Moroccan News Roundup #3508

Fatwa scandal gets international attention

The fatwa issued by a Moroccan religious figure has made the international news. (see our earlier story here). The condemnation of the cheik and his fatwa has been almost universal.

Cheikh Mohamed ben Abderrahmane Al-Maghraoui recently published a religious decree on an internet site calling for girls as young as nine years of age to become wives. A lawyer as well as human rights activists have joined the ever swelling number of critics to denounce this call to legalise paedophilia.

Al-Maghraoui has driven Moroccan human rights activists into a frenzy. According to a story published by Al Jarida Al Oula [a Moroccan journal] September 1st, the religious leader called for a fatwa on an Islamic site maghrawi.net calling for the marriage of 9 year old girls. “We have been told and we have seen that 9 year old girls are capable of wifely duties just like 20 year old women”, Cheikh Mohamed ben Abderrahmane Al-Maghraoui told maghrawi.net. And to give more strength to his comments he implicated the Prophet as having married a 9 year old child.

Risk of a boom in under-age marriages

If a scandal is what he is has been aiming at, he has undoubtedly achieved his goal. Human rights activists are venting their spleen. They reject a backward religious act that soils the international convention for the rights of children which was ratified by Morocco, as well as the new family code which puts the minimum marriageable age at 18 years, whatever the sex. The Code is, however, wrought with inconsistencies on the question of premature marriage. “The legislator has authorised premature marriage under exceptional conditions and submitted it for authorisation from the judge without being precise about the minimum age nor contractual conditions. The result of this is the ongoing practice of premature marriage”. Said Fatiha Mesbahi a member of the Moroccan human rights association (AMDH)

There is a widespread fear that this fatwa is designed to encourage premature marriage. In his comments, Mourad Bekkouri, a lawyer from rabat, says that due to “Morocco’s high number of illiterates, the effect of this action among the rural population remains unknown. Parents could marry off their small children should they think that the fatwa is officially binding, although it has not been approved by the Superior Council of ulemas”. Faced with such uncertainties, Mourad Bekkouri filed a law suit against this fatwa in Rabat on September 4. She is still waiting for the court’s decision.

Atlas Blue flights Gatwick to Fez

One of our readers has emailed with the following [piece of positive news:

Just been playing around on the Atlas Blue (www.atlas-blue.com) website and discovered direct London Gatwick (LGW) direct flights to Fez seem to start again on 19th December, in time for Christmas so book now !

We hope it's true.


Five young girls drowned in mud

Five young girls were killed on Sunday morning after they drowned in unstable mud near the Aoulouz dam, in the vicinity of Taroudant ( in the south of the country).

According to locals, the young girls were collecting grass for livestock and entered an unauthorized area local authorities said.

The bodies of the girls, aged between 15 and 16, were pulled out by local inhabitants and handed to their families for burial.

Moroccan movie to compete at Vancouver International Film Festival

The Moroccan feature film "Les Coeurs brûlés" (Burnt Hearts)by Ahmed Al-Maanouni will participate in the official competition of the 27th Vancouver International Film Festival which runs from September 25 to October 10.

The 84-minute film recounts the story of Amin, a young Moroccan architect living in Paris, who returns to Fez faced with the imminent death of his uncle, the man who raised him. Returning to his city of birth forces him to confront the pain of a past which has lain forgotten, but which now returns in all its harshness.

The Vancouver International Film Festival will show 332 films from 60 countries at 575 screenings over 16 days. With nearly 150,000 admissions, VIFF is among the biggest film festivals in North America.

Morocco to search for gold in Sudan

A Moroccan mining company has won contracts to search for gold in two mineral-rich areas of Sudan, state media reported on Monday.

Morocco's Managem MNG.CS signed exploration agreements covering territory in Wadi-Gigiya in Sudan's Red Sea State and Al-Sharif in River Nile State, said the state Suna news agency.

Gold has been mined in Sudan for thousands of years, since the days of its ancient Nubian civilisation.

But the government says it still has large untapped reserves, left untouched thanks to under development and years of conflict.

Managem's chairman Abdul-Aziz Abaru told Suna the company would spend $3 million setting up the mining operation.

Suna said the agreement with Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Mining covered one area in River Nile state and one in Red Sea State, home of much of Sudan's existing gold mining activity.

Managem is a subsidiary of Moroccan conglomerate ONA ONA.CS.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news