The Domestic Violence Bill that aims to provide for protection and relief to victims has passed the committee stage in Zimbabwe’s House of Assembly with amendments, according to a report on the allAfrica.com site.

The proposed law was referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee for scrutiny on whether the amendments conform to the Constitution. Amendments were made to Clause 3 of the Bill which deals with the scope and definition of domestic violence – an issue that has attracted heated debated. The amendments were moved by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa after wide consultation. Among cultural practices being outlawed are forced virginity testing or female genital mutilation, pledging of women and girls for the purposes of appeasing spirits and forced marriages. Others are forced wife inheritance and sexual intercourse between fathers-in-law and newly married daughters-in-law. The Minister also moved amendments for the deletion of the terms ‘jealousy’ and ‘unreasonable denial of conjugal rights’ as constituting domestic violence.
Full allAfrica.com report