By Amina Barakat
RABAT, Mar 17 2009 (IPS)

The campaign against violence towards women has been the focus of media attention in Morocco recently, in order to press for an end to gross abuses committed by men against women and make victims aware of the need to break the silence which allows it to continue.

The government, together with civil society, has stepped up efforts to end the plight of women in this North African country. In February, the Union for Women’s Action (Union de l’action féminine – an organisation working against all forms of discrimination against women) in collaboration with the Anaruz Network of listening centres, launched a campaign to raise awareness for victims of violence.

In the 16 municipal districts of Casablanca, the economic capital of Morocco, public forums were organised to sensitise local communities and encourage them to adopt a strategy to curb the scourge of violence against women.

This campaign encourages women in distress to speak about their traumatic experiences. Halima Idrissi, a married mother of two, opened up about the abuse she endured for seven months before breaking free. She calmly told IPS, “I lived a nightmare with a violent man who only knew how to communicate with beatings and obscene insults.”

Numerous listening centres were created to help abused women, and a telephone hotline is now available. The options are either to file a complaint with the crown prosecutor – followed by a court process – or to get a lawyer to handle the case, if the victim can afford one.

“By God’s grace I managed to walk away from it once and for all and this only after hearing of the Annadja Listening Centre (annadja means ‘to help’ in Arabic),” said Idrissi. “It has been a great help to me. The centre’s social worker gave me guidance and advice on what steps to take.”

Since 2006, when a new Family Code came into force, women have had greater support and protection under the law. The new code gives women the right to demand a divorce in cases of violence. Before the revision of the Family Code, a divorce application could take up to three or four years, but now the handling of a case does not exceed six months.

“The coming into force of the new Family Code has helped victims to step up and demand justice,” says Fatima Maghnaoui, president of the Annajda Listening Centre in Rabat. “Today, ending a marriage is no longer left only to the husband, but must be subject to prior authorisation from the court before it can be effectively implemented. It also requires the judge to rule within a period of six months.”

Fawzia Badri, a secretary at the Moroccan Ministry of Culture, told IPS: “The revision of the Family Code allowed me to escape my tyrant of a husband, who’d spend his time taking his issues out on me. I was so badly beaten my body became a boxing ring. If not for the Code, I would still be hanging about in the grim corridors of the court.”

Idrissi and Maghnaoui are only two of many women in the same situation. According to a study conducted in 2007 by the Moroccan Secretariat for the Family, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund, battered women face an alarming situation. The report found nearly 28,000 acts of violence were called into a free hotline set up to give legal help and counselling to women; just over 75 percent of reported assaults were committed by husbands.

Saadia Lachgar, a lawyer based in Rabat, explains that there are still legal loopholes in the law. “In instances of domestic violence, we must introduce repressive articles to the Penal Code and annul others, such as those requiring the woman to provide evidence of an act of violence, even though these acts usually take place in the absence of witnesses. The woman’s word must stand as evidence.”

Also mentioned in government’s 2007 study is a subject that is becoming less and less of a taboo: economic violence.

“The economic problem is a culmination of this scourge. A man who finds himself in need, is often restless; a restlessness which translates into uncontrollable violence. Unfortunately, it is the woman who suffers the consequences,” Saïd Amor, a bank employee in Rabat told IPS.

Maghnaoui believes that the question of violence against women must be taken very seriously. “Violence against women is a problem that must be handled at all levels; we need to institute a culture of gender equality, human rights and citizenship.”

The media awareness campaign has led to victims logging an increasing number of distress calls, while creating a certain solidarity between all stakeholders working for the condemnation of violence against women: listening centres, associations for the protection of women’s rights, civil society.

Abdou Mortada, a lawyer made this suggestion: “It will be important to establish a pilot rehabilitation centre, designed to help men to control certain violent behavioral patterns linked to psychological problems.”

For her part, Sawssan Boufous, an economics student at the University of Rabat, tells IPS: “I condemn all acts of violence against women and hope that this awareness campaign will bear fruit and encourage victims to speak out. I also hope that the laws are not only deterrent but also punitive in nature.”

Fadela Anwar, chief TV news editor at Morocco’s second television channel (2M) in Casablanca, tells IPS: “We cannot trivialise violence against women … To play our part, we are joining forces with others fighting this scourge to call for an end to this social phenomenon. We broadcast many reports and advertisements also invite guests to come on air and discuss this problem.”

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By Amina Barakat
RABAT, Sep 23 2007 (IPS)

This month’s parliamentary elections in Morocco have seen the number of women legislators decline from 35 to 34 in the 325 member body. With 30 of the female representatives elected under a quota, the results would seem to indicate that women face challenges in making their presence felt in the lower house – even though a proportional representation system is used for polls.

The 30 women’s seats are filled by aspirants from national lists. Separate, local lists comprising men and women are used to fill the other 295 posts, with candidates allocated seats according to their parties’ share of the vote (the system also allows independents to run).

The proportional representation system is generally held to be more favourable to women’s political representation than the constituency system of elections, for various reasons. Often, tackling discrimination against women is more easily done in political parties than at constituency level.

But Mohamed Regragui – a political journalist with the weekly Al Ayam paper – believes the difficulty in increasing women’s representation in this North African country lies with political parties, and the fact that women are still in a minority in decision making bodies of these groups. Many Moroccans hold traditional views about the status of women.

On a more optimistic note, the number of women running for office this year increased from 266 (the figure for the 2002 elections) to 299. In all, about 6,700 candidates contested the Sep. 7 poll – while 33 political parties were in action.

One of the four women who were voted into the Chamber of Representatives on a local list, Latifa Jbabdi, puts a positive spin on the outcome of the ballot.

“Although it is still weak, the number of women elected can make up a force. What counts are the speeches, the quality of initiatives in parliament, and the ability to convince,” she told IPS.

Jbabdi represents the Socialist Union of Popular Forces. The former political detainee is also a member of the party’s executive committee, and well-known for her support of women’s causes in Morocco.

Moustafa Zaari, a columnist for the Assabah Arabic daily, voices similar sentiments: “What characterises this new wave of elected women is the quality of the representatives themselves. They are young, educated, high-level officials of the administration – and academics. This gives them the ability to debate. It’s a gain for the country.”

In addition to Jbabdi, Yasmina Badou of the Istiqlal (Independence) Party was elected under the local lists, along with Fatna Khiel of the Popular Movement, and Fatiha Lyadi, an independent.

Badou was secretary of state in charge of the family, solidarity and social action in the previous government, while Lyadi served as director of information in the Ministry of Communication.

The 30 special seats for women were shared between the Justice and Development Party (seven seats), Istiqlal (six seats), the Popular Movement (five seats), the National Movement of Independents (five seats), the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (four seats) and the Party of Progress and Socialism (three seats).

The conservative-leaning Istiqlal, part of the ruling coalition in the previous government, won the highest number of seats in the polls – 52. It was followed by the Justice and Development Party (Parti pour la justice et le developpement, PJD), a moderate Islamic grouping that had been expected to take the lead. The PJD emerged with 46 seats.

The overall number of seats in female hands could have been greater if the Constitutional Union (Union constitutionnelle, UC) had been in the race, as this grouping had more than ten women in its executive committee who may have been well positioned on the party’s local list. However, a party dispute resulted in the annulment of the UC list by the Ministry of the Interior.

For Fatima Bekkari of the National Democratic Party, “the campaign was a…rich experience in terms of having contact with the public. Even if this (the campaign) did not result in anything I see a rosy future, and I hope that my daughter will be able to gather the fruits of our fight.”

With the legislature appointed, women politicians must now turn their attention to getting positions in the cabinet. The former government had only three women in a cabinet of about 30.

Last week, King Mohamed the Sixth named Istiqlal leader Abbas el Fassi as Morocco’s new prime minister. The monarch has extensive authority in the country, of which he is also the military and religious leader.

El Fassi is taking over a country struggling with poverty and illiteracy – 14.3 percent of people here live on less than two dollars a day, according to the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report – and at risk of Islamic terrorism.

Earlier this year, seven suicide bombers staged attacks in Morocco’s financial capital, Casablanca; in addition, the Al Qaeda terrorist network announced it was targeting North Africa for attacks. Morocco is considered an ally of the United States in the region.

El Fassi is furthermore beginning his term in office amidst public gloom about the effectiveness of government.

As IPS reported earlier, many Moroccans view their legislators with scepticsm (see ‘POLITICS-MOROCCO: Quotas Overpowered by Machismo’).

This was reflected in voter apathy during the recent polls: just 37 percent of the approximately 15 million people who were registered to vote did so – a record low.

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By Amina Barakat
RABAT, Sep 6 2007 (IPS)

When Morocco held legislative polls a decade ago, just two women were elected to the lower house of parliament in this North African country. Legal reforms enacted since have ensured that women will fare better when the latest parliamentary ballot gets underway Friday. But for activists, there is still a long way to go in bringing gender parity to the Chamber of Representatives.

In terms of a 2002 measure, women are assured of 30 places in the 325 seat chamber. These places are filled by candidates from national lists, and the remaining 295 posts by aspirants on local, constituency lists. Moroccan elections are held under a system of proportional representation, which allocates seats to parties according to the share of the vote that they win; legislative posts go to candidates with the highest ranking on party lists.

However, women appear to have made few inroads with local lists, observes Nadia Amrane, a young female voter who supports the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, part of the ruling coalition in the outgoing government.

The Democratic Society Party (Parti de la société démocratique, PSD), a women’s political grouping created recently, is not putting forward a national list – this to emphasise that women’s political participation should not be defined by quotas, the party says. “It’s a position of political principle,” noted Zhor Chekkafi, secretary general of the PSD, which is in the opposition.

In all, 33 parties are contesting the ballot. Just under 6,700 candidates – including several independents – are said to be vying for places in parliament.

“Political parties are in large part responsible for the absence of women on the local lists of candidacies,” Fatima Omari, an activist for the Progress and Socialism Party – also in the ruling coalition – told IPS.

This comes despite efforts to have parties ensure that women account for 30 percent of names on their lists, illustrating how strongly traditional perceptions of male and female roles hold sway in Morocco.

“I am for feminisation, but it’s really difficult to impose it in the presence of a dominant macho culture,” Rachid Rahoul, an official in the Ministry of Culture, noted in an interview with IPS.

In light of this, says Zahra el Harouch, a woman’s rights activist and candidate for the National Movement of Independents, there needs to be a different approach to promoting gender equality.

“The meetings that we organise to sensitise people to the potential of women, we must do this with men,” she notes. “They should know that…if they do not trust their women, it’s because they have a problem.”

The opposition Justice and Development Party (Parti pour la justice et le développement, PJD) – a moderate Islamist grouping, and apparently the party expected to perform best, Friday – has put forward 43 women candidates, 13.2 percent of its 325 aspirants.

“We greatly appreciate the female presence in our ranks. Contrary to what our competitors think, we encourage women to contest elections to defend our principles,” Hadj Omar, a PJD activist, told IPS.

Under-representation of women on party lists is just one of the problems confronting the latest parliamentary ballot, however.

Reports indicate that there is also widespread apathy towards the polls, stemming from the view that the considerable powers of King Mohammed the Sixth make parliament largely irrelevant.

“The absence of a parliamentary tradition in Morocco, as well as the long-standing concentration of powers with the executive, has weakened the authority of political parties…The population’s trust in political parties is low,” says a Jan. 24 briefing from Democracy Reporting International, a Berlin-based non-profit that lobbies for democracy and citizens’ participation in political affairs.

In addition, the reputation of legislators can be less than pristine.

Noted Khadija Akelay, a doctor based in the capital of Rabat: “The elections? I don’t believe in them any longer, because all the deputies become invisible after the result of elections (is made known), and their sweet promises disappear.”

She also holds out little hope that women legislators could break this pattern. “I do not believe they will do better,” Akelay told IPS.

Amal Nadif, a pharmacist in Rabat, was not as pessimistic. “I don’t believe it’s bad to give a chance to these women, who seem convinced of their ability and their savoir faire in politics.”

“If you speak of democracy, you must encourage them and leave them to see what comes of it.”

Almost 11 percent of seats in the outgoing lower house of parliament – 35 posts – were held by women.

Some 15.5 million voters are registered to vote Friday, 48 percent of them women, according to official figures.

Polls for the Chamber of Representatives are held every five years in Morocco.

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By Amina Barakat
RABAT, Jul 15 2007 (IPS)

Habiba Hamrouch describes her daughter, Sanaa, as her “revenge” – her blow against the mixture of abuse, tradition and indifference that enables thousands of girls to be exploited as domestic servants in Morocco.

The law in this North African country forbids children below the age of 15 from being employed.

But this has not stopped households from taking on girls as young as five, and subjecting many to grueling hours and mistreatment of various forms when their work is not considered good enough, as well as sexual abuse. In addition, the girls are often denied education, a proper diet and medical care.

“I saw all sorts of things after I was placed with a family as a domestic in 1990,” Hamrouch said. “This is a very bad memory…I was just eight when I started working.”

The fate of her two sisters was no better, she added, as they were also found positions as servants: “My mother, a woman who was submissive (towards her husband), could do nothing except cry in silence, as we were really in need…”

“I hated my father for what he did with me – a poor little servant who didn’t have anything.”

Now aged 22, married and the mother of two – a daughter of 10 and a two-year-old son – Hamrouch is doing everything to ensure that her own children experience a different life.

“My little Sanaa is my revenge, I will do everything for her to study (and) I attend literacy classes to be able to ensure a future for my children,” she said. Her daughter is about to graduate to the next grade with a good average.

Hafida Hosman*, 18, was also able to escape a life of exploitation, thanks to a neighbour.

“I was 14 when my mother gave me to a rich family in Rabat (the capital); their son, a teenager of 16 or 17, did everything to take advantage of me when his parents were away (and) I could say nothing about it,” she told IPS.

“Even his cousin, a dreadful little snot, pinched my bottom each time that he came to the house. They were so spoiled that no-one would believe me…they were the masters and allowed to do anything.”

With mention of sexual harassment considered taboo in Morocco, young girls are loathe to come forward in the instances when they are abused in this way. And, simply running away can prove difficult: all too many girls face obstacles to doing so such as a lack funds, or the fear of being reported to the police by their employers.

“It’s scandalous to see young girls of school age placed as servants; their place is on the school benches with a book between their hands, and not a floor cloth or a broom that is much bigger than them,” said Fouzia Tawil, an activist from the Association for the Defence of Women and Children’s Rights, based in Casablanca, the economic capital.

“Between the dishes, the housework and the care of children, their childhood is stolen,” she told IPS.

The meagre payment for this stolen youth is typically given to the girls’ parents. “I never saw money for all the time that I worked, until the age of 17,” said Habiba.

A government survey carried out in 2001 with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund found there were some 22,000 girls younger than 18 working as domestics in big Moroccan cities such as Rabat and Casablanca (these are the most recent figures on this issue).

About 59 percent were younger than 15, all from poor and illiterate backgrounds.

The exploitation of young girls employed as servants has also been investigated by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which issued a report two years ago condemning this mistreatment, ‘Inside the Home, Outside the Law: Abuse of Child Domestic Workers in Morocco’.

Of the child servants interviewed for the study, Human Rights Watch noted that most worked 14 to 18 continuous hours a day, every day of the week, for between four and eleven cents an hour: “In comparison, Morocco’s minimum wage for other forms of non-agricultural work is…$1.07 per hour, and working hours are limited to forty-four hours per week and ten hours per day.”

The report indicated that Morocco has “one of the highest rates of child labor in the Middle East and North Africa, and one of the lowest rates of school attendance for working children outside of sub-Saharan Africa.”

It further noted that “Police, prosecutors, and judges rarely enforce Penal Code provisions on child abuse or on forced labor in cases involving child domestics, and parents are rarely willing to press for time-consuming prosecutions that will subject their daughters to stigma without providing any direct benefit to them.”

Mistreatment of child domestics persists even though Morocco has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which outlaws exploitation of children for economic reasons.

But, the views of Fatima Zénoul* – one of the women who recruit young girls for domestic work and place them with families – shed some light on the attitudes that underpin the ongoing abuse.

“My task ends the moment that I place the servant with her employers; what happens afterwards does not concern me, but she is free to leave if this does not meet her expectations, and I could then search for another family for her, and this will earn me an additional fee,” she says. Intermediaries earn 30 dollars for every child placed.

“If their parents do not worry about their fate, why should I?” asks Zénoul, who works in Takaddoum, a suburb of Rabat. “I am not responsible for what happens to them; it’s a paid service that I provide, and it’s my bread and butter.”

On a more positive note, the fight against exploitation of child domestics is receiving high-profile support from Princess Lalla Meriem – the eldest sister of King Mohamed the Sixth and president of the National Children’s Observatory.

She joined the drive against the mistreatment of children, including young servants, two years ago. This has seen Morocco develop a strategy to promote children’s rights; a children’s parliament has also been created to help address child abuse.

In a statement at the Third Regional Conference on Violence against Children, held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo at the end of last month, the princess announced the creation of a referral centre to shelter children who are victims of violence, and to provide them with legal assistance and the necessary psychological help.

In addition, an awareness campaign for the education of young servants was launched at the end of June.

* The names of certain persons have been changed to protect their identities.

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By Amina Barakat
NOUAKCHOTT, May 24 2007 (IPS)

Excess weight on women has long been considered something to aspire to in Mauritania, where it serves as a symbol of beauty and wealth. But, it appears these views are being called into question as awareness spreads of the health risks they entail for girls who are force fed to make them gain the desired weight.

Women “risk developing serious cardiovascular problems, hypertension and diabetes. In instances of pregnancy, they suffer still more, and their babies with them,” Fall Ould Abri, who heads up a medical practice in the capital of Nouakchott, told IPS.

“Fortunately, this practice is in the process of disappearing.”

Sociologist Aoua Ly-Tall reaches similar conclusions in her publication ‘Force Feeding, a Practice Detrimental to the Health of Girls and Women’. She notes that over feeding of girls is no longer considered a good thing in Mauritanian society, especially by educated young women, and that the country has seen the emergence of an anti-force feeding movement.

In recent years, women’s civil society groups have held several conferences and workshops on the matter.

Aminata Mint Moud, a female journalist, is leading a campaign against force feeding in the monthly Arabic newspaper ‘Attahsis’ (‘Sensitisation’), while lobbying her colleagues in national radio and television to do the same.

Notes Houriya Mint Chérif, a well-known news presenter on Mauritanian television, “Force feeding is ancient history, a bad memory…If a woman prefers to be chubby, it’s only to wear her M’lahfa well.” (A “M’lahfa” is a traditional Mauritanian woman’s outfit.)

Previously, efforts to make girls gain weight were sometimes carried out with factory line efficiency.

In the southern valley of Nema, writes Italian researcher Attilo Gaudio in ‘Women and Islam, or the Banned Sex’, there were establishments that undertook a collective fattening up of young women on behalf of families which would have struggled to marry off less voluptuous daughters. It has been said that the glory of a man is measured by the weight of his wife.

Girls aged barely ten years old were fed kilogrammes of fine couscous or millet mixed with generous helpings of butter; they were also required to drink up to 20 litres of milk daily with the aid of a funnel placed in their mouths.

Certain women have even resorted to drugs for increasing animal weight in a bid to adhere to the feminine ideal.

Now, increasing numbers of women are taking up sport to attain a normal weight – while young girls of medium or even petite size have become a frequent sight in secondary schools, or in upmarket cafes of the capital.

Force feeding persists in rural areas where women are less educated and aware than their urban counterparts – and consequently less knowledgeable about how dangerous this practice can prove.

But while no definite figures are available on the extent of force feeding, certain analyses indicate that only one or two girls out of ten are still subjected to the practice in present day Mauritania.

Certain men, too, are abandoning stereotypes of what constitutes beauty on the part of women.

“Our women do not need kilos any more to seduce us,” Mokhtar Ould Babana, a hotel manager in Nouakchott, told IPS.

“There are other standards/for beauty, such as openness of spirit.”

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