A Moroccan teen committed suicide after being forced to marry her rapist, who wed his victim in a bid to beat the system and evade prison
Amina Al Filali, 16, drank rat poison last week in Larache, near Tangiers in the north, said Fouzia Assouli, president of Morocco’s Democratic League for Women’s Rights.
The girl’s rapist had sought to escape prison by invoking an article of the penal code that he claimed would exonerate him if the rape victim was his wife.
Assouli deplored that the relevant article proclaims to defend family values, “but does not uphold the rights of women.”
Under Moroccan law, rape is punishable by five to 10 years in prison.
According to the father’s interview, the girl was accosted on the street and raped when she was 15, but it was two months before she told her parents.
He said the court pushed the marriage, even though the perpetrator initially refused. He only consented when faced with prosecution. The penalty for rape is between five and 10 years in prison, but rises to 10 to 20 in the case of a minor.
In some societies the loss of a woman’s virginity outside of marriage is considered a dishonour to her family, and arrangements are often made for rape victims to marry their attackers.
Rest In Peace Amina Al Filali, hopefully you’re death will not be vein and brings forth major social change.
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