Morocco’s Dark Side

Morocco’s Dark Side :Women’s rights in Morocco and rape law

What would you feel if you were raped and the court forces you to marry your rapist? Rape victims in Morocco has increased 78% in the last 20 years ( Tumblr.org). After the failure of the feminist movement created in March 1998. The suicide of a 16 years old girl, Amina Filali, triggered a reaction from King Mohammed (6th) as he immediately reformed the law. Women fought for the change of a law that protects the rapist from its victim. This law has to be removed and replaced with a just,resonable one because it is dishonnorable and degrading for women to still face injustice and gender inequality. Everybody understands that Morocco, a Muslim country, adopted its own culture based on community morals and religion. However, I feel like the general majorty needs to be educated and more open to democratic laws as they learn the value of women in a society and understand their role, ultimately it will shed light on how such a law is inhuman and how it affects their country,their women,their families, and their children.

Women in Morocco are demanding a change of the Moroccan law the article 475 and are fighting for the women’s rights in this country. They are asking to remove the article 475 and replace it by a new law, in order to protect the women of our society and have a more of a sense of security, which is their major goal. Women in Morocco have been trying to protect women by creating a Feminist movement in March 1998, however the Feminist movement did not succeed as the goverment was not affected by the movement and no changes were made to the laws. During that period, a 16 years old girl named Amina Filali, committed suicide on March 14th, after being raped and forcely married to her rapist (due to the cruel law) a year before ( CNN News, March 17, 2012). This is a good example showing how this law is negatively impacting the women of our society. This tragedy awakened people’s minds and led them to think differently concerning women’s rights. It also pushed them to protest against the article 475 of the penal law. This article 475 of the Moroccan law, created in 1998, decrees that anyone who rapes a female, will receive immunity from criminal charges as long as they marry the woman (Tumblr.org). The Article 475 was promulgated in November, 11, 2003. Also, the rapist’s emprisonment time, actually seems to be low for an action of this kind. However, the King Mohammed 6 reformed the law in November 2003, saying that an underage girl is not eligible to marry. Women were protesting all over the country and stated: “We want a new law.” “We also want an end to rape in Morocco but that cannot be possible until this law is removed. 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. (Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2012). People in Morocco seem to be unaware of the the consequences that might be caused by the article 475, until that tragedy happened, people had a different prespective and demanded a new reform. Amina Filali’s suicide brought this law in the spotlight. She also said, “For a long time, we called on the feminist movement to bring an end to it but nobody was listening to us.” Today, this tragedy contributed to the awakening of the consious and alerted both public opinion and citizens. Today, everyone is talking about this issue and everyone is asking for article 475 to be terminated from the penal law,” said women rights activist Amina Jebabdi ( Al Arabiya News, March 18, 2012).

On the other hand, the Moroccan law is more based on family morals than the right of women. Since the tragedy happened, women and the ministers look for a new reform of the law, giving to women more strength, value and rights toward men by increasing the penalties for the rapist. Also, Judges seems not to have that much power that can affect their decision because they only can recommend marriage in the case of agreement by the victim and both families so it’s all in the family’s choices. However, if the judge decided the victim has to marry, she has to do so in order to protect her family’s honors because in this country the loss of women’s virginity is a huge stain of honor on the family. The family will not accept people of their community talking indecently about their daughter. They might associate her as a prostitute if they know she had been involved in a sexual intercourse, forced or not;it’s still inconceivable for this society. They think that this act is a huge shame and this cannot be acceptable there. To conclude, in Morocco, the law protects public morality, but not the individual. ‘’Moroccan law defends “family morals, but does not take into account the right of women as a person,” Assouli told CNN ( CNN News, March 17, 2012).

“The judge decided he must marry her, and I had no choice to refuse it. I would prefer that the rapist go to jail but the court pushed the marriage in order not to spread this story, protecting the girl’s reputation, and in order to protect the family. The penalty for rape is between five and 10 years in prison, but rises to 10 to 20 in the case of a minor’’ ( CNN News, March 17, 2012).

Even though some people are pro for this law, others are still fighting for it since King’s Mohammed 6 reform in 2003 to protect women. In his reform women were given the right to divorce, also the age of marriage has been raised from 15 to 18, and could benefit from property rights. However, political parties are against these laws where women have more powers. For them, it is unacceptable that women could benefit from the right to divorce for example, because the man in this case has no more powers against the women and thus, he is menaced to treat her well until he dies, and for some men that’s not what they really expect from a marriage union. Moreover, political parties created the article 475 on November 11, 2003, just after the King’s reform, which means that even the King’s reform was not taken seriously. Political parties are based on the Islam religion because the majority of the people in Morocco are Muslims so they tend to vote to political parties who suit their culture. Islam’s religion principles states that a man can only marry a virgin woman but if she is inpure, he can only marry someone who has been divorced. Also it is stated in the Holy Quran that: ‘’ Pure companions, and contentment from Allah. Virgins await those who enter to paradise’’ (3:15, Quraan). As Morocco is majorily a Muslim country, people tend to believe and practice their religion as is it says in their book. But, sometimes, they are too close-minded that they can’t understand that this act was not consented and thus, choose their daughter to suffer all her life to preserve their reputation rather than seeing their religion in another way. The victim’s family are wishing a great future to their daughter, as any other parents and as they are living in a country where prejudices reign, they have to ho through tough decisions to gratify the society. “It is not something that happens a great deal – it is very rare,” her father said, but admitted that the family of the victim sometimes agrees out of fear that she won’t be able to find a husband if it is known she was raped ( CNN News, March 17, 2012).

After the rape and the suicide of an underage girl named Amina Filali, who was sexually abused, people in Morocco decided to protest against the law of the article 475, that proclaims that if the rapist marrys the victim, he will be excluded from punishement. However, an underage girl is not eligible to marry but, the judge and her family decided to let her marry her rapist in order to protect the family’s principles based on Islam and not to get criticized. This country should eventually change the law of the article 475 after women protested because if the women population stay under the control of men, they will probably regret their choice of voting for a certain political party which crushes the women and lead them to be affected by violence. It is important that the King Mohammad 6 intervene for this situation and withdraw the right to enforce the law throughout the country. Women in Morocco had gained their rights earlier, with that they still suffer and face laws that are lenient toward husbands who harm their wives, unequal inheritances and other inequities. This is a major problem in this country thats in a phase of development but still faces injustice and violence towards women.

Works Cited

Alpert, Emily. ‘’ Suicide of Moroccan girl reportedly wed to rapist spurs outrage’’. Los Angeles Times/ World Now, March 14, 2012. March 20, 2012.

Century, Christian. ‘’ Morocco King seeks women’s rights’’. (November 1, 2003): 17 March 20, 2012.

Fakhar, Khalid. ‘’ Protesters in Morocco demand reform of rape laws after teen girl’s suicide ‘’. CNN, March 17, 2012. March 20, 2012.

Faraj, Noora. ‘’ Moroccan women protest discriminatory rape laws.’’ Al Arabiya News, March 18, 2012. March 24, 2012.

‘’Article 475 from Moroccan Law’’, Tumblr.org, March 14, 2012. March 20, 2012.