By Elizia Volkmann
August 1st, 2017 saw a landmark change in not just in Jordanian law but in how it regards women’s safety and value, it is a day for celebration but only for one day, tomorrow we carry on the fight.
The Kingdom of Jordan’s parliament voted to repeal Law 308 which allows a convicted rapist, even the rapist of a minor to evade jail time by marrying his victim for a minimum of three years. This follows Tunisia’s landmark law that is supposed to “end all violence” against women, including repealing the “marry your rapist” clause.
http://www.france24.com/en/20170727-tunisia-violence-against-women-landmark-law
These law changes are only worth something if governments implement social care infrastructures, child protection measures, refuges and vitally reform and train their police and judiciary to respond and listen to women’s complaints, support the women, act on their behalf and make it easier to report and convict these crimes.
Calls from Tunisian activists to repeal the “marry your rapist” law followed a shocking edition of the popular chat show“I’ve got something to tell you” where it’s host, Ala Chebbi interviewed a 14 year old pregnant girl called Hajar. The girl appeared with her brother after police had failed to act on accusations that she had been repeatedly raped by three of her family members. Chebbi suggested that “whoever did it should marry her to close the case” and “contain the situation”. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-37731871
The show was an obscene spectacle of victim blaming, the host bated the girl for not reporting her abusers and for being pregnant whilst un-married, saying in front of her father: ”Admit that you are at fault,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a54IMXZ9pP4
The Tunisian public was outraged and the story became a media sensation in the world press. A Facebook page called “He says “Marry your rapist”, we say “see you in court” documents much of the campaigning and backlash to Chebbi’s grotesque verbal abuse of Hajar. https://www.facebook.com/Epouse-ton-violeur-dit-il-On-se-voit-au-tribunal-lui-répondons-nous-160509147740953/
But still rape marriages carried on, in December 2016 another case hit the headlines, a 20 year old raped his 13 year old step-sister in the region of El Kef. The court spokesperson “Chokri Mejri, a spokesperson the court, claims the girl ‘was not raped’ and added: ‘We interviewed the girl and after verifying all the details, we considered her fit for marriage.”
Protests ensued with banners reading “‘How I met your mother? I raped her when she was 13”. It was this case that saw government swing into action. The wedding party was cancelled the Child Protection Agency, and finally sense was voiced Houda Abboudi, a representative, said: ‘When it’s a 13-year-old child, we can’t talk of sexual relations with consent. It’s rape.”
http://metro.co.uk/2016/12/19/girl-13-forced-to-marry-rapist-after-he-got-her-pregnant-6332058/
Hajar has now disappeared from public sight once more, she was a heroine for speaking out, but also she is a sacrificial lamb. Homeless, pregnant what happened to her? She was exposed to danger because her impoverished family needed her to quit school and work on the farm. She would have been safer in school, on the farm she was vulnerable and her male relatives took the opportunity to abuse her. For Hajar the change in the law are just pretty words, who is going to help her get an education? Who is going to fund her childcare? Will she spend the rest of her life burdened by shame, probably.
Human Rights Watch, Tunisia Director, Amna Guellali warned. “The government should now fund and support institutions to translate this law into genuine protection.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/27/tunisia-landmark-step-shield-women-violence
We can only celebrate for one day, because tomorrow the fight goes continues, there are still numerous countries including Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine and Syria, as well as several countries in Latin America and Asia. Also consider that so called progressive western states such as Italy in 1981 and shockingly France in 1994 repealed their own “marry your rapist” law. The west may scoff at the muslim world but the USA effectively enables child-rapists and paedophiles to marry their victims. In May of this year, 11-year-old, Sherry Johnson from Florida found herself pregnant and pressurised by her church and mother into marrying her abuser.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/opinion/sunday/it-was-forced-on-me-child-marriage-in-the-us.html
In March of this year the Republican dominated house under President Trump killed a bill to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18, allowing communities, parents and churches to marry off their daughters to their abusers. http://www.concordmonitor.com/bill-on-whether-minors-can-marry-8581515
Today we can allow ourselves one day of celebration to fuel us for the battles yet to come.
Intersectional Feminist Foreign Policy 