Earlier in the semester, I followed Amina Filali's suicide case. Amina was a sixteen year old female that was court mandated by a judge to marry the man that raped her. Because of Article 475 in the Moroccan penal code, her rapist was free of jail time and acquired her as a wife. The reason that this has been legal is because of this law that allows men to marry minors that they have "kidnapped" or raped just to escape jail time of up to ten years and payments to the government. During their short-lived marriage, he verbally and physically harmed Amina. Amina was so unhappy that she decided to drink rat poison in hopes of escaping her abusive husband. For many women living in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region, this is a daily issue.
The main reason that this is such a huge issue is because of the Moroccan culture, highly influenced by Islam, Judaism, and is very patriarchal. A month before Amina's death, another 18 year old female tried to commit suicide by jumping off of a balcony, in hopes to escape a marriage to a man that she had never met. She lived, and she may not be very happy about that.
Women's rights advocates, feminists, and the international community has been outraged due to these instances. They have been protesting in order to not only reform law, but completely repeal the law of Article 475.
This has become a huge social problem because of families losing their daughters and sisters to forced marriages of minors in these certain situations. This Article 475 allows judges to make an exception to the rule, allowing rapists and kidnappers to marry their victims if the judge feels that it is the best decision. Most judges do feel that these are the best decisions because of family honor and status that can be damaged if the victim does not marry their rapist/kidnapper.
Not much has changed since the last time I posted about her, other than the only woman that holds a government seat in Morocco commented on the issue. She stated that "a rapists place is in jail" but has not stated wanting a repeal of Article 475.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2012/04/20/hope-for-repeal-of-moroccan-rape-victim-marriage-law
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