A Moroccan law, and likely societal pressure, was recently used to force Amina Filali, a 16 year-old girl, to marry her rapist. The LA Times is reporting that on Saturday Amina swallowed rat poison and died to escape her situation:
The suicide of a Moroccan teenager who reportedly had been forced to marry her rapist has spurred calls from around the world to change criminal laws long lamented by Moroccan feminists.
Human rights groups complain that Moroccan law has been interpreted to allow someone who rapes a minor to escape punishment if he marries the victim. Moroccan media reported that was what happened to Amina Filali, a 16-year-old who reportedly swallowed rat poison Saturday.
[...]
The Moroccan government has argued that the law applies only if the victim agrees to marry, but activists say young women can be pressured into marriage to protect family honor. Her father told a Moroccan news website that the courts had pushed the idea, the Associated Press reported.
The idea behind allowing rapists to avoid legal prosecution by marrying their victims is a disgusting example of a women being treated as property, a woman’s worth being measured by her purity, and a warped societal agreement of what constitutes “honor”. The law and society is telling the rapist, “You break it, you buy it.”
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Ben Zvan
March 19, 2012 at 09:41 (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I feel like I need to leave this here: Deuteronomy 22:28-29
Nepenthe
March 19, 2012 at 09:55 (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Jesus. That’s unbelievably sick. And rat poison is a fucking awful way to die, but she still probably suffered less that way. If I were forced to marry the man who raped me, I would undoubtably done the same.
It raises the question. If he’s a serial rapist, like the man who raped me was, does he have to marry all of them?
smrnda
March 19, 2012 at 10:31 (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s pretty sick, and it’s clear that any society or culture that could entertain such an idea is incredibly misogynistic and sees women as nothing but property – after all, nobody wants to get ‘used goods’ whose feelings don’t matter at all.
Given that rapists want to dominate and control women, this has to be a rapist’s dream come true, living in a society where society recognizes his right to own his victims.
StevoR
March 20, 2012 at 03:33 (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@2. Nepenthe asks:
Well Islamic law does allow men four wives – and an easy divorce once they get to number five.
Horrific story, no scratch that, horrific reality.
What can we do against it and how can we stop this sort of despicable evil happening?
Brianne Bilyeu
March 20, 2012 at 06:11 (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Find out which organizations are already working to end this type of injustice and support them. A spokeswoman from the Democratic League for Women’s Rights was quoted in this story. That may be a good place to start researching.
Keep bringing to light these type of horrors, raise a fuss, speak to friends and family, get a public dialogue going, get the idea out that this is not acceptable. Refuse to hide behind cultural relativism, i.e., “Well, who knows what their culture is really like? It’s sad, but I’m not Moroccan/a woman/a rape victim – who am I am say anything?”
Other ideas?