Rabat – Moroccan police arrested a husband for sexually assaulting his pregnant wife with the help of two friends in Marrakech.
Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) said in a statement that its personnel received a complaint on Wednesday from a pregnant woman about a husband with whom she is in the process of divorce because of marital problems.
The woman said the husband forced her to accompany him in a private car and sexually assaulted her under threat.
With the help of two friends, the husband also physically assaulted the woman and cut her hair violently.
Searches and preliminary investigations led to the arrest of the husband and the two accomplices, the DGSN said.
Police put the suspects in custody for further investigation to determine the real motives behind the crimes attributed to the three men.
Rape, domestic vilence, and multiple forms of physical violence against women are issues that women’s rights activists are still fighting to address, calling for public action and laws against gendered violence and inequality.
A September report from the High Commission of Planning (HCP)shows a decrease in violence against women based on searches and surveys between 2009 and 2019.
The rate of violence against women aged between 18 and 64 decreased to 57% in 2019, down from 63% in 2009.
The statistics also show that psychological violence against women dropped from 58% in 2009 to 49% in 2019. Physical violence decreased from 15% to 13% during the same period.
Sexual violence, however, rose from 9% to 14% during the same period.
The HCP report found that the rate of marital violence rose by 46% between 2009 and 2019, with 5.3 million women aged between 15 and 74 experiencing violence from their partners.
The perpetrators are mainly current or former romantic partners—boyfriends, husbands, or ex-husbands.
Married women are the largest category to have reported violence, accounting for 52%. Around 59% of the victims are aged between 15 and 24.
