Activists in Morocco demonstrate against rape law rooted in the Biblical Old Testament

GOD Discussion
By God Discussion Reporter

Following the suicide of a 16-year-old girl who was forced to marry the man she said had raped her, women’s rights activists in Morocco demonstrated outside the parliament building in Rabat, demanding a change in the law on underage rape.Amina Filali’s mother said the girl found herself in an abusive relationship after being pressured into the marriage in a custom enshrined in law. Article 475 of the penal code is rooted in the Old Testament, which says a rapist cannot be prosecuted if he marries his victim.

Fouzia Assouli from Morocco’s Democratic League for Human Rights told EuroNews, “What we have witnessed is scandalous. We have had enough. We must change this law. We must change this penal code.” Fatiha Benmahjoub, one of the demonstrators, added, “This is not just for Moroccan women. It’s for women who are raped, beaten and killed throughout the world.”

Morocco was praised for updating its family code in 2004, but activists say there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

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The teenager who was forced to marry the rapist was badly beaten and abused. According to a report by The Young Turks, when Amina Filali told her mother that she couldn’t take the beatings much more, her mother advised, “All you need is a little more patience.”

“This is one of the reasons why I can’t stand religion,” Cenk Uygur said when commenting on the story. “Once you have said I willlisten to whatever this book tells me to do and I will not use my own human judgment and morality, then you’re going to do hideous things.”

Once a Muslim, Cenk had turned into an agnostic after reading both the Koran and the Bible. To prove his point, he and co-host Ana Kasparian read portions of the Old Testament that are supposedly “the literal word of God” –

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God Discussion Reporter

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