Outrage, Protest Follow 16-Year-Old Moroccan’s Suicide
Many activists in Morocco are outraged and protesting the laws that led to the suicide of a 16-year-old near Tangiers, who was forced to marry her rapist. Juhie Bhatia, Women's eNews managing editor, was in Morocco for reaction.
Moroccan activists have stepped up pressure to a scrap a law that allows rapists to marry their victims after a 16 year old killed herself. Amina Filali drank rat poison on March 10 in Larache, near Tangiers in the north, after being forced to marry the man who raped her.
Her death has mobilized women's rights groups. An online petition has been started, a Facebook page called "We are all Amina Filali" created and several hundred women's rights activists demonstrated outside Morocco's parliament in Rabat to demand the repeal of a law on sexual violence on Saturday.
One of the groups protesting and speaking out against Filali's death is Global Rights, a human rights capacity-building organization. Juhie Bhatia caught up with the group's Maghreb Regional Director Stephanie Willman Bordat in Fez, Morocco.
Women's eNews' Managing Editor Juhie Bhatia is reporting from Morocco on a fellowship from the International Reporting Project (IRP), an independent journalism program based in Washington, D.C. To read this article in Arabic, check out the translation by Women's eNews.
More from this Reporter
- Abortion Ship to Dock in Morocco to Publicize Safety
- Rougher Road Ahead for Morocco’s Maternal Health
- Moroccan Moms Benefit from Maternal Health Revolution
- Young Moroccans Keep Arab-Spring Spirit Alive
- Moroccan Suicide Focuses Legal Trackers on Rape
- Liberia Innovates to Save Lives of New Moms
- Liberian Radio Station Gives Women the Controls
From Other Reporters in This Country
Also appeared in…
- Women's eNews