By Ahlam Ben Saga
Rabat – Newspaper Akhbar Al Yaoum has reported a study provided it by “Droit & Justice,” an organization specializing in promoting “Rule of Law” in Morocco, showing a record of 30,000 marriage contracts of female minors in Morocco.
Marriage contracts belonging to female minors in Morocco reached 230,000 contracts in 2015, increasing by 10.2 percent compared to the year 2007, which recorded 29,847 contracts. There were 33,253 contracts in 2009 and 35,152 in 2013, making up 30,000 marriage contacts of females under the age of eighteen in Morocco, according to the same source.
The study shows that 98.47 percent of married female minors are unemployed: 46,210 girls against 1,53 women in the workforce.
The study shows Moroccan girls who enter wedlock before the legal age of marriage to be the most prone to domestic violence, added Akhbar Al Yaoum.
Akhbar Al Yaoum emphasizes that the study conducted by “Droit & Justice” shows that marriage requests belonging to females are higher than males by a rate of 99.31 percent; there were more than 466,000 requests for the marriage of female minors, against 326 requests of males.
48.99 percent of marriage requests of female minors were rejected and 420,000 requests were accepted.
The increase of marriage of minors in Morocco goes back to the existing influence of traditional customs and to a crisis of deteriorated values, says “Droit & Justice”.
Despite the 2004-Moudawana’s (family code) article 20 that illegalizes the marriage of Moroccan citizens under the age of 18, the phenomenon in question is ever-increasing, noted “Droit & Justice.”
