YANGON, Myanmar — Thiri Aung Tin said her boyfriend had persuaded her to elope, then locked her in a dark room for days on end. It was the start of an ordeal of captivity and verbal abuse that lasted more than two years, she said, and eventually drove her to attempt suicide.

When he was arrested in February for abduction and wrongful confinement, two days after she reported him to the police, she hoped he would face adequate punishment. But he was released without bail in early March, and accused only of violating a section of Myanmar’s 19th-century penal code on “cheating” that is sometimes applied to unfaithful partners and carries a maximum jail term of one year. A trial is pending.

“I feel that this is totally unfair,” Ms. Thiri Aung Tin, 21, said of the turn in the case.

Change is coming to Myanmar as it transitions to democracy. But when it comes to protecting women from violence, the needle has barely budged.

Myanmar lags behind many of its Asian neighbors on the issue, human rights groups say, citing a penal code that does not recognize marital rape and the country’s lack of a domestic violence law.