The Parliament of neighbouring country, Pakistan has provided approval for Chemical Castration of repetitive and habitual rapists.
What is Chemical Castration?
Simply, the term ‘castration’ would mean, the act of removing testicles. Chemical castration, however, is castration via anaphrodisiac drugs.
In males, as reported by The Print, chemical castration uses certain chemicals to reduce a man’s libido or sexual activity, by lowering testosterone, which is the predominant sex hormone in males. This type of castration has been used as a punishment against sex offenders since the 1940s.
Furthermore, according to media reports, it is a legal form of punishment in countries including South Korea, Poland, the Czech Republic and some states in the US.
According to the Pakistani Parliamentary Bill, “Chemical castration is a process duly notified by rules framed by the Prime Minister, whereby a person is rendered incapable of performing sexual intercourse for any period of his life, as may be determined by the court through administration of drugs which shall be conducted through a notified medical board”.
Pakistan Parliament approval
Rapists or sex offenders who have committed the crime of rape in Pakistan multiple times could be punished by chemical castration after the country’s Parliament passed new legislation which, reportedly aims to speed up convictions and impose tougher sentences.
NDTV says that the bill is a response to the general populace’s outcry against a recent spike in cases of women and children being raped in Pakistan, as demand grows for effective curbs to the crime.
It has been said that less than 4 percent of rape cases or sexual assault cases in the country result in a conviction.
Punishment requires consent
The passage of the Bill comes about a year post-President Arif Alvi’s approval for the new anti-rape ordinance, which was cleared by the Pakistan Cabinet, calling for the chemical castration of rapists with the consent of the convict and the setting up of special courts for speedy trails.
Protest against the Bill
Mushtaq Ahmed, a member of the Senate of Pakistan, and President of Jamaat-e-Islami, (a 1941 Islamic Movement) protested against the bill and termed it ‘un-Islamic and against the Islamic law of Sharia’.
He stated that a rapist should be hanged publicly, but there was no mention of castration in the Sharia.