Moroccan Activist Urges Society to Confront Pedophilia Taboos Amid Rising Cases

Cases of pedophilia are still occurring following the rape and death of little Adnane in Tangier. A case that has also alerted public opinion. The press has also covered other similar cases, including the arrest of an imam accused of abusing several children in his village. Thus, it is because of the "Hchouma" that the pedophile imam recently arrested in the Tangier region has impunely assaulted students in his Koranic school for years, said Me Abdel Moneim Al-Rifai.

The lawyer represents the first parents who filed a complaint accusing the imam of abusing their 7-year-old daughter. The families of the five other girls aged 7 to 17 have also turned to justice. Although the parents had known about it for a long time, they preferred to remain silent. From the lawyer’s intervention, it appears that the outrage aroused by the Adnane case has undoubtedly pushed the village to break the silence.

Until now, a form of collective indulgence has allowed another imam in the Marrakech region to be sentenced to "only five years in prison" in 2017 for sexual assaults on seven minors, according to the activist of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights, Omar Arbib. "Some villagers had even asked for the case to be dismissed to avoid exposing other victims, on the pretext of protecting their reputation," he stressed. In addition, "every day, many perpetrators of rape escape justice after the victim’s parents drop the complaint in exchange for financial compensation or a marriage of shame," denounces Amina Bouayach, the president of the National Council for Human Rights. She states that the urgency is to reform the Moroccan Penal Code, and toughen sanctions against pedophilia, to limit the abandonment of prosecutions, reports h24info.

As for the writer and human rights activist, Ahmed Assid, he focuses on the death penalty. According to him, the death penalty "is a way of escaping to avoid opening a real debate on the root causes of sexual abuse of children and the tacit tolerance that protects the perpetrators." He stated that "the silence of Moroccan society on sexual issues, in families, and therefore the lack of public debate, encourage the impunity of pedophiles and the non-reporting of abuse."

The Minister of State for Human Rights, Mustapha Ramid, in the wake of the Adnane case, had announced at the end of September consultations to "examine any shortcomings in the laws." In addition, calls have been made to develop sex education in families and in school programs where the subject is not addressed, in order to better fight against these assaults.