September 11, 2020.
In stupor and dread, their hearts racing with a multitude of emotions, Moroccans go to bed with the feeling that Hell has a foothold in Morocco. Raped, killed, buried, the fate ofAdnane Bouchouf revives fears and shakes consciences. Everyone will capitalize on this murder to revive the debate on the death penalty, a summary dressing that will succeed in making people forget the continuity of pedophile acts in the country. Silence once more…
October 8, 2021.
Footage from a surveillance camera in an aerobics gym shows the so-called trainer sexually harassing underage girls in Rabat. A father files a complaint. One, two, three media talk regarding it by copying each other and then, all of a sudden, silence…
August 15, 2022.
The messages follow one another and are similar: an influencer would have targeted minor girls that he prefers between 12 and 16 years old continuously and for two years. Social networks are racing, testimonies overlap, the facts are serious, announce an even darker turn, a message to the prosecutor is sent. Without answer. Silence…
1is September 2022.
I wait in front of my computer. What ? The new private message followed by screenshots of discussions on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat incriminating a new man playing between threats, insistence and his age to obtain sexual favors from a still minor girl. And I don’t know what to do: unsuccessful requests, ineffective reporting systems, no toll-free number that works properly and families who are taught that silence is golden.
The balance works then: they and they are afraid to speak, the families do not want to speak regarding it and the courts are rid of it just like the parliamentarians and their files.
Because it would seem, like a good number of our politicians, that they have a short memory, that it takes another Adnane or another Naïma for something to be triggered, for people to rebel and regardless of the signs before – runners! An Instagrammer attacked for almost proven facts but who continues to live as if nothing had happened and even dares to attack those who defend children? Is this our idea of justice?
However, the intensification of violence and sexual assault on children is not an unknown phenomenon in Morocco since the socio-political scene is regularly shaken by similar events and ambiguous court decisions which call into question the real security and the applicability of the legal status of children and the rights granted to them. The report of the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office recalls, in 2018, that there were 3,205 cases of sexual assault (out of the 7,031 victims of child abuse recorded by the courts) once morest female and male children with a respective distribution of 66.4% and 33.6 %. But these are recorded because, even today, so many reports are never issued.
Besides, how do you report when a minor is afraid of going from victim to accomplice? How to point out when the law of hchouma seems to supplant the one that guarantees respect for children’s rights? Why don’t we have as many prevention campaigns once morest the actions of these rapists and pedophiles in our streets as we have for barrier gestures?
The words are there for something. The word paedocriminality is not beautiful, the word “sex” or “sexual” is too much in contradiction with the opaque and sacred image that one tries to entrust to the citizens. The truth is that there are citizens who assault, rape and sometimes kill children. The truth is that there are men who rape and assault girls and whom the silence of tradition protects. The truth is that you have to know how to say the words to solve the evils.
And it is up to you, dear politicians, to help us. It’s up to you to say that these girls, these boys and these families are victims, that justice is there to protect them, that the law is on their side. Do not try to blame everything on traditions when you maintain them, you are accommodating to them, you only react when it increases your popularity rating or when you are forced to do so. If everyone is responsible, those who set an example are even more so: to show that teachers accused of sexual assault are reprehensible, that children are the heart of the priorities, that rape and sexual assault are crimes, that culture of impunity need not exist.
The girls and boys of this country will never be safe, sound, and safe until you ensure that their right to a childhood today is worth more than the condolences you offer tomorrow.
September 26, 2022.
We are tossed from court to court. No one answers us. The silences are deafening wakes. Meanwhile, he continues. Non-stop. Tirelessly. We try to do things well when the evil continues to have free rein. It is now one o’clock in the morning and no response from the authorities or the courts.
So, in the meantime, I return to my computer, the messages continue. Before these nights there were others, and following, there will be more…
The night will still be long…
