Outrage as parents of gang rapists who tortured and tattooed Moroccan girl claim she “wanted this”

Thousands of people have signed a petition in Morocco demanding action after a 17-year-old girl was kidnapped and sold to a gang who abused, raped and forcibly tattooed her with swastikas and other symbols for two months.

They assaulted her in turns, burned her and refused to give her food or allow her to shower, Khadija Okkarou described her ordeal in an interview with a Moroccan TV which was posted online showing the tattoos on her arms, leg and neck with cigarette burns she endured in captivity.

The kidnappers captured her at knife-point when she was visiting her aunt during the May-June holy month of Ramadan and they sold her to others for money or drugs, she narrated. Khadija said her captors gave her drugs that sedated her for days at a time.

She was dumped at her family home in Oulad Ayad in mid-August and then reported the case herself to the police despite the insistence of her parents who wanted to avoid the stigma of social abuse, local media report.

Twelve suspects have been arrested and three are at large for the alleged kidnapping and rape, Ibrahim Hashane, a lawyer who has taken up the case told AFP. He added that an investigation has been opened and hearing is scheduled for September 6.

Meanwhile, some parents of the arrested gang rapists claim Khadija lived a promiscuous life and demanded that it happened to her.

An unnamed mother of two suspects told the Soltana news agency: “She wanted this, she was always knocking on my door asking if my son was home … If she was really a victim, she would have taken my sons to the police station and I would have defended her myself.”

The father of another alleged rapist said the girl’s tattoos were done by a professional many months ago.

Members of the town were also divided on the matter as some believed that it happened because she had the freedom to go out and do whatever she wanted, AFP reports.

However, protesters on social media are demanding justice for Khadija using the hashtag: ‘We are all Khadija’.

Rape culture is a teeming problem in Morocco as men see nothing wrong with abusing women. The Moroccan parliament passed a law in February recognizing for the first time some forms of abuse and criminalizing some forms of domestic violence. However, many cases are still not being reported to the police due to stigma.