Hundreds of Moroccans signed a petition urging authorities to provide urgent medical and psychological care to a teenage girl who says she was gang-raped.
The girl, Khadija, said in a video posted online last week that she was abducted in mid-June outside the home of a relative in central Morocco by men alleged to belong to a "dangerous gang", AFP reported.
"They held me for about two months and raped and tortured me," the 17-year-old said, showing what appeared to be scars from cigarette burns and tattoos carved into parts of her body. "I will never forgive them. They have destroyed me," she said.
Sexual harassment is common in Morocco in spite of a new constitution adopted in 2011 that enshrines gender equality. In February, the kingdom passed a law on violence against women, but advocates say it fails to give police, prosecutors and judges guidance on how to handle sexual violence cases.
Moroccos rate of reported rapes increased to 1,600 cases in 2017 from 800 in 2016, according to an annual report issued by the attorney general, Morocco World News reported.
10 Men Kidnap, Rape, Torture 17-Year-Old Girl in Central Moroccohttps://t.co/c4WaZIzd1q
— Wrath0fKhan (@TweetingJihad) August 24, 2018
The girls testimony has sparked anger in Morocco, with social media users launching the "we are all Khadija" hashtag and a petition urging King Mohammed VI to provide her with medical and psychological care.
In an interview with Chouf TV, she recounted her nightmare, describing how the men who abducted her raped her and held her captive in a house where she was handed over to other men for money, Morocco World News reported.
She said she tried to escape several times, but each time she was caught and tortured. “They didnt give me food or drink, and I was not even allowed to take a shower,” Morocco World News quoted her as saying.
More than 3,400 people had signed the petition by Sunday night.
The girl's father said three suspects were arrested on Saturday in connection with her abduction and that a trial was set to begin on 6 September.
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Naima Ouahli, of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights, told AFP that 12 suspects in total had been detained.
Some recent cases of violence against women have received a lot of attention in Morocco.
Last March in Rabat, a sexual assault of a teenage girl in the street by two men was filmed and circulated on Facebook, causing outrage among Moroccans. As one of the perpetrators tried to remove her clothes while the other one filmed, she is heard asking them, “Dont you have a sister?”
Last summer, a disturbing video of four boys between the ages of 15 and 17 violating a 24-year-old mentally ill girl aboard a public bus in Casablanca by tearing her clothes off and insulting her also went viral on Facebook. The boys were arrested and charged.
Bouchra Abdou, an activist, feminist and director of the Tahadi Center, said in a statement that women's groups needed to “raise awareness and to use publicity and media tools to sensitise people. We call on the concerned parties to tighten the penalties for the perpetrators of this serious crime, and to take care of the psychological health of the victim,” Morocco World News reported.
Moroccan authorities were not immediately available for comment.
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