Taroudant- According to the Moroccan daily Al Massae, a young Moroccan woman was “savagely’ raped by Indian police officers after she was arrested on charges of “prostitution and illegal residence in India.”
The 23-years old woman, native of Fez, told the police that she was brutally gang-raped in India by police officers over the course of three days.
Upon her return to Morocco, the woman was immediately locked up in Casablanca’s Okasha Prison on prostitution charges.
The woman’s situation became even worse when she discovered in prison that she is pregnant as a result of sexual attack by Indian security personnel in an Indian police station.
During a hearing at the court of first instance of Fez, the woman testified that she had been a victim of a network of work-contract traffickers who convince young girls, mainly from poor families, to agree to work in India as maids for wealthy families.
But instead they find themselves in the dirty underworld of prostitution and nightclubs.
Human rights activist Khadija Alhajobi said that Fez has only one center to help such victims. Ms. Alhajobi, along with other women’s rights activists in Fez, vowed to provide the victim with legal, psychological and social support.
Local community activist Halima Alzumi called upon Moroccan authorities to strengthen their role in addressing these issues, which tarnish the reputation of Morocco.
University professor Kenza Alghali, an Istiqlal MP and the president of an association that deals with immigration, said that her team in the house of representatives will raise this problem in the Parliament and demand an investigation into this issue. She called upon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to direct an inquiry to the Indian ambassador in Morocco.
In a humanitarian move, the governor of Fez, Mohamed Dardori, is said to be helping this young woman, who belongs to a poor family, to overcome her tragedy and be re-integrated into society.
Edited by Elisabeth Myers
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