Strike Across Morocco on Tuesday

A nationwide strike to be held on Tuesday September 23, involving public service employees, will cause major disruptions across Morocco

"The police will be on strike, so it would be wise to stay off the streets," said Fez local, Si Mohamed Abdellaoui.

As well as government offices, universities will also be closed. The National Union of Higher Education has called on all officials to observe the strike from September 23 to 25.

The General Union of Workers of Morocco (UGTM) voted to participate at a meeting on September 12.

“This is our way of saying ‘no’ to the government’s decision to keep employees in higher education in their positions after they are 60 years old [the age of retirement in Morocco],” said Abdelhamid Fatihi, head of the Democratic Labor Federation (FDT), at a press conference.

The austerity policy implemented by the government, and subsequent price rises of staples including oil, water and electricity has also been cited as a reason for the strike, as well as the government's decision to reform the pension system. The UGTM and FDT claim that the changes will result in a reduction of nearly 30% of pensions.

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The Soulaliyate Women's Movement ~ Battling Tradition and Greed

The Soulaliyate are members of one of the ethnic groups with a stake in Morocco's commons, or "collective lands". They belong to Morocco's 4,631 tribes, amounting to about 10 million people. The tribes are governed by laws that go back to before the introduction of Islam to Morocco in the seventh century. Under these rules they are not entitled to own land, with tenure passing from father to son. The women are battling tradition and male greed, which are depriving them of any form of inheritance. For the past three years they have been campaigning as the Soulaliyate Women's Movement to obtain compensation. Retrospectively they were one of the forerunners of the wave of social and political protest that has shaken Morocco since February.

The Soulaliyate Women's Movement was the idea of a remarkable woman named Rkia Bellot. Now retired, she used to work at the finance ministry and is married to an outsider, a soldier. She belongs to the Haddada tribe and has no chance of an inheritance. "I have eight brothers. I'm the only one not to have received anything when our father died and the discrimination got even worse when they started selling land as compensation or handing out plots for building," she explains, in tears.

She was particularly upset by the humiliation she suffered when she tried to stand up for her rights. "The male members of the tribe said: 'You're just a woman', and when I appealed to the officials, they told me I didn't have 'the requisite status', which is exactly the same thing, in more diplomatic terms," Bellot adds.

The first demonstration in 2007 was a surprise for many Moroccans, who knew nothing about the Soulaliyates and less still about their rules on inheritance. But the Soulaliyates have a growing audience. On 20 March demonstrations were held all over Morocco with thousands of people in the streets, despite a speech by the king announcing constitutional reform. But Bellot was not marching. She was typing out manifestos on her computer.

The Soulaliyate Movement has been gaining ground since 2007. On a daily basis, these women fight the absurdity of archaic laws and men whom they consider to be their enemies. The following are details of a meeting with this movement, first published in French on Tel Quel.(LIRE L'ORIGINAL EN FRANÇIS)

In towns like Kenitra the effects of dispossession are stark. Kenitra is the country's fourth-largest industrial centre. Overlooking the airbase are properly built homes for the well-off, then red-brick houses, still unfinished, for those who have been resettled, and finally off to one side a collection of shacks made of corrugated iron and cardboard, occupied by dispossessed Soulaliyate women.

It's a Tuesday morning just like any other in the town of Oulad Benrahma. About 10 miles from Kenitra, this little town in the province of Sidi Slimane lives to the rhythm of the improvised markets along roadsides congested with cars, mules and school children. Malika recognizes a few faces, greets them politely and carries on.

She prefers to show us the land from her stronghold, which consists of 2,487 women and 2,814 men and which she left for the big city almost 15 years ago. Virgin or plowed, built or abandoned, the communal lands of Oulad Benrahma, extending to the horizon, sparked division four years ago among this tribe’s members.

On the bridge, an old lady riding a donkey stops to kiss her. “We're with you, do not forget that. So are we going to get money or not?” She enthusiastically asks Malika. At 48, the latter proudly belongs to the Soulaliyate Movement, composed of thousands of tribal women across the kingdom. These women demand to receive, just like men, compensation from the sale of these communal lands.

Facing contempt

“I am a living example that this fight is not pointless,” Malika brags. In 2011, the women of the tribe received about 5,000 dirhams (about $600). Even if they still have not received anything since then, their victory is both material and symbolic. It has proven to the tribe’s men, who continue to oppose Malika’s approach, that the collective lands are no longer an exclusive right of males. It has also strengthened the position of women, who are finally convinced that justice — as incomplete as it is — is possible to achieve today.

“When we started claiming our usufruct, the men of the tribe, before they got busy being violent toward us, were mocking us and saying, ‘If you get your usufruct, we will wear a takchita [a traditional garment worn by Moroccan women],’” Malika said.

As for the MPs, some of whom have been in office since the era of the late King Hassan II, they either refuse to receive them or just express contempt. For these veterans of customary law, the Soulaliyate Movement has long been a fantasy of countrywomen blinded by dreams of mudawana [personal status code in Moroccan law], which can only be applied, according to them, to urban women. A new constitution advocated equal rights, and a number of MPs grudgingly accepted to include tribal women on the lists of beneficiaries.

Belated feminist

“In my tribe, women thought I was crazy, and men threatened to empty their clips on me,” recalls Hajiba. The enthusiastic 40-year-old from the Chebbaka tribe in the town of Mnasra is overloaded with activism. “A few years back, I did not even know what Soulaliya meant.” It is when she watched a television report that she became aware of the situation and began to ask questions. These questions led her to the doors of the Democratic Women's Association of Morocco (ADFM) in Rabat.

There, they took the time to explain to her her rights, which, she discovered, were being violated. She became invincible, an expert in circulars, dahirs [Moroccan royal decrees] and judicial and administrative jargon. “Before meeting with the association, we were still like a closed pomegranate,” she says. “Today, not only have we gotten to know our rights, but we have also come to defend them.” Her ease of speech is the proof: not only does Hajiba talk about her case, but she also puts into perspective the complexity of the situation, the undeserved privileges lacking transparency, the withholding of information on the part of institutions and the obsolete laws that block the actions of the movement.

“The awareness that was long buried in me that my rights as a Moroccan woman in general and as a Soulaliya woman in particular are not guaranteed has become crystal clear today. If my citizenship is secondary in the eyes of the leaders, then who am I in this society?”

No mercy

If Hajiba, who lives in Kenitra and is married to an urban man who supports her choices, is now able to assess the challenges of her struggle, to justify the need for a law change and to fully understand her rights, it is still not the case of all the Soulaliya women.

The precariousness plaguing some of the tribe's descendants is particularly what motivated them to join the movement. “It's a pretty name, Oulad Benrahma, except that here, there is no ‘rahma’ [mercy] for us.”

Aisha’s scathing words contradict her laughing eyes. The lady, with fatigue-marked features, shares a roadside shanty with her brother. (“He is kind enough not to kick me out,” she sarcastically says.) She surely wants to see her rights respected, but most of all, she wants to be able to afford her medication. “My diabetes cannot wait for a law change,” thunders Soulaliya. Driven by a sense of disregard, she adds, “I do not have the right to exploit the land of my ancestors because I am a woman. I can only support these women who want to guarantee me a little bit of tangible and concrete fairness.”

While every tribe is different, all their women share the same anger of being ignored by Morocco, which boasts about great democratic progress. "We learned to properly advocate, but the authorities’ lack of transparency is paralyzing us," Hajiba says. When they are not met with the silent treatment, they discover preposterous issues, such as selling the communal land to individuals unknown to the tribe. Hajiba can never say enough and blames the system’s failures, lack of follow-up and contradicting decrees.

Big problems need big solutions: Malika and Hajiba are planning to run in parliamentary [elections]. “In order to commit ourselves to the Soulaliyate Movement, we want to ensure that we are fully dedicated to that. At least, this way we will get the information from the source,” Hajiba adds. A national dialogue on the future of communal land will be held in November, as announced by the Interior Ministry in October 2012. However, with the recent cabinet reshuffle, there is no way of knowing for sure if the dialogue will remain on the agenda.


Originally posted by  TelQuel on November 17, 2013
Translator: Sami-Joe Abboud
Original Article LIRE L'ORIGINAL EN FRANÇIS


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Granting Moroccan Citizenship to Foreign Spouses - Proposed Bill

Mustafa Ramid, the Moroccan Minister of Justice and Freedoms, says his ministry will propose a bill that will bring Moroccan men and women closer to equality in regard to Article Ten of the Citizenship Act

At present, according to Minister Ramid (pictured above), “A foreign woman married to Moroccan can, after at least five years of continuous and regular residence in Morocco, apply for Moroccan citizenship.” In accordance with Article Ten of the Citizenship Act, a foreign woman married to a Moroccan man can be granted citizenship under a set of conditions. But a foreign male who is married to a Moroccan woman is still not entitled to be granted Moroccan citizenship.

In response to a question by the Group of Justice and Development MPs at the House of Representatives on “measures taken to enable Moroccan women to grant citizenship to their foreign spouses,” Ramid expressed the hope that the government and parliament will enable this project to come to fruition in the near future.

Ramid stressed that the Ministry proposed this project to the government, taking into account the problems that arise from not obtaining citizenship, especially with regards to residency and the conditions of entry to and exit from the Moroccan territory.

‘We should not subject the components of the same family to different legal systems,” he added.


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Moroccan News Briefs #104

A round up of the latest news from around Morocco

Pharmaceutical price drop for Moroccans

The Moroccan Ministry of Health have scheduled a price drop for around 1000 pharmaceuticals. The list comprises the most prescribed drugs in the kingdom and those most consumed by Moroccan patients.

The list includes the common classes of antibiotics , aspirin and other painkillers, treatment for sexual dysfunction, anti-diabetic drugs and those prescribed for cardiovascular problems.

According to the Arabic daily Al Khabar, who reported the news yesterday (Thursday, September 12 ), the price drop could reduce the costs by 80% of the current price. This is extremely good news for Moroccan consumers as traditionally pharmacies have had a reputation for very high prices.

Syrians caught attempting to smuggle 20 tons of cannabis from Morocco

On Sunday the French navy intercepted a cargo ship carrying 20 tons of cannabis from Morocco. According a source, the sailors who were aboard the boat set fire to their goods. The value of the cannabis is believed to be between 40 and 50 million euros.

After three days of towing, the freighter-S Luna arrived at Toulon, where investigators were able to carry out investigations onboard the vessel. A judicial investigation has been launched into large scale drug trafficking. The eight crew members, who are Syrian, could be sentenced to ten years imprisonment. According to French police sources, this is the third cargo of drugs intercepted in Mediterranean waters in recent weeks.

Morocco to set up military hospital in Mali for humanitarian relief

Morocco will set up a military hospital in Mali's capital and send humanitarian aid to the Malians who are affected by recent flood which has left 34 dead.

"King Mohammed VI issued instructions for the setting of a field military hospital in Bamako, the capital of Mali, and dispatching humanitarian assistance to the Malian people" - MAP

According to an official release the military hospital "will be rendered accessible to all Malians, including those living in the north of the country."

A medical team made up of Moroccan specialists is to be deployed to Bamako soon while the humanitarian relief effort will be handled by the Morocco's royal armed forces, according to Morocco's official news agency (MAP).

At least 34 people were killed in floods caused by torrential rain in Bamako at the end of August according to United Nations agencies. More than 100 homes, mostly poorly constructed mud-brick buildings on drainage sites, were swept away as the river Niger burst its banks in torrential rain on Wednesday, bringing down bridges and submerging entire streets.

“I have been told of at least 34 dead. Damage to property is widespread and the evaluation is ongoing,” Die Dao, deputy head of the Department of Civil Protection rescue mission, said on Friday.

Mali's independent newspapers have reported higher death tolls of up to 50 deaths.

Flooding often leads to widespread displacements and casualties during West Africa's June to October rainy season, as well as disease outbreaks due partly to poor sanitation. Local television broadcast images of homeless residents wandering Bamako's streets, apparently in shock, as others waded through chest-high, fast-flowing muddy water to rescue stranded neighbours.

The old hillside district of Taliko suffered the brunt of the flooding, with victims finding refuge in a primary school equipped with mats, kettles and mosquito nets. Headmaster Abdoul Konate said the victims were desperate for money and clothes.

The international community expressed its appreciation for King Mohammed’s continuous efforts to support peace and achieve stability in the region. Once again, Morocco has shown a continuous commitment to respond to the innocent victims all over he world not only by issuing communiques denouncing aggressions against civilians but by deploying humanitarian aid in an effort to alleviate their suffering and setting up a humanitarian model in an attempt to encourage and to invite other countries to do the same.

Prime Minister recalls five resigned ministers

Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, and leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party, recalled five ministers who resigned after the second largest party withdrew its support of the coalition government.

In a press announcement after the cabinet meeting, government spokesman and Minister of Communication Moustapha El-Khalfi said that PM Benkirane spoke highly of the resigned ministers due to their previous performance and called on them to return to duty.

The Istiqlal Party, the second largest party of the coalition government in Morocco, withdrew its support after accusing Benkirane of taking personal moves on issues which would affect the fate of the country, and of giving an opportunity for corruption.

Resignations were submitted by Minister of Economy and Finance Nizar Baraka, Minister of Energy, Mining, Water and Environment Fouad Douiri, Deputy Minister of Cooperation and External Affairs Youssef Amrani, Minister of Moroccans Residing Abroad Abdellatif Maazouz, and Minister of Craft Abdessamad Qaiouh.

With the withdrawal of the Istiqlal Party, the remaining 160 deputies of government must compromise with another party with at least 38 deputies in order to achieve the 198 deputies necessary to make a decision in parliament.

Morocco to reform judiciary

After a long delay and more than a year of dialogue, Morocco's Islamist-led government has finally moved forward on a major campaign promise and unveiled a reform plan for the country's much-criticised judicial system.

The system has been a major sore point for Moroccans because of a widespread perception that courts serve the rich and powerful. Critics allege that verdicts in civil trials can be purchased for a few thousand dollars, while a phone call from a high-ranking official can ensure a guilty ruling in political cases.

The justice system was listed as one of the most corrupt sectors in the country by the 2013 World Corruption Index.

The Islamist Justice and Development Party won the right to head Morocco's next government in the 2011 elections, and one of its main campaign promises was battling corruption and creating a truly independent judiciary.

Mustapha Ramid - Photo Paul Schemm

Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid unveiled the new plan late Thursday describing it as a product of an extensive dialogue that has the backing of King Mohammed VI, who first pushed for judicial reform in a 2009 speech.

"This is a historic moment we are living as we meet to reform the judicial system," Ramid said at the conference's opening, which included high government officials and diplomats. "Our dialogue was distinguished by the fact that we all wanted a profound reform requiring the mobilisation of all forces in society."

The ambitious plan addresses many of the criticisms of Morocco's justice system, including higher standards and more training for judges, prosecutors and lawyers, as well as greater transparency in appointments and penalties on members of the judiciary.

Judicial reform has long been discussed, but never implemented, and in 2010 the European Union scaled back its funding for the reforms after complaining that nothing was happening.

The charter, which has to be voted on by parliament, also talks about setting up a mechanism to oversee judges' expenditures and lifestyles to ensure they are in line with their income.

The plan follows up on measures in the new 2011 constitution, which was amended in response to pro-democracy Arab Spring demonstrations, to get the judiciary out from under the shadow of the Ministry of Justice and make it more independent. In the past, executive control over judicial appointments and salaries ensured pliant judges.

The prosecutor's office will now be under the Court of Cassation, the country's highest court, instead of the Ministry of Justice, a move that has been welcomed by the Judges' Club, an association that has pushed for reform.

One key aspect of the reform — long demanded by human rights activists — is a revision of the penal code "to bring it into harmony with the new constitution and principles of international conventions" that Morocco has signed.

The presentation gave no specifics, but there has been repeated criticism of the criminalisation of abortion, sex outside marriage and alcohol consumption for Muslims, as well as allowing rapists to marry their underage victims to escape prosecution.

Rabat's 18th Festival de Jazz au Chellah

The programming for the 18th Chellah Jazz Festival has been described as "esoteric, kamikaze and certainly not wise" - it sounds great!

With a modest budget, bold programming clashes and an extraordinary location, the Festival Jazz au Chellah is setting the bar high for Moroccan festivals.

The historic site of Chellah is located away from the modern buildings of Rabat, south along the Bouregreg. The ruins of the ancient Roman city of Colonia Santo and the Merinid Chellah necropolis are the most important of Rabat's historical sites.

The Jazz au Chellah festival is a successful partnership between the European Union and the Moroccan Ministry of Culture. For this 18th edition, the scenes resonate with a mixture of oriental amber, the icy north and fiery Latin America.

The soaked jazz music "from whorehouse" with Nuevo Tango Ensamble, very influenced by Latin music Italian group. Then it is the turn of Tamara Obrovac Quartet jazz hybrid inspired by Croatian folk music with Mediterranean influences, Slavic and Balkan. It will happen with a collaboration with Rachid Zéroual a mâalem of the ney (Eastern flute)

The fourth evening will be 100% female with the Greek group Savina Yannatou Salonico Quartet merging jazz and Greek folklore. Cellist Asja Valcic and accordionist Klaus Paier then take over with their contemporary tango. Both will be joined by oud player Karim Kadiri. The epilogue of this 18th edition sounds stunning. Spanish musician Daniel Casares offers up flamenco with his show "75 Guernica". The epic closing night  (the 15th) will feature the Gourmet Sextet from Finland, who will perform with the famous mâalema Gnaouia Khadija el Ouarzazia & Bnet Houariyat Quintet.

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Abandoned Children and Adoption - Morocco Struggles to Reform

Whole Morocco is leading the Arab world in many aspects of social reform, the problems of the increasing numbers of abandoned babies and the hurdles to adoption, are far from being addressed in a mature manner. 

In fact, at a time when there is a tremendous need for care of abandoned infants, Moroccan Justice Minister Mustafa Ramid has moved in the opposite direction by issuing a moratorium on international adoptions of Moroccan children. Ramid's justification of his decision with concerns that children adopted abroad will not be brought up to respect their culture, tradition and religion ignores the desperate need to find homes for abandoned children.

The conditions in orphanages and in homes for pregnant single girls have long been criticised as being far below international standards. Child protection experts are quick to point out that adoption reform that allows for international adoption is long overdue. While Mustafa Ramid's concerns are shared by some, overall concern for child health and welfare should take precedent over religious views.

To change the mentality and the system will take much debate, but in the meantime the problem of abandoned children will not go away. In a disturbing article written by Simon Martelli for AFP, the problem is put into stark perspective.

The article points out that Morocco is seeing an alarming rise in the number of babies abandoned by single mothers.

"According to the information we have gathered, from people who take care of abandoned children born outside marriage, the numbers are getting much worse," said Omar Kindi, organiser of a conference on violence and discrimination against single mothers and children.

The existing statistics were bad enough

According to a study carried out by Insaf, an NGO that supports women and children in distress, of which Kindi is the president, 27,200 young women gave birth outside marriage in 2009, with a total of 8,760 babies abandoned. That equates to 24 babies per day on average. Anecdotal accounts of the fate of some of these babies are particularly disturbing.

Kindi and other activists argue that attitudes and legislation have failed to keep pace with social change, as starkly illustrated by Article 490 of the penal code according to which extra-marital sex is punishable by up to a year in jail.

Aicha Echanne, another speaker at the Casablanca conference, said the "mentality of society" and the lack of support for single mothers, who are often aggressively treated by officials, were driving factors behind new-born children being abandoned. "We need to shake Moroccan society, and to put pressure on the state, on parliament, to bring about change," said Echanne, who heads the Association of Women's Solidarity. "From 1990 to 2009, 23,000 babies were buried in cemeteries in Casablanca (Morocco's largest city). It is not normal, from a humanitarian point of view, to accept this type of thing," she added.

As well as changing the law, activists emphasise the need for sexual education in Morocco to avoid unwanted pregnancy, with more than 60 percent of single mothers under 26 years old, according to Insaf, and many of them illiterate.

But with an Islamist-led government in power since January, some are doubtful about the prospects of any such initiatives.

Read the full AFP article here: Surge in number of babies abandoned in Morocco

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Morocco's Referendum ~ early results

In Morocco, 72,6% of the voters decided on the constitutional referendum proposed by king Mohammed VI. The proposal passed with a 98% majority. The Interior minister, Taib Cherkuai, announced the results. The referendum voting was peaceful throughout the country and according to reports, the voter turn-out was not as high as had been expected.

By midday on Friday, Morocco's Interior Ministry told the state news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse that voter turnout was at 26 percent, and that the king had cast his vote in front of supporters in Rabat.

The BBC reported that low voter turnout at the referendum could spur demand for even greater freedoms – while adding that main political parties, unions and religious leaders have been urging support for the new constitution.

The reforms have received interational approval, with the European Union describing them as “a clear commitment to democracy”.

The vote will be the first constitutional referendum under the king's 12-year rule, and follows parliamentary polls in 2007, at which voter turnout stood at a record low of of 37 percent.

The speed of the results being announced was greeted with a certain scepticism by some commentators. As the popular Reading Morocco website put it... "in this referendum, there is something positive, after all: I found out that the Moroccan administration is so developed and advanced that it could count ballots nationwide, including from hundreds of villages scattered and isolated in the Atlas mountains, and do this in record time--four hours after the closing of the polling centers. What an extraordinary job you have done, my country."

The referendum sanctioned the policy of transformation from absolute into constitutional monarchy the king is sponsoring in response to the democratic requests of the Arab spring. While certainly a good step in the right direction, only time will tell if the protest movement will maintain their demonstrations. Questions are being asked about the actual number of citizens registered to vote (some 13 million)as a percentage of the total population (33 million) and there will no doubt be more attention to this point in coming days.

Reading Morocco also shared this "The voting activities on Friday, of course, quickly spawned jokes on the Internet. Here’s one popular joke: A man voted “No” for the new constitution by mistake. As he walked home, he realized his mistake and returned to the polling center to ask officials if he could change his vote. They told him: We already corrected that mistake for you, just don’t do it again."

Morocco's Referendum ~ Who Will Vote?

According to Aghmari Hassan, the director of the Department of Elections at the Moroccan Interior Ministry, more than one million Moroccans, including almost half of 18-25 years, were registered on electoral lists in particular to participate in the forthcoming referendum on constitutional reform announced last March by King Mohammed VI.

"Nearly 1.10 million people were registered on the electoral roll between 1 and 21 May for further consultations, including the referendum on constitutional reform", said Aghmari Hassan. "Nearly 43% of those enrolled are young people between 18 and 25, and 60% of them are from the urban environment."

"Among enrolees, 55% are male and 45% of women," he added.

In a speech to the nation on March 9, King Mohammed VI announced major constitutional reforms, including in some principle of separation of powers and strengthening the powers of the Prime Minister.

The number of registered voters needs to be understood in the context of the overall population which exceeds 32 million.

EU welcomes Moroccan reform pledge

The EU has welcomed the announcement of extensive constitutional reform in Morocco,(see here) describing the King’s decision as “a commitment to further democratisation”.

In a joint statement, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton and Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle said the reform “opens a period of political debate that should include all political actors and civil society and be a response to the legitimate aspirations of the Moroccan people.”

The proposed constitutional reform, which is in line with the ambitions of Morocco’s Advanced Status with the EU, touches on key elements for modernisation, such as regionalisation, the independence of the judiciary, the separation of powers, the strengthening of the government’s role and equality for women. “Once fully implemented, it will be a qualitative leap in the process of reforms already initiated by Morocco,” Füle and Ashton said, adding: “The European Union stands ready to support Morocco's efforts to implement such far-reaching reforms.”