Death of Amina El Filali

On 10 March 2012, Amina El Filali, a 16-year-old girl from Larache, Morocco, died by suicide after ingesting rat poison. According to family members, she took her own life out of despair after being forced to marry a man ten years her senior accused of raping her twice. Under Article 475 of the Moroccan penal code at the time, a man who abducted or "corrupted" a minor could avoid prosecution if he married his victim, and could only be tried if the marriage was later annulled. Accounts from Amina's family and her husband about the circumstances reportedly conflicted in the aftermath.

Mustapha El Khalfi, the Moroccan government's spokesperson and Minister of Communications, publicly stated that "the girl was raped twice, the last one when she was married," and called for an in-depth study of the case and consideration of stricter sentences as part of a revision of Article 475.

The case generated substantial national and international attention. Social media users shared the story widely, with a hashtag "#RIPAmina" and an online petition ("Avaaz-RIP Amina") gathering more than 770,000 signatures by April 2012. Street demonstrations, though smaller in number (roughly 200 to 400 participants), took place in Larache outside the courthouse and in front of Morocco's Parliament, with placards reading messages such as "We are all Aminas" and "Clause 475 killed me." Lawyer and activist Khadija Rouggani described Amina as "the victim of a law that erases with a stroke of an eraser a double crime: the corruption of a minor and rape."

Officials gave differing public responses. Minister of Justice Mustafa Ramid, of the governing Justice and Development Party, issued a statement referencing Amina's consent rather than characterizing the incident as rape, while the Ministry of Justice separately stated it had respected the law and the child's higher interest by not pursuing prosecution. The Democratic League of Women's Rights filed a complaint seeking prosecution of Amina's husband. Al Massae, Morocco's most-read daily newspaper, organized a roundtable discussion that invited Bassima Hakkaoui, Minister of Women, Family and Social Development, along with Amina's family and her husband, who did not attend.

Approximately one year after Amina's death, the Moroccan government announced plans to repeal the marriage-related clause of Article 475. Parliament voted to amend the article on 22 January 2014, and the revised law was issued in February 2014, removing the marriage exemption. The amended article instead criminalizes the abduction or corruption of a minor under 18 without reference to marriage as a shield from prosecution. Despite the reform, feminist groups continued to call for further changes to the penal code, including addressing distinctions between categories of rape and the non-recognition of conjugal rape. A 2013 documentary examining Amina's case reportedly identified four similar prior incidents in the town's history.