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Moroccan Women Rally Against Rape-Marry Law
Several hundred Moroccan women have rallied outside the country's parliament building to demand the repeal of a law that allows a rapist to marry his female victim if she is under the age of consent (18). The protests come in the wake of 16-year-old Amina Filali's March 10 suicide, the result of an abusive, court-recommended marriage to her rapist.
Said Fouzia Assouli, the president of the Democratic League for Women's Rights,
"What we have witnessed is scandalous. We have had enough. We must change this law, we must change the penal code." The law (article 475), according to the BBC's Nora Fakim, is intended to help preserve a family's honor (rather than a victim's dignity) in the wake of a rape. In poor, rural areas such as Filali's hometown of Larache, it is unacceptable for a woman to lose her virginity before marriage, even in cases of rape, which problem the Moroccan government solved in the most backwards way possible by simply delivering underage women over to their assailants. Though all parties must agree to a marriage, activists say that pressure is exerted on the victim's family to consent in order to avoid a scandal.
Protesters, however, have been so far disheartened by the lack of government response both to the protest and to Filali's death, which makes it seem like there's still an arduous road for young Moroccan women such as Amina Filali to travel before they're regarded as full-fledged, equal citizens and not merely transferable property that can be broken or bartered according the whim of a repressive patriarchy.
Morocco protest against rape-marriage law [BBC]
Re: Moroccan Women Rally Against Rape-Marry Law
Above Us Only Sky
Are you taking the train across Europe?
Trains Across America
Would you like to buy my condo in Salem?
We still haven't figured out how we are getting there....
I wouldn't mind doing the train but I don't want to lug suitcases around paris and madrid all day and don't know if you can store at the train station anymore... The other option is to fly via lisbon and do 2 days in Lisbon.
Above Us Only Sky