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Monday, November 15, 2010

Teens in Love

A seventeen-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old girl in Zimbabwe have fallen in love and are starting a family together. This made the news because they are half-siblings and were dragged into court.

I found this story over at Incest News.

The girl, who is now eight months pregnant, was however lucky to escape a jail sentence after the court warned, cautioned and discharged her while herco-accused will receive four strokes for the offence.

Four strokes? What, no burning at the stake?

The two were convicted on their own plea of guilty when they appeared before Western Commonage magistrate, Mr Shepherd Munjanja, for contravening section 75(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23, having sexual intercourse within a prohibited degree of relationship.

Please Mr Shepherd Munjanja, how about not punishing people for being in love?

Mrs Fiona Denhere, for the State, told the court that the two were staying in their parents’ house and were related as half sister and half brother.
Sometime in 2008 the two got into a relationship after the boy proposed love to the half sister.

The girl, who was doing form two at a local school, is understood to have
accepted his proposal.

Please, Mrs Fiona Denhere, I'm sure there are people raping other people in your jurisdiction, and people molesting children. Don't waste time with consensual sex.

When asked by the court why they committed the offence the two shocked the court when they said they deeply loved each other.

Won't they all be better off if they can get married, rather than punishing them and denying them marriage equality?

Here's Saturn's coverage at Incest News.

Liz Smith had a good comment...

It's simple - If they deeply love each other that much, they should be allowed to be together, especially if the sister is pregnant. These rules against consensual incest need to be removed.

That would be the fair thing to do. Consanguineous love should not be a crime, if it is a matter of consent. These two were young, but they were close enough in age.
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