She added that the husband promised to take care of her daughter until she reached legal age, at which time an official marriage contract would be drawn up, but he abandoned his wife and child “for the most trivial reasons,” because Maryam refused to live in the same house with his mother and his family, who treated her as a maid..
Maryam refused to fully identify her, and the husband could not be contacted for comment.
Human rights activists are demanding the abolition of provisions of the Family Code that leave the judge with some exceptions regarding the marriage of minors, such as if the minor’s age is close to her husband’s age and they have a love relationship, and she must not be less than 16 years old, with physical and health qualifications such as being able to marry and have children..
In Maryam’s case, the judge refused to consummate the marriage because the husband was twenty years older than her and she had never met him before, but her family went ahead with the matter..
After the controversy raised by the high rate of underage marriage On April 6, the Public Prosecution in Morocco called on all courts “not to hesitate to oppose marriage requests that do not take into account the interests of the minor.”“.
But human rights activists see these measures as insufficient in light of families forcing their daughters to marry due to poverty.
Human rights activist and lawyer Aisha Al-Hayyan said, “After 14 years of implementation, the demand for a comprehensive amendment to the Code has become an urgent and urgent requirement to ensure harmony between it and the latest developments in the constitution and to ensure actual equality between all family members.”“.
In contrast to the case of Maryam, Khadija (17 years old), from the mountainous town of Sefrou, considers herself lucky because after about two years of a series of trials in which the husband was absent from attending the sessions, she was able to prove her marriage and obtain a divorce certificate from a man she married before reaching the legal age..
In a rare challenge to a conservative society, Khadija was able to continue her education after her teachers sympathized with her and the high school principal accepted her return to school amid the respect of her colleagues..
She said, “Things were very difficult in the beginning. I thought my future was doomed, and in the best of circumstances I would wait for another husband, and after years I might forget the violence and persecution I suffered. But I never want to link my future again to marriage.”“.
