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Rabat – The Moroccan community in Spain and some Spaniards are mourning last week’s murder of Khawla, a 14-year old Moroccan girl, in Alcala la Real in the province of Jaen.
Khawla, who has been described as one of the brightest students at her school, left her home at 5 p.m. on Tuesday last week to visit a friend to work on a school assignment.
Police later found Khawla’s lifeless body around 10 p.m. near an abandoned church, according to Spanish news outlet El Pais. “Just half an hour earlier, a 22-year-old man, NNM, had called 112 admitting that he had killed a girl, without providing any further details that would help police find the body,” the Spanish outlet reported.
The man, who is of Dominican origin, already has a police record for an attempted rape from eight years ago, according to local news website Diario Jaen.
Reports in the Spanish media are describing Khawla’s horrific experience prior to her murder as “gender-based” violence, while Moroccan media describe the young girl’s killing as a case of violent rape and murder.
Citing Khawla’s autopsy, El Pais said she died of “a violent death and suffocation is considered as the most probable cause.”
Khawla’s mother, Hakima, is now calling for justice for her daughter, while the murdered girl’s uncle has ruled out suggestions that his niece might have had an intimate relationship with her killer.
“We think she may have been tricked,” the family of the victim said.
Mayor of Alcala la Real, Marino Aguilera, ruled out Xenophobia as the reason for Khawla’s murder, arguing that both the victim and her presumed killer are of Spanish nationality.
“They were born and raised in Alcala and they are our citizens,” the mayor said.
The Alcala City Council has announced three days of mourning for the death of Khawla, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez mentioned the murder in a short speech on Wednesday last week.
“A young man has been arrested for murdering a 14-year-old girl. Talking about a gender perspective when we are talking about education is fundamental” to curb gender violence suffered by boys and girls, Sanchez said.
On Saturday last week, Morocco’s community in Alcala la Real organized a peaceful march to demand justice for Khawla.
Marchers carried banners and pictures of Khawla to pay tribute to and mourn the death of the young girl.
During the march, her mother talked about the murder, saying her daughter wanted to be a university professor. “She wanted to change not only her life but also mine. And in a minute they took her life. We ask the government for justice to be done and for the perpetrator to rot in prison,” Khawla’s mother said.
