Tunisia: horrific sexual assaults and calls for castrating rapists

Over the last two weeks, horrific rape stories related to minors and children have appeared on social media platforms in Tunisia.

On Friday, August 31, 2018, a 3-year-old infant was raped by a young married man.  The toddler was found in a critical condition and was taken to the Emergency Room.

The security forces arrested the suspect when he tried to flee to a neighbouring country. The ongoing police enquiry proved that the offender is married and that he is a relative of the victim.

In the meantime, a security officer, accompanied by three other men, kidnapped a 15-year- old girl, about two weeks ago, from her home in the town of Qabolat in the province of Beja, in northwest Tunisia. After physically assaulting her mother and grandmother, who later died. The kidnappers raped the girl for 72 hours and then dumped her in a remote area of her hometown. The girl was found later on and was transferred to the hospital.

According to the information recently released to the media, the victim’s mother has been receiving treatment since the accident and is in a critical condition, while the grandmother died of injuries to the head.

Initial investigations revealed that the girl had been sexually assaulted, and she is currently hospitalised. Moreover, the offenders had been using drugs and watching the victim for some time.

Read: Morocco arrests 12 men in brutal rape and torture case

According to media reports, the victim told the interrogators that the security officer who participated in the attack was living next to her family’s home and that he had physically assaulted her mother and grandmother using sharp weapons and alcohol bottles.

On November 17, 2017, a group of delinquents raped an 80-year-old woman, who lived alone in the province of Kairouan in central Tunisia. The old lady died after being attacked using excessive violence.