We have yet another tragedy in the Arab world where a 16 year old Moroccan girl committed suicide in Morocco after being forced to marry her rapist — a man ten years her senior. The girl’s parents filed charges against the man but the court ruled that rather than punishing the man, he should marry his rape victim.
The forced marriage led to further abuse at the hands of the man and his family. The girl finally could take no more abuse and consumed rat poison to end her misery.
The Moroccan penal code exempts a rapist from punishment if he agrees to marry his victim.
The case obviously disgusts anyone with an ounce of humanity. The imposition of these medieval, misogynistic laws vividly demonstrates the divide with many Muslim nations. To call this a judge or a court is itself absurd. These are extensions of religious institutions — imposing oppressive conditions on women and girls. The thought of this child being forced to endure this abuse is truly horrific.
Source: AL Arabiya
Blouise,
just got back.
re eisinger, you said:
“My friend is more so however because the Moroccan judge’s action contributed to the tragic death of an innocent.”
!. I am sure, as you are probably, that Judge Martin would do his worst if he got a chance to do what the Moroccan judge.
“. Eisinger makes quite clear:
——Morocco is not part of the ME, and the concept is a misleading one!
IT USES THE GUILT BY ASSSOCIATION to judge all lands practicing sharia. “Thery’re muslims aren’t they, well that does it—shoot them all.”
(Well, isn’t it JT?, It is possible to not agree with you, I hope.)
——this judicial decision is mirrored in religious tinged ones in the USA (sorry that was not Eisingerl)
——this judgement was against the ruling laws. Do we see a similar problem here in the USA?
The Sharia can be quite draconian, as we know, but it is fortunately moderated in some countries. As is the USA law, in its exaggerated sentences for repeated convictions for using marijuana.
I stand by my contention that condemnation en masse is no way forward, for them or us. Is it difficult?—-ask Hillary what she has for hopes for China.
The greater the contact on a personal level is an important way forward.
No general condemnations, not even on a legal level, is my desire.
We’ve had family honor killings in Sweden. One resulted in a day being proclaimed in her honor, and is observed each year. When did America do that?
We may see the Moroccan king do the same.
That’s not a medieval punishment; it’s straight out of the Bible.
The separation of Church and State is vital.
joseph eisinger,
Thank you for the additional information. I have a very good friend who is Moroccan and travels back every two years to visit family. His views on his homeland are more in line with yours.
That being said, he is as embarrassed by the actions of this judge as I was by the actions of Magisterial District Judge Mark Martin.
My friend is more so however because the Moroccan judge’s action contributed to the tragic death of an innocent.
In America, there are “religious” politicians who would require a rape victim to carry and bear the child of her rapist.
Same Dark Ages mentality, right here in America.
I salute Idealist707 and Joseph Eisinger for their skepticism, and call for putting this incident in perspective. I have lived in Morocco and claim to know a little about its culture and practices. I assure you that if such an incident has taken place, with the exactitude of the stated circumstances, it is not a common occurrence. The progress Moroccan women have made is quite astonishing. Many Moroccan political leaders: Ministers and Members of Parliament. The Moroccan society is very complex and interesting, and cannot be confined or defined by such a headline. When one looks closer, there is much to be amazed about in that society.
So I did feel a little unfairness towards a nation that’s trying hard.
This is not to defend this practice. Not at all. But when a reader sees the article, with the Moroccan flag and national symbol, they would tend to keep in mind: Rapists, forced marriages, suicides….
I love this blog though!!
Theocratic “justice” and coffee tastes a lot like bitter ashes.
Mr. Turley,
I enjoy your web page, but I need to take exception to this article.
1. How is a country that borders the Atlantic ocean in the Middle East?
2. In 2006, with the support of the king, Morocco revised and replace the family law. The new family law prohibited marriage before 18, and no longer required that a woman marry a man chosen for her. It is a remarkable and liberal document for most countries, and especially an islamic country. see this article for more information. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/09/morocco-a-look-at-womens_n_213362.html
3. There are many female mourchidat. These are religious workers who do everything in a mosque but lead prayers. I believe that this is the only place in the islamic world where this happens. See this article for more information on this. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3672924/Mourchidat-Moroccos-female-Muslim-clerics.html
4. This is a horrific action by the judge, and I feel for the young woman. And the actions of this judge was wrong. It appears that the judge used a loophole in the law to reach this decision which is certainly not in the spirit of the new family law.
5. This country has many problems, but is leading the arab world in womans rights and has inspired other countries to revise their civil codes. The current code has its problems, but is not “medieval”, but progressive. I hope you will take a moment to read the articles cited and reconsider your comments.
This decision makes neither logical nor psychological sense, of course. If someone should steal my money, no one would argue that justice demands that we become business partners.
“The Moroccan penal code exempts a rapist from punishment if he agrees to marry his victim.”
——————————-
the pig commits a crime
the pig gets to decide and apply the law
the victim is fucked
why is the US striving towards this manner of justice?
Or let me diverge in order to show the ME in another light.
Suppose that the crusaders had really succeeded, were followed by the poor peasants from Europe (promised land), and the territory expanded to encompass what is now Syria, Lebanon, and part of Iraq.
Shall we now realize that the Christians would then be faced with surviving on subsistence farming, on which the Crusader leaders would have meager income. Lacking the trading routes whose overflow had helped raise their surrounding muslim neighbors welfare, which in turn allowed for the rise of science (impelled by Mhd’s (quranic) command to learn) and that positive input.
Would our Christian land (Christiana) have followed their European cousins in their slow progress up the incline of liberalism and scientific discovery with rising welfare? In spite of the poorness of natures resources and lack of rain.
I think not.
The state of Israel survives on the back of modern science, which they keep astounding us with. It is the modern state doing a total takeover of a territory.
It is the modern exception.
So it isn’t judendom which was the answer, as their own policy re immigration of poor analphabetic Sephardic jews from Africa, etc shows. Their own realization of the impact of education and social specialization necessary in a nation.is revealed. To start the rise from clan/religious orientation requires resource overflow and specialization and a common language.
The rest of the ME region, deprived since 1500’s of the trading income from the East to the European market, has remained at a subsistence level.
They have been drained of their best people over the centuries by immigration. From one little area in Lebanon have the best left home for new homes with better opportunities; and they came home to buy summer homes, but not to stay. We have concentrations of them in Oklahoma and Nebraska.
BFN, gotta go.
I hasten to add that I’m not an apologist for sharia law, nor the culture that uses it.
I am in daily contact with sufferers of those social regimes, even to the point that they immigrate to Sweden, where I meet them, or to USA where most of their immigrant relatives are. And each has 500 cousins they have left in their homeland.
They were, yesterday, a new acquaintance, an Iraqi Catholic Christian from Bagdad, here since 14 years. She looked at me with wonder, wondering what this American was like: did he hate Iraqis, etc.; and yes she left because of religious persecution. And my Assyrian Christian (Syrian Orthodox) barber whose closest family history and whose culture she shares with me.
When I see Nasser my Moroccan friend I’ll ask´him about the 16 years old girl. Will have to get and save a newsclip to show him. He has at times with his denial tendency when confronted with uncomfortable facts.
Something which none of us have troubles with. I mean none of us is so fixated on maintaining homostasis (to use a medical term) in our lives that we would adjust our filters and views in order to maintain the warm fuzzy feeling we have.
Nobody, eehhh?!
indeed, it is a tragedy!!!
judging from the infos we got, all i can blame is her family, they’re the ones who accepted that humiliation… and don’t say it’s because of the religion nor the law in morocco, because her family had a choice to kick him insiide jail but they didn’t and that’s my friends what makes the tragedy even bigger :(…
And now that the child has died….. Will this person of faith be put to death?
Frankly,
With all due respect, what’s your take on the argument (not the persons) that the Christians are trying to remove that separation?
PS How does the African American male feel coming home as the strength of his family, but a failure because of how society handles him.
It is a wonder that he abandons them, gets drug/alcohol habits, and feels even further demeaned in his own eyes. Guaranteed progress in society.
A little further off-topic on the subject of the power of being demeaned or dishonored. And it isn’t just them. Anybody seen “White Feather”?
And by demeaning Muslims we make it easier to start the next crusade.
Arab lover! Yes, gladly. And thai, assyrian, kurd, indian, etc. I love mankind, the ones I meet daily and the ones whose massacre is quickly taken off the first pages on our newspapers. One crazed gunman…….BS!!!
What Frankly said! Keep religion out of politics. Are you listening, Santorum?
Excuse me, professor T. It’s not you, maybe it’s not others. Maybe it’s me who alone gets tired of hearing “ME” Middle East as a code word for “muslim theocratic de-humanizing hell”. Did we check to see what the liberal muslim Moroccan take was on this tragedy? What was Arabiyya’s take? And what did Al Jazeera english have to say.
Morocco is famed for its women who give the men hell in public, as well as at home. That this is a general characterization with all its limitations, I’m aware.
And as a point of law, does it force the parents to accept this judgement?
Had they no other course to avoid dishonor—–a point which falls well on the many dishonored (continuously) minorities here in America.
And this is another example of why the separation of church and state has been a real positive for the US. The impulse for religion to impose its own code on everyone is a horrible weakness.
Religious cognitive dysfunction faking governmental competence.
Sad situation, but I still have questions about the suicide, I wouldn’t put it past the guy & his family to poison her.
Either way, still looks like murder…