Post date: Mar 17, 2012 10:41:49 PM
RABAT, MOROCCO (MARCH 17, 2012) (REUTERS) - Hundreds of women protested in Rabat on Saturday (March 17) to demand Morocco's parliament repeal a law on sexual violence.
Morocco on Thursday (March 15) said it would amend the law at issue which allows rapists to marry their underage female victims.
Hundreds of women's rights activists demand a repeal of Morocco's penal code after teenage girl kills herself after her rapist was allowed to marry her.
The decision follows the suicide of a teenage girl which has raised doubts about the effectiveness of reforms to women's rights in the country.
Sixteen-year-old Amina El-Filali killed herself last week near the northern city of Larache by swallowing rat poison after a six-month forced marriage to the man who raped her.
"We want a new law. We also want an end to rape in Morocco but if this law is not repelled, this would be impossible. We want a law that punishes the criminal and protects the rights of Moroccan women", said Amina's sister Hamida who joined the protest on Saturday.
Local human rights activists say the law violates women's rights and was created to avoid damage to the reputation of the victim's family.
"The suicide of Amina Filali brought to the foreground this question that exists and was known. For a long time, we called in the feminist movement to make an end to it but nobody was listening to us. Today, this tragedy contributed to awaken the conscience and alerted both the public opinion and the citizens. Today, everyone is talking about this issue and everyone is asking for article 475 to be abolished from the penal law", said women rights activist Amina Jebabdi.
Rape victims in Morocco carry a stigma of shame and dishonour. They are often suspected by police and judges of consent, and little social assistance is given to help them rebuild their lives.
"I am here today because I could have been a victim myself like Amina. All these women could be like Amina. There could be hundreds of similar cases if we keep quiet," said Moroccan singer Oum who was holding a placard that read "Rip Amina."
Convicted rapists face five to 10 years in prison, and up to 20 years when the victim is underage. At the westernmost boundary of the Muslim world, and only a stone throw's away from Europe, Moroccan women find themselves enjoying more freedoms. A family law reformed in 2004 won the North African country praise from the West for giving Moroccan women more rights than many Arab states.
But that reform, which led to the creation of matrimonial courts, has been dogged by Morocco's conservative and predominantly male judges, and by a failure to adopt laws to ensure better protection to women from physical abuse.
While it allowed women to seek divorce, made procedures for polygamy complicated and raised the minimum marriage age for women to 18 from 15, it enabled judges to rely on their own discretion in allowing minors to be married.
One out of eight rural Moroccan women aged between 15-19 was married in 2010 while the rate stood at one out of seven in 1994, official data shows.