Morocco has been under growing pressure to better protect
women’s rights after a man who was allowed to marry a 16 year old girl who he
allegedly raped was invited by a newspaper to join a discussion on improving
women’s rights. The man however, did not attend the meeting concerning the
girl, Amina Filali, who killed herself after the court ordered the marriage.
The meeting was organized by Morocco’s leading daily newspaper which had
invited the country’s only female minister. Moroccan human rights groups
however, criticized the man’s invitation as they felt it was further evidence
of the impotence of the state and of the government system. The president of
the Moroccan Association of Human Rights feels that the man should not have
been invited, should not be free, and that the whole justice system should be
blamed since he is not facing any sanctions. The man denied raping or forcing
Amina into marriage. However, in 2010, more than 41,000 marriages in Morocco
involved female minors, up 25% from the previous year. But this case has drawn
attention to a provision of Moroccan criminal law, clause 475 which has become one
in the same with the battle for women’s rights. The law states that if a minor
and her abductor agree to marry, then any prosecution can be dropped and can
only be resumed if the marriage is annulled. Experts say that the law only
applies to nonviolent abduction or corruption of a minor. But a Moroccan lawyer
specializing in criminal law states that the clause 475 does not provide for a
rapist to marry his victim but that it “It forbids the abduction of minors and
provides for cases where a girl has run away with a man – without the threat of
violence or deceit – and where she has married him, then he can avoid
prosecution." This case has provoked many protests throughout Morocco.
Activists have criticized the only female minister in Morocco for saying that “the
law will not be changed simply because of pressure from international public
opinion.” One journalist remarked on how shocking it was to see so many women
protesting on the streets for Amina and how in Morocco, there is no law against
domestic violence, there is a penalization of sex outside marriage, which means
that a rape victim risks prosecution if her rapist convinces the court the sex
was consensual, and there is the clause 475, all lacking in the effort to
protect women from domestic violence. The status of women in Morocco is complex
as in some cities, attitudes toward women is more liberal while in other
cities, their views are still very conservative. However, “a new family code,
the moudawana which was adopted in
2004, was designed to give more rights to women, and the 2011 constitution
provides for ‘men and women to enjoy equally the same civil, political,
economic, social, cultural and environmental rights and freedom.’” But the
moudawana being created to give more rights to women is not the answer to all
their problems as the law is not fair from the get go. Morocco still consists
of repressive social customs and mores and the judiciary still insists on
medical evidence for rape and domestic violence victims, not considering their
testimonies. The Moroccan government defended the judge in Amina’s case and her
husband has had no sanctions taken against him. But there is a lot of concern
about the status of women in Morocco as Amina is not the only woman who has killed
herself after being forced to get married.
Women
continue to be stratified based on their gender as can be seen in Morocco.
These women have such little power, prestige, and privilege in this country
that even rape victims are not receiving justice and their perpetrators are
getting away with it without being sanctioned for their actions. Men within
this society receive more rewards than the women as they inherently have the control
and men are also the dominant group within this society while the women are the
minority group, lacking the most power in this socially stratified society. But
for the Moroccan culture, men have been socialized to be the dominant ones,
with their social role being one that includes aggression and force, while the
women have been socialized to be the weaker ones, being gentle and obedient. Women
are often taught to simply be obedient and not speak out, for the ones who do,
suffer from the consequences. But this, being a social norm for Morocco and many
countries within the world, is not viewed by many as something that needs to change
as it is not violating any norm. However, after the incident of Amina’s
suicide, many of Morocco’s citizens began to see the how the norms of women’s
rights were being violated and thus began to recognize that sanctions needed to be carried out
for these problems. Many Moroccans began to go on strike and mobilize for
action in order to try and raise awareness of the lack of women’s rights in
their country and the consequences that innocent women are suffering due to
this. Perhaps the punishment rationale of incapacitation should be enforced
more strongly in Morocco in order to limit the ability to harm again, or at
least some form of punishment rationale be enforced in order to try and give
the women more equality and justice. The inequality of women around the globe
has become a major social issue as many have recognized the harm that it
causes. But with the idea of gender also being a mere social construct, why
must so much emphasis be put on it? Morocco, among many other countries, would
need to reconstruct their ideas about gender in order to give women social
equality. The fact that women are being raped and forced into marriages, and
their only way out being suicide, is a social problem that needs more social
action taken against it, and something that needs to be changed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/03/moroccan-teenager-death-women-rights
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