No weddings but a funeral

Amina el-Filali, a moon-faced Moroccan peasant girl, seemed destined for an obscure life in a dreary little farming village 50 miles south of Tangiers. But that was before she was lured into sexual relations at age 15 by a 23-year-old unemployed laborer (and complete bellend) who took her into a shed next to the eucalyptus grove behind her house. She was then ushered into an early wedding, with the man who took her virginity, by a traditional Muslim family eager to salvage its honour. But the wedding plans backfired when she swallowed rat poison to commit suicide rather than endure what she told her mother was an unbearable marriage. Since the suicide (which took place shortly before lunch on the 10th of last month), she has become a national cause and an icon for women’s groups, human rights organisations, progressive politicians, and millions of ­Western-oriented Moroccans who have demanded changing a law that permits marriage at such a young age. The demands for change have arisen only eight years after a landmark modernisation of the country’s family code, spearheaded by King Mohammed VI. The family code set 18 as the legal age for marriage for both sexes. But it also provided for exceptions to be decided by judges on the basis of special legal and social circumstances. In practice, the provision robbed the age limit of much of its meaning, so I think it needs to go. Had there been no exceptions to the age limit, Amina might still be alive today.