In recent months, women around the U.S. have been standing up against harassment in the workplace, but they are not the only country fighting injustice at the moment. The Republic of Somaliland in Africa has recently passed a law to help fight against rape. Instead of rape being a cultural problem, it will now be considered a crime.  

Prior to the creation of the law, victims could and would be forced to marry their rapists by their families to avoid being shamed. Old ways to deal with these cases would favor the perpetrator and these ways have now been banned. With no prior law to stop rape, gang rapes would frequently occur and in recent years, rape cases have also risen.

Even though The Republic of Somaliland declared itself an independent country from Somalia in 1991, it is not recognized as a country around the world. According to Anne Soy from the British Broadcasting Center, The Republic of Somaliland also hopes to not only claim credibility as a country by passing this new law, but to also help stop the act of rape completely.

Since the passage of the new law, convicted rapists can now spend up to 30 years in prison. Even with this big step in The Republic of Somaliland, the neighboring country of Somalia has not passed any law to ban rape.