Biblical Law Dehumanizes Women

In biblical Israel it was not the individual that constituted a legal entity but rather the patriarchal household. In our world the definition of human rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 states that the individual is endowed with power and privilege to act in its self-interest. So our definition of rape assumes that a woman has the right to determine for herself who her sexual partners will be. Rape is when that right is taken from her by force or by intimidation.