Morocco to change rape marriage law
RABAT, Morocco -- Nearly a year after Morocco was shocked by the suicide of a 16- year-old girl who was forced to marry her alleged rapist, the government has announced plans to change the penal code to outlaw the traditional practice.
Women's rights activists welcomed Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid's announcement Tuesday, but said it was only a first step in reforming a penal code that doesn't do enough to stop violence against women in the North African kingdom.
A paragraph in Article 475 of the penal code allows those convicted of "corruption" or "kidnapping" of a minor to go free if they marry their victim and the practice was encouraged by judges to spare family shame.
Last March, Amina al-Filali, 16, poisoned herself to get out of a seven-month-old abusive marriage to a 23-year-old she said had raped her. Her parents and a judge had pushed the marriage to protect the family honor. The incident sparked calls for the law to be changed.
The traditional practice can be found across the Middle East, in India and Afghanistan. Morocco's marriage age is 18, but judges routinely approve much younger unions in this deeply traditional country with high illiteracy and poverty. -- AP
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NewsdayTV team coverage of Rex Heuermann guilty pleas in Gilgo Beach killings Rex Heuermann, of Massapequa Park, has pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women whose bodies were found along Gilgo Beach and admitted to killing another. NewsdayTV has team coverage from key locations around Long Island.
