against Moro raids in the towns of Cuyo, Taytay, Linapacan and Balabac. In 1749, the Sultanate of Brunei ceded southern Palawan to Spain.


title: Palawan

text: In 1818, the entire island of Palawan, or "Paragua" as it was called, was organized as a single province named "Calamianes", with its capital in Taytay. By 1858, the province was divided into two provinces, namely, "Castilla", covering the northern section with Taytay as capital and "Asturias" in the southern mainland with Puerto Princesa as capital. It was later divided into three districts, "Calamianes", "Paragua" and "Balabac", with Principe Alfonso town as its capital. During the Spanish colonial period, Cuyo became the second capital of Palawan from 1873 to 1903.


title: Palawan

text: In 1902, after the Philippine–American War, the United States established civil rule in northern Palawan, calling it the province of "Paragua". In 1903, pursuant to Philippine Commission Act No. 1363, the province was reorganized to include the southern portions and renamed "Palawan", and Puerto Princesa declared as its capital.


title: Palawan

text: Many reforms and projects were later introduced in the province. Construction of school buildings, promotion of agriculture, and bringing people closer to the government were among the priority plans during this era.