Amina Filali


Oh, god, another one. A girl of 16 in Morocco was raped, and the judge ruled that she had to marry her rapist, which was nice for the rapist because it allowed him to stay out of jail, but was a bucket of rancid liquid shit for the girl. The rapist, to show his gratitude to Amina Filali, beat her severely – so she ate rat poison and died.

The girl’s father said he “did not want to accept this marriage,” which some have said was pushed in order to protect the family’s honor. But “my wife, my family and the court of the city of Larache” wanted the union to proceed, as it did.

“The judge decided he must marry her, and I had no opportunity to refuse the judge’s decision,” the father said. “I wanted to send (the eventual husband) to prison, and have my daughter stay with me until she became (an adult).”

That seems like a better arrangement than tying her for life to the man who raped her, but then again, “the family’s honor.” How anybody can think it’s “honor” to force a girl of 16 to marry the man who raped her is beyond me.

“Through this law, the rape becomes legitimate,” said Fouzia Assouli, president of the Moroccan advocacy group the Federation of the Democratic League for Women’s Rights, of the fact that an alleged rapist can avoid jail if he marries his victim.

That fact has stirred anger and action in Morocco, including Saturday’s demonstration in Rabat, which is about 170 kilometers (105 miles) south of Larache.

Protesters held up pictures of Amina Filali, held up banners and chanted in Arabic, “Let’s … end the marriage of minors.”

Moroccan law defends “family morals, but does not take into account the right of women as a person,” Assouli told CNN.

Let’s change that. Everywhere in the world. Quickly, please.

Comments

  1. says

    How anybody can think it’s “honor” to force a girl of 16 to marry the man who raped her is beyond me.

    Well, it says so in the Bible, so…

  2. cactuswren says

    “You break it, you buy it.”

    (spits)

    (spits and spits and spits and can’t get the taste out of her mouth)

  3. MFD says

    The continuing proliferation — seemingly without end, despite numerous admirable and ongoing efforts to end them — of unspeakably ghastly events like this gives rise to the thought that maybe the human race in general, despite its many wondrous achievements, is well and truly, on balance, a massive failure and should go extinct.

  4. fractal says

    I thought I’d somehow accidentally gotten to your older posts because I could have sworn I read this exact story a few months ago. Then I realized there wasn’t a mistake. That was disheartening.

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