Outrage in Morocco: Light Sentences for Men Who Raped 11-Year-Old Girl

Karim A. (36 years old), his nephew Youssef Z. (22 years old) and Abdelouahed B. (29 years old) are the three defendants who were convicted for the sexual assault on the minor who was 11 years old at the time of the events. However, according to the Moroccan Penal Code, the crime of rape is punishable by a sentence of five to ten years in prison, 10 to 20 years in prison if the victim is a minor and up to 30 years if she loses her virginity. Sanae falls into the latter case and her attackers should have received 30 years in prison, but the Rabat court found three mitigating circumstances and reduced the sentence of the accused, reports EFE.

The minor, who gave birth to a boy a year ago, lives with her parents and grandmother in a region east of Rabat. The family cultivates hectares of potatoes, pumpkins and cereals. "Forty days after my father’s death, I went to the market and a man told me the story. I felt dizzy, I didn’t know what to say," confides Mohamed, the girl’s father. Karim and Youssef, uncle and nephew, live 30 meters from the minor’s house and have seen her grow up, continues Mohamed. The third aggressor, on the other hand, lives 400 meters away.

For two years, the minor has not been the same. "She doesn’t know if she’s a girl or an adult. She doesn’t want to play with her brothers. And it has gotten worse since the conviction, which will be reviewed by the court of appeal in Rabat," said Mohamed, who intends to go all the way to obtain justice for the rape of his daughter. The Minister of Justice, Abdelatif Ouahbi, has promised tougher sentences in the case of the girl. But the problem is deeper, says Loubna Rais, a member of the feminist group Masakatch (I don’t keep quiet in French).

The activist denounces a "rape culture", a "trivialization" of the violence suffered by women and girls and a "minimization" of their suffering. "If the sanctions were applied as provided for by law, that would already be an achievement," she argues. According to a study conducted in 2020 by this movement, out of 1,169 cases before 21 first instance courts in Morocco, 80% of people convicted of rape receive a sentence of less than five years, an average of three years and one month.