Women in Morocco took to the streets in the capital city of Rabat, demanding a change in the North African country’s rape laws after a 16-year-old girl, ordered by a judge to marry her rapist and preserve her honour, committed suicide.
Teen-aged Amina Filali, was distraught after a Sharia judge in Tangiers forced her to marry her rapist, a man 10 years her senior. Amina had died suddenly last week in her home town of Larache, near Tangiers. Her father, Lahcen Filali, said Amina had been with her new husband when she “fell into street (and) started vomiting.”
By the time an ambulance arrived, the father said, “It was already too late.” The girl died hours later at a Larache hospital on 10 March.
Amina had committed suicide by ingesting rat poison after her rapist and husband beat her severely, her father, Lahcen, told local newspapers.
News of her shocking death sparked nationwide protests as Moroccan women, and indeed women all over the world, are demanding an end to the archaic law that allows a rapist to avoid prosecution b agreeing to marry his victim if she is a minor.
Hundreds of protesters, holding up signs that said “The law has killed Amina”, gathered outside Morocco’s parliament on Saturday, demanding that the law be repealed.
While police officials claim to be investigating further into the case, government spokesman, Mustapha El Khalfi said on Thursday that Amina had been “raped twice, the last when she was married,” referring to the fact that she was forced to wed her attacker.
Lahcen said he had not been in support of the union, but claimed his wife, family and the court of Larache had insisted the forced nuptials take place in order to preserve her “honour”.
In rural areas like Larache, it is considered dishonourable for a woman to lose her virginity before marriage, and the dishonour is hers and her family’s even if she is raped.
“The judge decided he must marry her, and I had no opportunity to refuse the judge’s decision,” the father said. “I wanted to send (the eventual husband) to prison, and have my daughter stay with me until she became (an adult).”
Rape is punishable by up to 10 years in jail in Morocco, more if the victim is a minor, pregnant or disabled.
According to Amina’s father, his daughter’s rapist was never charged due to the fact that his family had signed an agreement to the marriage in court.
“Through this law, the rape becomes legitimate,” said Fouzia Assouli, president of the Moroccan advocacy group the Federation of the Democratic League for Women’s Rights.
Women’s rights groups have launched an online campaign demanding that the law, article 475, be repealed. A facebook page, titled “We are all Amina Filali” has been set up. Campaigners are calling for the arrest of both rapist and judge.
Assouli says the removal of article 475 would be a step in the right direction toward changing archaic views about sex and marriage.
