Morocco Reacts to French Election Result

In the French presidential run-off on Sunday, Francois Hollande took just under 52 percent of votes to defeat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. Socialist Hollande's win over Sarkozy has been generally welcomed in Morocco.

Francois Hollande

HM King Mohammed VI said it "reflects the French people's aspirations for change that will bring a better future, full of progress and prosperity." He vowed to rework a deal on government debt in eurozone member countries to focus on promoting growth. In a message to Francois Hollande, Mohammed VI said, "Under your presidency, France will certainly obtain significant results that will reinforce the unique position it occupies on the international stage. As a superpower, it has helped champion human rights and freedom in a coherent way". He added that the "special ties" and the "strategic partnership" between France and Morocco, a former French protectorate, would "become ever-stronger".

The Socialist victory and the defeat of pro-austerity parties in Greece's general election on Sunday caused jitters on Monday in international markets.

Morocco World News reports that the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Saad Eddin El Otmani told the Casablanca-based Radio Plus that the French-Moroccan relations will not be affected by the arrival of the socialists to power in France.

Saad Eddin Outmani

He stressed on the strength and depth of the countries bilateral relations and the common interest they share, especially that Morocco is considered the primary Arab and African economic and political partner for France.

On the Sahara issue, the head of the Moroccan diplomacy pointed out that France’s support to Morocco’s efforts won’t be affected. In this regard, he highlighted that French Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry had said, in a meeting with King Mohammed VI, that France’s position on the Sahara issue has not changed and that the French Socialist Party believes that the autonomy plan presented by Morocco in April 2007 to the UN Security Council is a reasonable and logical solution to this issue.

In April 2007, Morocco presented an autonomy plan to the Security Council in order to find a long lasting and mutually acceptable solution to the Sahara issue. The said plan was welcomed by members of the Council as a “serious” and “credible” basis for the settlement of this issue.

France has been the staunchest supporter of the Moroccan efforts geared towards finding a solution on the basis of this autonomy plan.

Many of France's close to seven million immigrants are from Morocco and other North African countries. France has the largest Muslim population in western Europe.

Hollande, the first Socialist to win the French presidency since the early 1980s, is expected to be sworn in on 15 May.

Sarkozy becomes the latest European leader to be voted out of office amid widespread voter anger at austerity measures triggered by the eurozone debt crisis.

Opinion surveys taken in France on Sunday showed the left strongly placed to win a majority in June parliamentary elections, especially since the anti-immigration National Front is set to split the right-wing vote at the expense of Sarkozy's UMP party.

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Sci-Fi Movie in Fez

Next Thursday May 10 at 6pm, join film-maker Mike Cahill for a viewing and discussion about his new movie, Another Earth. The screening is to be held at the American Language Center Annex in Fez, as part of the travelling program of the Sundance Film Festival.

Brit Marling and William Mapother in Another Earth

The sci-fi drama has a fascinating premise. It follows Rhoda (Brit Marling, who is also co-writer), a teenager who drunkenly crashes into a car one night after a party, leaving only one survivor. On the same day, Earth's population discovers that there is a planet seemingly identical to our own not very far away, inhabited by an alternate versions of every person on our home planet. Four years later when she's just released from prison for her earlier crime, Rhoda attempts to make amends with John (William Mapother), the survivor of the car crash who is grieving for the loss of his family. All the while, Earth gets closer to making contact, and even travelling to the newly discovered planet.

Despite the grand themes, this is an intimate drama, showing the impact of significant events on individual lives.

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Moroccan Wine - A Thriving Industry

John Mariani, writing for Bloomberg, has an interesting article about the fact that the Moroccan wine industry is thriving in face of all kinds of challenges.

It’s easy enough to say “When in Rome drink as the Romans do,” but what’s a wine lover to do in Marrakesh?

For starters, Morocco is predominantly Muslim, and consumption of alcohol is forbidden in Islam, (though oddly enough, the word “alcohol” derives from the Arabic word “al-kohl”). Its production is allowed, and historically overseen by Christians and Jews.

When Morocco became a protectorate of France in 1912, the French found its fertile soil, especially in the Meknes region of the Middle Atlas Mountains, an ideal spot in which to build a formidable wine industry. By the time of Morocco’s independence in 1956, 55,000 hectares (135,905 acres) were under cultivation.

With the departure of the French, Moroccan vineyards grew fallow. In 1967, the European Economic Community (now the European Union) froze most Moroccan wines out of its market. The few remaining vineyards fell under strict government control.

Then, at the urging of King Hassan II and his successor Mohammed VI in the 1990s, French wine companies returned to lease vineyards and replant European varietals. By the beginning of this century, cultivation had recovered to 50,000 hectares.

Thanks to the influx of tourism, the sale of alcohol and wine is widespread in Morocco’s major cities, though in many areas it is still forbidden, especially during Muslim holy days.

Moroccan Martini

So, on a recent trip to Morocco, I found little problem ordering beer, wine, or even martinis at hotels and restaurants I frequented, including those run by Muslims.

Frankly, I didn’t expect any of it to be all that good. Still, my first few bottles of merely pleasant white wines were much enhanced when paired with the gloriously fresh seafood on offer at open-air French brasseries along Atlantic coastal cities like Casablanca, Safi, and Essaouira.

But it wasn’t until I got inland to Marrakesh, where well- spiced meat-based dishes like couscous and the slow-cooked tagine stews demand to be consumed with a hearty red wine that I began to be impressed. Especially after a memorable tasting with Manuel Schott, the Alsatian-born sommelier at the magnificent La Mamounia Hotel, which stocks more than two dozen Moroccan wines among the 400 labels in its cellars.

“One of the problems in Morocco is that, after April, it is so hot,” said Schott, “so that just shipping the wines can compromise them. I ask for the wines to be delivered either in early morning or after 7 p.m.”

Soaring Temperatures

It’s not just soaring temperatures that pose a challenge. “In August and September the desert winds are so harsh that they can destroy 30 to 40 percent of the harvest,” he said.

Most of the new wineries are French-owned, including El Mogador, Morocco’s first organic producer in Provence Essaouira. Its delicious El Mogador Gris, is made by a vigneron from the Rhone Valley named Charles Melia.

Called “Gris” (gray, in French) because of its color that falls between white and rose, it was very fresh and well made, at 12.5 percent alcohol, with a lingering flavor and aroma of raspberries.

Even more enticing was a blend of 80 percent chardonnay and 20 percent viognier, at 13 percent alcohol, called Odyssee La Ferme Rouge. This was a very lush wine whose rich chardonnay flavor took on the spicy scent of the viognier in impressive balance.

Rich Chardonnay

S de Siroua by Domaine des Ouled Thaleb in the Rommani district is 100 percent chardonnay, with a bold 14 percent alcohol and a full body from aging in new barriques that give it a vanilla caramel undertone.

Volubilia 2008 was 100 percent cabernet sauvignon, a varietal that can take some heat, and it showed well at a moderate 13.5 percent alcohol, with good tannins and acid. Its relative lightness derived from its spending no time in oak barrels.

Schott says that at least 60 percent of La Mamounia’s guests order Moroccan wines, compared with a decade ago when few did so. Wise investment in production and a more progressive attitude toward alcohol have quickly improved the wines, which, if difficult to find abroad, are well worth drinking when in Marrakesh.


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Steinbeck Festival in Fez

If you would like a dose of culture, then this festival may be just the thing. Steinbeck is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). He was an author of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories; Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

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The View from Fez - Technical problems

A note to our regular readers - The View from Fez is being published via satellite from a ship off the Atlantic coast of Morocco and due to weather our connectivity is marginal. We apologise for the formatting issues and lack of our usual hi-res photographs! Normal transmission will be resumed as soon as possible - probably May 8.  Thanks to our on-shore reporters for picking up the slack.

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International Conference on Early Marriage - May 5-6

The programme of the international conference on early marriage to be held in Palais des Congrès in Fez on May 5-6.  

Centre ISIS pour Femmes et Développement
COLLOQUE INTERNATIONAL SUR « LE MARIAGE DES FILLES MINEURES : UNE PERSPECTIVE SOCIOCULTURELLE ET JURIDIQUE »


Samedi 5 mai 2012
8: 30 : Accueil des participants 9 :30
-Allocution de M. Le Wali de la Région Fès-Boulemane
-Allocution de Mme la Ministre de la Famille et de la Solidarité
-Allocution de M. Le Président du Conseil de la Ville de Fès
-Allocution du Directeur du Colloque et Président du Centre Sud Nord
-Allocution de la Présidente du Centre ISIS et l’Union Nationale des Organisations Féminines

10 : 00- 10 :15 : Réception et Visite des Expositions
10.15 : Conférence inaugurale : Zhour Alhorr (Présidente de la Section Familiale,
Cour de Casablanca, Membre de la Commission pour la
Réforme de la Moudawana)  Mariage des mineures : Volet juridique
10.30 : Malika Benradi (Professeure, Faculté de Droit Rabat Agdal,
Avocate auprès du Barreau de Rabat, Agréée auprès de la
Cour de Cassation)

Le mariage des mineures au Maroc : quelle pratique judiciaire?
10.45 : Oum El Banine Lahlou (Parlementaire, Union Nationale des Organisations Féminines)
Mariage des mineures et conscience collective

11.00 : Malika Benaouda (Université de Blida, Algérie)  :الزواج المبكر
11.15: Fatima Maghnaoui (Centre d’Aide Juridique et Union de L’Action Féminine) Mariage des mineures: témoignages des cas vivants

11.30-12.00 : Débat Après-midi

15.00 : Gbadamosi Olaide (Head, Department of Public and International Law, Osun State University, Nigeria)

The Role of Judges and Lawyers in Combating Underage Marriage


15.15 : Zhor Houti (Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah Mariage des mineures : Volet juridico-social


15. 30 : Nadia Lachiri (Université Moulay Ismail, Meknès)
15.45 : Anissa Bouanane (ADFM, Casablanca)
Mariage des mineures au Maroc : Entre état des lieux et perspectives
16.00-16 :30 : Débat 16.30-16:45 : Pause café
16.45: Ousseina Alidou (Rutgers University, USA)

Regimes of Marriage and Women’s Rights Activism in Changing
African Muslim Societies


17.15: Yanserha (Consultante, Affaires Sociales, Enfance et Famille, Nouakchot)
17. 30: Khédija Arfaoui (Université de Tunis)
Early Marriage : The Case of Tunisia

 Mariage des mineures: Perspectives comparatives 

17.00: Mohamed Raoudi (Observatoire de l’Intégration de la Femme dans la Vie Politique, Casablanca)
Causes et conséquences du mariage des mineures au Maroc

17.45- 18 :15: Débat Dimanche 6 mai Matin
9.00: Mina Sougrati (Chercheure universitaire, Casablanca) ٕالغاء المادة 20استعادة لكرامة المراة
9.15 : Fatima Outaleb (Union de l’Action Féminine)
Mariage des mineures au Maroc : Expérience de l’UAF
9. 30 : Asma Ennebet (Union Nationale des Organisations Féminines) زواج القاصرات ٔاو ثقافة الموت
9.45-10 :15: Débat 10.15 -10.30: Pause-café
10.30: Moha Ennaji (Centre Sud Nord, Fès)
10.45: Hakima Hatri (Université Al Qarawiyyine, Fès)

Mariage des mineures : Volet socio-culturel  Mariage des mineures : Quelles solutions? Etudes de terrain 

11.00: Souad Slaoui (Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherches sur la Femme, Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fès)
11.15: Siham Fadil (Ministère des Habous et des Affaires Islamiques, Rabat) Early marriage in Imilchil : A Case study
11.30: Rym Asserraji (Doctorante, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University) Attitudes Towards the Application of the Mudawana and Under-Aged Married Women in the Regions of Fez, Meknes and the Atlas Mountains
11.45 -12.15 : Débat

Recommandations et Clôture
Modérateur: Moha Ennaji (Centre Sud Nord)
Comité d’organisation
Moha Ennaji Fatima Sadiqi Souad Slaoui Hassan Hjjij Rachid Elouardi Driss Rhomari Siham Fadil
Fakhita Hidane Asma Ennebet


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