Amina Filali

This story is so heartbreaking that it seems wrong not to speak of it. The article from The Telegraph discusses the suicide of Amina Filali, may God be Merciful to her, after suffering the degrading abuse of having to marry the man who raped her.
May her death not be exploited by any side, but used to prevent the coercion and brutalization of women's bodies and souls in the name of tradition or religion. Ameen
(Photo: Hamida, Right, and Souad, the sister and mother of Amina Al Filali sit at her grave in Larache - AFP/Getty Images)

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Moroccan teenager's suicide after she was forced to marry her rapist
A Moroccan teenager committed suicide after her family forced her to marry her rapist in a tragedy that has sparked outrage among Moroccan activists and demands for changes to the nation's laws.


By Paul Carsten, and agencies

2:50PM GMT 15 Mar 2012

Amina Filali, 16, drank rat poison last week in order to kill herself because she had been made to marry the man who raped her when she was 15 years old.

Activists have set up a Facebook group called "We are all Amina Filali", with almost 1,000 members. A petition was started which already contains more than 1,000 signatures, and hundreds of tweets detail people's horror at the tragedy.

Nabil Belkabir, an activist, implored people on Twitter to "Join the group 'We are all Amina Filali' if you don't want this drama to happen again."

According to the president of Morocco's Democratic League for Women's Rights, Fouzia Assouli, Miss Filali's rapist married her to avoid receiving a sentence for rape.

In Morocco this is punishable by five to ten years in prison, but the sentence rises to between ten and twenty years if the victim is a minor.


Article 475 of the Moroccan penal code, which purports to defend family values, states that if a rapist marries his victim he is then exonerated of his crime. Ms Assouli attacked the article, saying it "does not uphold the rights of women".

In many societies, including within the Middle East, a woman losing her virginity before marriage is considered a dishonour to her family. For this reason, families will often make arrangements for rape victims to marry their rapists, so as to restore their lost honour. The Book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament contains a similar injunction.

"Amina, 16, was triply violated, by her rapist, by tradition and by Article 475 of the Moroccan law," activist Abadila Maaelaynine wrote on Twitter.

Miss Filali's father, Lahcen Filali, told an online Moroccan newspaper that his daughter only told her parents of the rape two months after it had occurred. When they reported it, the prosecutor advised his daughter to marry.

Although the rapist had initially rejected the proposal to marry Miss Filali, he agreed once threatened with prosecution.

The manager of the Adala Association for legal reform, Abdelaziz Nouaydi, said that a judge can only encourage the victim and rapist to marry when there is agreement from the victim and both families.

Mr Nouaydi said that although it isn't a common occurrence, the victim's family will sometimes assent to the marriage due to worries she will be unable to find a husband if her rape becomes common knowledge.

Ms Assouli said that the victim is then forced to marry in order to avoid scandal for her family.

Despite Morocco changing its family code in 2004 in an attempt to improve women's rights, the practice continues. "It is unfortunately a recurring phenomenon," she said. "We have been asking for years for the cancellation of Article 475 of the penal code which allows the rapist to escape justice."

Legislation to outlaw all forms of violence against women, which includes rape within marriage, has failed to move beyond government debate since first being proposed in 2006.

Mr Filali said his daughter had complained to her mother that her husband beat her repeatedly throughout the five months they were married. Her mother advised her to be patient.

According to a government study conducted last year, almost one quarter of Moroccan women have been sexually assaulted at least once in their lives.

"They've Got Money and We've Got Nothing:" The Hellish World of Sex Tourism in Morocco

Here is a video report from France24 about the rising levels of foreign sexual predators in Morocco, especially those targeting Moroccan children.
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Morocco: the Hellish World of Sex Tourism
By Aziza NAIT SIBAHA / Karim HAKIKI

Think of Morocco and you think of palaces, bustling souks and age-old traditions. But the postcard image hides a darker reality: the country is a magnet for paedophiles and sex tourists. Across the country, hundred of thousands are being exploited under the gaze of their pimps. Ours reporters took secret footage of this hellish world where men, women and children are all for sale.

Morocco Child Maid Abuse Sentence 'lenient'

This is one of those good news/bad news article. The "good' news is that someone is actually being held accountable for abusing child maids in Morocco, the bad news it that the charge is lenient and its affect over the entire situation probably minuscule. Keep Hope Alive!


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Morocco abuse sentence 'lenient'


Moroccan human rights groups are to appeal against the sentence imposed on a woman at the centre of a high-profile abuse case, saying it was too lenient.

The judge's wife was given three years in jail for torturing her 11-year-old maid, Zineb Chetite.

The court heard medical reports listing how the girl had at times been burnt with oil and an iron, had had her head shaved and was beaten with a stick.

The case has highlighted the plight of maids in Morocco and abroad.

Details of the woman's name have not been released, although she is known to be from an affluent family and the wife of a Moroccan judge.

Reports say she was sentenced to three-years in prison and fined 100,000 dirhams ($13,000; £8,150) for the torture and abuse of the young domestic servant.

'Stolen childhood'

Several human rights organisations say they are to appeal against the sentence on behalf of the estimated 80,000 child workers in Morocco, who are forced into such work by their families because of poverty.

"The sentence does not reflect the scale of the atrocities committed, because the little girl was locked up in a cellar," says Najia Adib of Don't Touch My Children.

"We're going to appeal because we feel the victim's childhood was stolen."

Zineb Chetite had to be taken to hospital earlier this year after a series of abuses, which included being burnt, beaten and suffering injuries to her genitalia, medical reports say.

The head of the Moroccan Human Rights Centre, Dr Khaled al-Sharqawi, told the BBC that the sentence was lenient as the court had not taken into consideration the maid's age, and the fact she was a defenceless child away from home.

The group is also demanding that the woman's husband be charged with abuse. It says he was spared legal action because of his position.

In September, a number of Moroccan non-governmental organisations appealed to the government to implement changes to the law, to prevent children younger than 15 from being employed as domestic servants.

Don't Touch My Child : Sexual Abuse in Morocco

Here is a short article about pedophilia in Morocco, and a group that is trying to address the issue. It seems as if the government is trying to downplay the connection between pedophilia and sex tourism but from my experience in Morocco, this is believed to be one of the main forces driving the rise in cases.
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Moroccan group reports 'staggering' rise in child sex abuse

19 hours ago

RABAT (AFP) — A campaigning group reported a "staggering" rise in the number of sexual assaults on children in Morocco, in its annual report issued Tuesday.

The Touche pas a mon enfant (Don't touch my child) group said it had recorded 306 such cases in 2008, six times more than the number recorded by another rights group for the first half of 2007.

But it added: "The cases declared by the families of the victims... only make up a tiny percentage of the abuse committed."

That was partly explained by the taboo nature of the issue in Morocco's conservative society, it added.

"Sexual assaults are, in Morocco, as in a lot of other societies, surrounded by a veil of almost-total silence," it said.

Even the victims and their families often dared not speak out.

Family Affairs Minister Nouzha Skalli suggested that the rise in figures indicated not so much an increase in abuse but a greater willingness to speak out.

"Paedophilia has always existed in Morocco," she told AFP.

"The fact that it is being brought to light by the media and NGOs... in no way means a direct rise in the number of victims of pedophilia."

But Najat Anwar, the founder and president of "Don't touch my child" said the rise in the 2008 figures was down to an increase in sexual tourism, fueled by the development of the Internet.

The group also said that light sentences issued by the courts against offenders was doing nothing to discourage such crimes.

It called for a greater commitment by the authorities, including tougher laws targeting such practices.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.