Hotline exposes more than 27,000 assaults on women in Morocco

2007-04-05

The Moroccan government, with the support of the UN, released a report on violence against women. The report showed that most violence occurs in the home and is carried out by family members.

By Imane Belhaj for Magharebia in Casablanca – 05/04/2007

[Imane Belhaj] Over 77% of the perpetrators are the victims' husbands

Morocco's State Secretariat for the Family, Childhood and the Disabled has released its first figures on violence against women. With the support of the United Nations Population Fund, the secretariat has tracked this phenomenon since 2005 via a toll-free telephone hotline intended to provide women victims of violence with legal and psychological assistance. Between December 26th, 2005 and October 13th, 2006 the hotline documented a total of 27,795 acts of violence committed by 15,075 perpetrators, 77.8% of whom were the victims' husbands.

The statistics were compiled by 26 national listening centres, hosted by various women's associations in partnership with the Secretariat. In return for the institutional, material and technical support the government provides, the centres commit to improving and regulating services for women and girls who are victims of violence.

Introducing the report, State Secretary for the Family Yasmina Badou stated that the costs associated with combating violence in Morocco totalled 5.5 million dirhams in 2006. This figure includes not only the Secretariat's support for women's associations, but also the costs of expanding the network of listening centres and providing legal guidance to woman at hospitals under the Ministry of Health, and funds earmarked to establish public legal representatives in the courts to deal with women's cases in a timely manner.

The report stated that 94.2% of hotline callers are victims themselves, with approximately 1,600 calls a month, or 54 calls a day. The report showed that 94% of callers live in cities, and 33% of all calls come from Casablanca, Agadir, Marrakech and Fez.

The Secretariat will submit the report to women’s rights associations to help them assess how to investigate the causes of the violence, and how to reduce its rate. The report defines five different categories of violence: legal violence – not paying expenses and neglecting the family; physical violence – battery and burns; psychological violence – humiliation and threat; sexual violence – sexual harassment and rape; and economic violence – seizure of wages or property.

Data from the report showed that 7 out of 10 cases of violence are carried out against women between the ages 19 and 34. The age of perpetrators of violence typically ranges from 25 to 34.

Eight out of ten callers were married housewives, and just over one out of ten were single and employed. Four per cent of the women who called had a relationship with the perpetrator outside of marriage, 3.5% were divorced women, and 0.3% were widows.

Given the magnitude of women's suffering that the report revealed, many women’s associations have demanded a clear government policy to provide women with rapid access to the courts. The associations expressed their dismay over the indiscriminate violence against women in all walks of life, often within their own family, which is typically perceived to be a safe haven.

Well aware that the cases reported do not provide information on the full extent of violence against women, the women's associations consider those cases identified through the hotline to be a direct result of women’s increased awareness of their rights.