Moroccan group voices women's demands in upcoming elections
2007-08-01
In the lead-up to Morocco's September elections, a new project has begun to educate and organise women to press forward with their agendas. The Social Movement for Equality and Citizenship's "Responsible Citizen Project" reiterates the common demands put forth by women, to compel voters to action.
By Imane Belhaj for Magharebia in Casablanca – 01/08/2007
![[Imane Belhaj] Moroccan women say the upcoming elections are pivotal to their push for rights and protections.](/cocoon/awi/images/2007/08/01/070801Feature1Photo1.jpg) [Imane Belhaj] Moroccan women say the upcoming elections are pivotal to their push for rights and protections. |
The Social Movement for Equality and Citizenship, a movement established by the Democratic League for Women's Rights in Morocco, has put forth a new project in which it calls on Moroccan women to vote responsibly during the coming legislative elections and to defend their demands. The movement named the project, which receives support from the Fund for Supporting Equality between the Sexes, the "Responsible Citizen Project".
During a press conference held Friday (July 27th) in Casablanca, League President Fouzia Assouli said the project arose out of women's critical need to elevate their situation, especially illiterate or rural women who still lack many rights and necessities, circumstances which further degrade their social and economic position.
The project—which was presented to components of civil society, unions and political parties in the hopes that it would be incorporated into those groups' electoral programmes for the September 7th elections—voices a number of basic economic, social and legal demands that would benefit women.
The legal demands call for adherence to international standards protecting women from discrimination, exclusion and violence; putting in place the Social Solidarity Fund stipulated under the new family law to benefit women divorcees and their children, the enforcement of alimony rulings; and the adoption of stricter laws to combat violence against women.
The project's social and economic demands call for reducing unemployment among women by preparing them to enter the labour market; offering low-interest loans and marketing assistance to women contractors in order to increase the successfulness of their projects; combating poverty and marginalisation among women; incorporating traditionally female professions into the labour law; establishing day care programmes for the children of working women; and creating a fund to support women's co-operatives.
The project also calls for mandatory education for girls, the levying of fines against those who prevent girls from attending school, universal reproductive health services to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and death during childbirth and resources to fight illiteracy.
Assouli said the Responsible Citizen Project is expanding its reach into more remote regions of Morocco by way of the Democratic League for Women's Rights' annual convoys and through its experience at the League's centres for combating illiteracy as well as centres for counselling, legal guidance and psychological support located in a dozen regions of Morocco.
"It is no longer acceptable in our modern Morocco for us to see the backwardness and problems that Moroccan women still experience," Assouli told Magharebia. "For the poverty rate among women is at 19.2%, and more than 52% of the urban poor are women as are 50% of the rural poor. The illiteracy rate among women in remote rural areas exceeds 90%. Additionally, there is the absence of protection against economic, social, psychological and physical violence. Thus, the league decided to urge women to join together in defending their legitimate demands. I consider the coming elections pivotal in pressing for these demands, which empower [women] to surmount difficult conditions and assume an active part in human development and democracy building."
The Social Movement for Equality and Citizenship is organising meetings and convoys in cities and rural areas to inform the public about their programme. The group is also preparing to distribute audiotapes in 14 regions, containing the text of its demands in all Arabic and Amazigh dialects.
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mellalia Posted 2007-08-02
The participation of women in political life is a conscious and responsible participation based on clear requests covering the economic, social and culture fields, boosted by fair laws, on top of which the framework law to fight violence against women, a true challenge, all democratic powers and live souls have to join it for an efficient, global and sustainable development within a responsible citizenship.
Anonymous Posted 2008-02-11
I would like to have the contact information for a women’s rights organization in Morocco.
karima Posted 2008-11-25
Hello, I would like to join your organisation. Please send me all the necessary information. -Thank you in advance, Karima
faty Posted 2009-08-10
I would like the contact information for an organisation that lawfully protects Muslim women.
afaf Posted 2009-09-12
Hi- Please, I want you to help me. My children and I are bad off. I have two children and I have no means to send them to school this year. I have been suffering for years. I want to divorce their father, who wants to live under my roof without spending anything. I want the contact information for a women's rights organisation in Meknes as quick as you can get it to me. I am sorry. -Thank you
femme triste Posted 2009-09-13
Help, please! I need help! I am calling upon you because I urgently need to know about women's rights organisations in Meknes. I am a mother of two children. I fast during Ramadan without eating anything during the evening. My children did not go to school this year because I do not have anything with which to pay for it. I want to divorce my husband, who is luxuriously unemployed. I have not stopped speaking to him. I live in Tangier. He drinks and beats me all the time. I have gone down on my hands and knees to correct him, but to no avail. So, I decided to come live in Meknes, thinking that my family was going to help me. Unfortunately, they do not want to hear me speak of divorce. What is worse is that they have taken his side. I do not have anyone but God and you. I do not stop crying, day and night. I know that this is not a solution. I feel humiliated both for myself and my children. I am in debt from head to toe, just feeding my children. Ever since moving to Meknes, my husband has only sent me money rarely, and it evaporates into thin air when I pay my loans. He does not want a divorce. He goes to his mother's for months and months at a time, leaving me and the children in this same situation without accepting a single word from me. Please, help me. I would at least like the contact information for an organisation in Meknes. I do not have anything to eat for my children and myself, so how am I going to pay a lawyer? -Thank you
dafir somia Posted 2009-09-15
My name is Somia Dafir. I live in Casablanca. I have a lot of problems with my husband.
S M Posted 2009-09-26
I am Moroccan. I am married to a Frenchman. We got married in France. Now we are married but separated with a contract from a notary. We live in Marrakesh, Morocco. He lived in Morocco. Now, he wants to divorce me because he took off with another woman. He told me that I have no rights here in Morocco because the marriage is not recognised in Morocco. We have been married for four years. What do you advise me to do? Do I have any rights? –Thank you so much
siham Posted 2009-10-27
Hello- I would like to join an organisation for women’s rights. Please point me in the right direction.
kaki Posted 2010-02-03
Salam alikum. I'm a mother who needs help. I am a worker and the mother of a child. My life was thrown into upheaval when I fell in the trap of a security officer who imprisoned me unjustly for six months after I was cleared in a fraud case filed by his sister. I shouted, I wept, but what? I wouldn't have given in to his desires, even if he had imprisoned me for my whole life. I came to you to avoid knocking at more dangerous doors. Can someone help me?
Aicha Tebaa Posted 2010-02-18
I'm a Moroccan who's been living in France for 40 years now. I am interested in your association for the right to equality for Maghreb women living in France. I'd like to discuss with someone the subjects that interest me in our native country, Morocco. In the end, I've come to ask that you contact me for any information or anything else concerning Morocco. –Thank you in advance
fatty Posted 2010-06-30
I'd like to be a member of your association. I am interested in this. I am a very active woman. I am a feminist interested in Moroccan women’s involvement in political, economic and social life. –Thank you in advance
aziz hadim Posted 2010-07-03
Salam. I wish you all success in your life.
wafae Posted 2010-08-18
Hello- I would like the address of an association that helps divorced women. –Thank you
BELKOURI HALIMA Posted 2010-08-31
Hello- I am delighted to find this website, which speaks about women and their participation in the elections. This is a very good thing. It encourages women to demonstrate to men that they are strong and like me. Personally, I am a Moroccan woman with an education. I am well rounded and professional. I want some information on Moroccan women’s participation in Morocco’s elections. –Thank you again
nadia Posted 2010-09-22
I am married to a Dutchman of Romanian origins in Morocco. I had problems with him. We have been separated a year ago. I no longer see him. It has been more than seven months since I went through the divorce proceedings, but it did not work because the lawyer told me that he has not yet been subpoenaed. He told me that he took every step for this and he cannot do anything else for me. I am depressed because of this situation. Please, help me. I no longer know what to do in order to get a divorce. –Thank you
jamila Posted 2010-10-31
I would like to join an association that aims to help divorced women.
sofia sofi Posted 2011-01-21
Hello- I need help. I am 22 years old. I want to get a divorce, but I do not know how or to whom I should go to for help. I was pregnant and I lost my baby because he beat me and mistreated me. He knocked me down and I am afraid of him every time he threatens me. I do not know what to do. He has now left for abroad and he does not even call me and the only way for me to talk with him is when I find him online. He talks to me as if I were his friend and when I proposed getting a divorce to him all that I got from him as a response was go to the court and do what you want. I do not know what to do. I am suffering so much.
nadia Posted 2011-02-27
I would like to be part of your association. –Thank you
karima kahil Posted 2011-09-02
Hi- I am Moroccan. I am the mother of a little girl, age 4. She was morally and materially mistreated by my husband, who works in Italy. I was sent out of my house to my parents for no reason and threatened by his sisters with aggressive MSN messages. I am neither divorced, nor married. I am now with my parents without clothes and I do not know what to do. Can you help me? -Thank you
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