16-year-old Moroccan teenager, Amina al-Filali, committed suicide after she was forced to marry the man who raped her. Now a minister in Morocco’s Islamist government is calling for a change to the law allowing rapists to marry their victims.
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Bassima Hakkaoui, Minister for Women and Families and the only woman in the cabinet, called for a debate to reform the law, in comments to state television channel 2M.
Amina al-Filali, 16, drank rat poison last week in Larache, near Tangiers in the north, after being forced to marry the man who raped her.
He had sought to escape prison by invoking an article of the penal code that authorizes the rapist to marry to escape prosecution.
This is something to which the families of such victims often agree because the loss of a woman’s virginity outside of marriage is considered a dishonor to her family.
Filali’s funeral took place Sunday in the northern town of Larache.
On Wednesday the League’s president Fouzia Assouli condemned the relevant article of the law, saying that while it ostensibly defended family values it did not uphold the rights of women.
Skalli told 2M television during an extended programmed on the affair:
“The law treats the raped minor like a criminal even if she was the victim of violence. Adding “We have to reform the criminal code to adapt to the new constitution, which forbids violence against women and ensures the equality of the sexes.”
Under Moroccan law, rape is punishable by five to 10 years in prison – or between 10 and 20 years if the victim is a minor.
