[bs-quote quote=”We need to make sure the constitutional institutions concerned with the rights of the family and women are operational, and to update the relevant mechanisms and regulations for the promotion of the status of women and the family.” style=”default” align=”left” color=”” author_name=”King Mohammed VI, 2022 Throne Day Speech ” author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=”https://www.diplomatie.ma/en/hm-king-delivers-speech-nation-throne-day”][/bs-quote]
In 2014, an amendment to the penal code was made so that the perpetrator of rape can no longer escape imprisonment by marrying his victim. This comes two years after the suicide of the young Amina Filali, who was forced to marry her rapist. In accordance with Article 475 of the Penal Code, the alleged attacker had escaped prosecution by marrying the girl he raped. Many applauded this step forward but stated that it was far from enough to stop sexual violence from being perpetrated against women in Morocco.
Moroccan activists continue the call for a clear criminalization of rape of any kind, pedophilia, and all forms of violence and support the application of commensurate sentences and fines. They call for a deep and comprehensive amendment of the law and a modification of articles 475 and 486 of the penal code.
Today, gender-based violence and child sexual abuse exists still, with 7 people who have been victims of it in the last ten days, among which are a 3-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy.
On September 22nd, the judicial police arrested a middle school teacher following a complaint filed by a woman stating that the teacher raped and deflowered her in his house in Ksar El Kebir.
On September 23rd, the Royal Gendarmerie arrested a man caught red-handed engaging in sexual activity with a minor in a forest near a high school located in the rural commune Khenichet near Sidi Kacem. The minor, born in 2007 and pursuing studies in the aforementioned high school, was subjected to medical expertise.
On September 26th, a follower of the Moroccan Islamist Movement Al Adl Wa Al Ihssane “JAOI” (Justice and Spirituality) in Settat, murdered his ex-wife by stabbing her fatally in the back. The latter succumbed to injuries while she was being transported to the provincial hospital Hassan II in Settat. He then fled to an unknown destination.
On September 27th, a woman reported to the police services that upon her visit to her sister’s place, in Meknes, no one was answering her and the door was shut. The police services forced the door where they discovered the body of her sister lying on the ground on a blanket, undressed and bearing traces of violence at the level of the neck, the hand, and the left eye and next to which were three tubes of glue for inhalation (silicon), one of which was consumed, as well as three packets of condoms, one of which was empty.
On October 1st, the police services arrested an ex-convict caught red-handed attempting to rape a little girl, aged 3, near a middle school, in Tifelt. The police arrested him following information provided by the little girl’s brother.
On October 2nd, a man filed a complaint stating that his daughter, French of Moroccan origins, was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a man practicing Ruqyah Shariah (a so-called Islamic exorcism practice or healing invocation), in Chtouka Ait Baha.
On the same day, a boy aged 10, accompanied by his parents, filed a complaint at the police station in Marrakech, declaring having been the subject of an attack on modesty by a hairdresser he regularly goes to. The hairdresser rubbed his buttocks using his genitals for about ten minutes.