Wife watching porn not grounds for divorce, Indian court rules

An Indian court has ruled that a wife’s consumption of pornography is not grounds for divorce, emphasizing that women retain the right to masturbate and do not surrender their sexual autonomy upon marriage.

Discussions about female sexuality remain taboo in India, particularly for married women, who are often expected to prioritize their husbands and children over themselves.

Wednesday’s ruling in the southern state of Tamil Nadu followed an appeal by a man challenging a lower court’s refusal to grant him a divorce. His case was based on several allegations of cruelty by his wife, including what he claimed was her addiction to masturbating while watching pornography.

Dismissing the appeal, the Madras High Court ruled that “self-pleasure is not forbidden fruit.” “When masturbation among men is acknowledged to be universal, masturbation by women cannot be stigmatised,” the court stated in its ruling, a copy of which AFP has seen.

The court further asserted that a woman “retains her individuality” even after marriage and that her “fundamental identity as an individual, as a woman, is not subsumed by her spousal status.”

While the court acknowledged that addiction to pornography was “bad” and could not be “morally justified,” it ruled that it did not constitute legal grounds for divorce.

Divorce remains taboo across much of India, with only one in every 100 marriages ending in dissolution, often due to family and social pressure to maintain unhappy unions. Chronic backlogs in India’s legal system mean that some divorce petitions take years to be resolved.