Seven women were kidnapped and assaulted by 20 men with rifles, hatchets and knives at an Annaba, Algeria restaurant last week. Two of the women were found dead with their throats cut. Approximately 1,600 women have been raped and assaulted in Algeria since Muslim militants began waging an Islamic attack in 1992.
Earlier this month, the High Islamic Council issued a fatwa, or Muslim religious decree, proposing that anyone who slanders a raped woman be punished and that the government be held accountable for children born out of rape. The fatwa claimed that “the raped woman is honorable,” but upheld the ban on abortions except in “cases of absolute necessity.”
