ABSTRACT
Chapter XV (Offences Against Morality) of the Malawian Penal Code includes a variety of offences based on laws adopted in England in the nineteenth century and transported to Malawi through colonialism. Post-independence governments have adopted and maintained these laws to keep the status quo by penalising sexuality to continue the colonial effort to curb women’s agency. Their application has been extended to other marginalised and vulnerable groups, including female sex workers, sexual minorities, children and pregnant women. The discriminatory application of such laws continues along the same fractured lines used when they were first enacted. There is a need for transformative law reform that addresses the gendered implications of existing legislation and gives effect to the non-discrimination promise in Malawi’s democratic constitution.
