Activists warn about increasing violence against women

Violence against women in Morocco The Moroccan women’s rights organisation, the Democratic League for Women\'s Rights (LDDF) has lashed out at Abdelilah Benkirane’s government, accusing Morocco’s political leadership of being silent on the issue of violence against women and for not condemning abuse towards women, including rape and domestic abuse.  The group stressed the importance of the government and parliament taking all needed judicial and administrative measures to apply the ‘non-escape conviction’ rule. In a press conference organised by LDDF, the federation presented live testimonies from women who went through violence.
According to the testimony of 17 year old Fatema Marbouh, she was raped by two people in the southern city of Ouarzazate while she was on her way to buy some groceries. The witness added that because of her conservative culture, instead of confiding in her mother about what she went through, Fatima instead attempted suicide. Fatima said that after taking  legal action against the rapists, the elementary court sentenced them to two years but were then cleared after an appeal.
Karima al Regragy provided another testimony during the conference. Karima got married 11 years ago and has had three children since.  But she has also been suffering beatings from an abusive husband, who still torments her after their divorce.
LDDF President Fouzia Assouli said the growing phenomenon of abuse against women, including physical, psychological, sexual and economical, has increased intensively.
It was because of these reasons that Assouli criticised the government for not issuing a special law to protect women from any kind of violation.
She also took the opportunity to ask Benkirane’s government to take all necessary judicial and administrative procedures in order to apply the ‘non-escape conviction’ rule which would hopefully prevent a repetition of crimes against women.
Fouzia Assouli confirmed that LDDF dealt with 4632 cases between 2010 to 2011.
Of that number, there were six murder cases in Rabat, Salé, Bin Saleh Al-Faqih, Tamara and Guelmim cities, as well as 80 attempted murder cases.
She pointed out that sexual harassment increased by 3 percent, with incidents including 103 rape cases, 149 marital rape cases, 32 underage rape cases and 72 harassment cases.