The law in Morocco on marital age changed in 2004, it states a person must be at least 18-years old to be married.
Rabat – An old photo is circulating on Twitter of young girls paired with older men in what appear to be wedding dresses, with many reposting the tweet or sharing the image with captions falsely claiming it was taken in Morocco and that the country allows child marriage.
Both of the rumors are in fact false. Some netizens investigated the origins of the photo and found it was taken in Palestine in 2012, while others quoted the dates on which the law criminalizing child marriage was made in Morocco.
Legislation in Article 19 regarding child marriage changed back in 2004, and the law in Morocco states a person must be at least 18-years old to be married. Before the latest reform, the legal age was 15-years old.
Despite the official evidence and the comments on Twitter calling out the fake news, posts have still been circulating on the topic of child marriage in Morocco. Some posters and commented have even claimed that laws have been changed and Morocco now permits child marriage.
One Twitter user posted the viral picture of the children in wedding dresses with the caption “Morocco legalizes marriage between men and girls. The minister, Mustafa Ramid, justified that marriages between men and minors is for the good of the girls. Open your eyes, that is why cases of pedophilia are being seen. He wants to legalize it. And the feminazis?”
The tweet was posted on January 1, and it has already received over 4,000 retweets and even more comments. However, many Twitter users have since angrily condemned users who have shared fake news.
Meanwhile, those who have chosen to believe the untruthful story behind the image have spread hateful and extreme comments about Morocco, one user wrote “Reasons to bomb Morocco.”
Reports in recent years have identified eradicating child marriage in Morocco has proved difficult, especially in rural areas.
Meanwhile, the same image that is being used to falsely accuse Morocco of permitting child marriage has also been used against other countries before on the same topic, such as Turkiye and Iraq.
Source: Morocco World News
