For a women who has been sexually assaulted, raped, is very difficult for her to overcome. Imagine if the female had to marry their attacker and face that dangerous incident everyday of her life. In this weeks article, Morocco women are forced to marry their rapists to avoid facing jail time due to a law passed called Article 475.
In March 2012, Amina Filali, 16-year-old Moroccan women, was “forced to marry her 23-year-old rapist. After the coercive marriage Filali ended her life by swallowing rat poison. She died suddenly in the Moroccan streets of Larache after ingesting her poison while standing next to her husband.” This incident encouraged other women to finally stand up and report their own cases of marital abuse and to fight Article 475. In Morocco, the legal age to marry is 18 year-old unless the parents “secure a waiver form a judge for underage marriage. “ Al Jazeera, news in recent analysis of Filali’s case, stated, “the greatest victim in Morocco is not only by her gender, but also by her marital status, and her class.” An unmarried women without hymen is often viewed a “ Shame that could not be washed away.”
In the region the Family Code was reformed for the better in 2004, which “establish equality for spouses some forms of greater freedom were given to women. there is a proposal to delete Article 475 by the Morocco’s parliament, the Moroccan House of Counselors, has been made to join with female parliamentary members who are currently working for Morocco’s government. Other organizations such as Karamah, Muslim Women Lawyers For Human Rights, are working on issues of domestic violence in Morocco.
When reading this article, I was very upset to her what happened to Amina Filali, but even more upset to hear that Morocco would pass such a law amongst women knowing that that would cause greater violence and devastation to women. It is bad enough for women who are raped to go through life with that burden, but now they have to relive it everyday when they look into their attackers eyes and calling them their husbands. Obviously the policy makers did not think clearly to what they were doing, instead, I believe they thought they were helping someone. I am very pleased to hear about more women standing up and fighting Article 475, but I also think they should take a self defense class or carry weapons on them for safety. Hopefully the views of women in Morocco will change in the future, if not, I really advise for other governments to help protect these women before all of them become victims of rape.
http://womennewsnetwork.net/2013/04/04/moroccos-greatest-victim-amina-filali/
Sheila Floyd
Soc 202-01
4/5/2013
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