Daily Mail:
- Moroccan law exempts rapist from punishment if he agrees to wed victim
By Lee Moran
PUBLISHED: 13:46 GMT, 14 March 2012 | UPDATED: 15:39 GMT, 14 March 2012
A Moroccan teenager killed herself after a judge forced her to marry her rapist.
The 16-year-old girl, named as Amina Filali, ate rat poison after a Tangier court which was supposed to be punishing her 26-year-old attacker decided that they should instead be wed.
This is because Moroccan laws exempt a rapist from punishment if he agrees to marry his victim.
Traumatised by the rape and the forced marriage, Moroccan newspaper al-Massae said she committed suicide at her husband’s house.
Hafida Elbaz, director of the Women’s Solidarity Association, criticised the law and said rapists often believed they could avoid punishment by marrying their victims.
The incident throws more light on the way women are treated in Islamic countries.
How politically correct the article of the Daily Mail is. It says that “In many parts of the Middle East, there is a tradition whereby a rapist can escape prosecution if he marries his victim, thereby restoring her honour. There is a similar injunction in the Old Testament’s Book of Deuteronomy”.