A video of a young girl being violently sexually harassed by a group of teenagers in a bus has been massively shared on social media Sunday night. While the footage sparked the indignation of many internet users, some had no qualms justifying the attack and blaming the victim.
In the video, the young girl’s helpless cries pierce through the cruel laughter of her assailants. Desperately trying to free herself from the merciless grasps of her attackers, the girl is pulled left and right, her shirt and pants pushed down to denude her flesh.
Like a wolf pack, her attackers tore into her body under the penetrating gaze of a phone camera carried by one of the monsters, making sure to document their heinous crime.
The girl screams again and again, desperate for a helping hand, but only finding the vicious ones that brutally violate her body. Her aggressors, groping her chest, try to push a rag in her mouth to silence her cries.
By the end of the video, a man is heard telling the teenagers to “get away from her,” without appearing in the video or trying to physically intervene to stop the aggression.
Throughout the whole ordeal, the bus continues to roll, the driver impassive to what’s happening behind his seat.
The footage quickly went viral on social networks since yesterday, but Morocco World News could not independently date the incident. The exact circumstances of the shooting are not known, nor the context of the crime. According to social media users contacted by local media, the crime scene happened in a M’dina Bus in the city of Casablanca.
Few details are available to authenticate the facts, the identity of the attackers, that of the victim, presented on certain social media posts as having an intellectual disability, or that of the person holding the camera.
Social media users are nonetheless outraged, using the word “rape” to describe the incident rather than simply talk about sexual assault.
Alerted by numerous messages, the association ‘Touche pas à mon enfant’ posted screenshots of the alleged attackers, and asked the internet users to share the post to facilitate their identification and “put an end once and for all to this ignominy.”
For Fouzia Assouli, head of the Moroccan Federation of the Democratic League of Women’s Rights, the incident gives a naked representation of the state of our society, our security and education systems, and women’s safety in public spaces. She told Morocco World News that :“this is unbelievable! It looks like we’re living in the jungle now, because this is not sexual harassment, this is gang rape in a public space in front of everyone!”
Le terrorisme est dans nos rues, nos bus et derrière les lycées et collèges publics
— mourtaji imane (@mourtajimane) 21 août 2017
Outraged, Assouli asks “what does it mean to have a State exactly? Isn’t the government supposed to assure the security of its citizens?! What does it mean to have people witnessing such a crime without moving a finger?”
At loss of the words, the activist would simply repeat over and over again, that “this is chaos, this is total chaos!”
When it comes to the legal context, Assouli believes that “laws against violence done to women have been dragged by the Moroccan legislation for years!” For the activist, “the fact that government have postponed the approval of the 103.13 bill enacted in this regard, sends a very clear political message: The State regard the issue as of no importance, in fact, it doesn’t even consider it as its problem to deal with!”
“This is the message that the State is sending to its youth. This indifference only further more entice this sort of behavior. The State, government and parliament are directly responsible of what is happening today, they are encouraging this, they are responsible!” accuse Assouli.
Unable to hide her concern for the future of Moroccan women, Assouli wonders if “we’re supposed to leave Morocco to be able to safely live now?”
The activist believes that there is only one measure to take in face of this scourge: “We have to take this to the streets! I am fed up with this! Women need to move, they need to get out! Most believe that this does not concern them, that rape is something that happens to other people. But believe me, it will happened to you as well, sooner or later, it will if we don’t take action.”
