Showing posts with label Morocco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morocco. Show all posts

05 April 2012

Morocco: One step forward, two steps back

Recent news out of Morocco doesn't look so good.

"Morocco to regulate print media"
 "The project should be incorporated into a general layout oriented toward creating profound, root change in the media field, provide it with the necessary institutional aspect and put the media in the framework of service to public opinion and interacting with it and reflecting its perceptions."
 "Morocco rapper charged for anti-police song"

The rapper, also known as El-Haqed, or "the enraged," writes songs about corruption and social injustice and is involved in the pro-democracy February 20 movement. He also has written songs attacking King Mohammed VI for his vast wealth and high ranking on the Forbes magazine lists.
El-Haqed is faces charges for his song "Dogs of the State," about the Moroccan police force.

"Morocco to withhold pay from protesters"
"It is as if the government is adding fuel to fire," said Baba Al-Netuo, in charge of the health sector at the General Union of Moroccan Workers (UGTM). "The prime trigger of the continued protests is the government's procrastination in implementing the agreements signed with syndicates."
Morocco's new constitution and small concessions have largely quelled protests.  Unlike in other countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Morocco's protests have been relatively small.  But the increasing numbers of headlines such as these, high unemployment, an economy in a tailspin, and stories of repression in the Rif (more to come later) leaking out of the kingdom are blaring signs all is not well.

14 March 2012

Moroccan girl commits suicide after being forced to marry her rapist

Al Arabiya reported this morning that a 16-year-old Moroccan girl killed herself after a judge ordered her to marry her rapist.

The girl, Amina, was forced to marry a 26 year old as a way of "resolving" the damage the attack did to her honor and that of her family.  Moroccan law also exempts rapists from punishment if he agrees to marry his victim.

Her new husband's family was reportedly unfriendly towards the young girl.  In the end, she took rat poisoning, ending her life.

The story is widely reported in Morocco and has angered activists online, some using the Twitter hashtag #RIPAmina, who demand action against the judge who issued the ruling.  Unfortunately, the story has gotten no coverage in the West, especially in comparison to the coverage of the story a few months back about the Afghan girl who was forced to marry her rapist.  In that case, Hamid Karzai ended up intervening.  After media coverage died down, however, she too married her rapist.

Forcing a girl to marry her rapist disgusts me.  I can't even describe how reading those stories made me feel. The psychological trauma of the attack ends up becoming the girls' life, trapped forever with a man who has no respect or feelings for her.

I hope Moroccan activists don't let Amina's story fade and maintain pressure on the powers-that-be to change this situation.  

09 March 2012

Where's Bassima?

Almost like Where's Waldo. Doing research for my thesis, I came across this photo of the new-ish Moroccan government with only one female minister, Bassima Hakkaoui.


She was given the Ministry of Solidarity, Women, Family, and Social Development. Fluffy.