Marriage

====Laws, human rights and gender status====
The laws surrounding heterosexual marriage in many countries have come under international scrutiny because they contradict international standards of [[human rights]]; institutionalize [[violence against women]], [[child marriage]] and [[forced marriage]]; require the permission of a husband for his wife to work in a paid job, sign legal documents, file criminal charges against someone, sue in civil court etc.; sanction the use by husbands of violence to "discipline" their wives; and discriminate against women in divorce.<ref>[http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-19/world/uae.court.ruling_1_islamic-law-sharia-law-ruling?_s=PM:WORLD Court in UAE says beating wife, child OK if no marks are left – CNN.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325143850/http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-19/world/uae.court.ruling_1_islamic-law-sharia-law-ruling?_s=PM%3AWORLD |date=25 March 2012 }}. Articles.cnn.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref><ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr55/006/2011/en/ Key human rights concerns highlighted by Amnesty International in advance of Swaziland's Universal Periodic Review hearing in October 2011]. Amnesty International</ref><ref>[http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/7cec89369c43a6dfc1256a2a0027ba2a/14366a04dd560e57c125729d006cd1ac/$FILE/N0322916.pdf Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Twenty-eighth session], United Nations, 14 February 2003.</ref>

Such things were legal even in many Western countries until recently: for instance, in [[France]], married women obtained the right to work without their husband's permission in 1965,<ref>[http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/explore/cmcf-vsi-women-in-france.pdf Women in France] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092212/http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/explore/cmcf-vsi-women-in-france.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}. Modern and Contemporary France, Taylor and Francis.</ref><ref>[http://www.parisvoice.com/-archives-97-86/282-frances-leading-women-show-the-way France's leading women show the way] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728175142/http://www.parisvoice.com/-archives-97-86/282-frances-leading-women-show-the-way |date=28 July 2013 }}. Parisvoice.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/TWR-07.html Lesson – The French Civil Code (Napoleonic Code) – Teaching Women's Rights From Past to Present]. Womeninworldhistory.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref> and in [[West Germany]] women obtained this right in 1977 (by comparison women in [[East Germany]] had many more rights).<ref>Bennhold, Katrin (5 October 2010). [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/europe/06iht-letter.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all 20 Years After Fall of Wall, Women of Former East Germany Thrive], ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>Trzcinski, Eileen and Holst, Elke (April 2010) [http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.356386.de/dp998.pdf Gender Differences in Subjective Well-Being in and out of Management Positions], German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin.</ref> In [[Spain]], during Franco's era, a married woman needed her husband's consent, referred to as the ''permiso marital'', for almost all economic activities, including employment, ownership of property, and even traveling away from home; the ''permiso marital'' was abolished in 1975.<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/spain/43.htm Spain – Social Values And Attitudes]. Countrystudies.us. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref>

An absolute submission of a wife to her husband is accepted as natural in many parts of the world, for instance surveys by UNICEF have shown that the percentage of women aged 15–49 who think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances is as high as 90% in Afghanistan and Jordan, 87% in Mali, 86% in Guinea and Timor-Leste, 81% in Laos, 80% in Central African Republic.<ref>[http://www.childinfo.org/attitudes_data.php Statistics by Area – Attitudes towards wife-beating – Statistical table] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704112113/http://www.childinfo.org/attitudes_data.php |date=4 July 2014 }}. Childinfo.org. Retrieved on 6 April 2013.</ref> Detailed results from Afghanistan show that 78% of women agree with a beating if the wife "goes out without telling him [the husband]" and 76% agree "if she argues with him".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.childinfo.org/files/MICS_Afghanistan_2010-11.pdf|title=UNICEF Data|access-date=8 February 2013}}</ref>

Throughout history, and still today in many countries, laws have provided for [[extenuating circumstances]], partial or complete defenses, for men who killed their wives due to adultery, with such acts often being seen as [[Crime of passion|crimes of passion]] and being covered by legal defenses such as [[Provocation (legal)|provocation]] or defense of [[honor killing|family honor]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/738-decriminalization-of-adultery-and-defenses.html|title=Decriminalization of adultery and defenses|website=www.endvawnow.org}}</ref>