HENAN HARIT

Morocco- The Feminist Movement in Morocco has taken important steps to change public policy about the status of women, particularly in law, and to ensure effective participation of women in various areas of life. Foundation of the country’s first women’s organization named, “Progressive Union of Moroccan Women” in February 1983 and the publication of “8 March” newspaper were two of the most important achievements of the movement. The 1990s are known as the first wave of Moroccan feminism. In 1993, many women's organizations united under a network and announced the beginning of a joint and organized struggle to change the Moroccan Personal Status Code. Even though the Progressive Union of Moroccan Women took some steps to change the personal status code, it moved away from other women’s movements. Union of Women's Action (L'Union de l'Action Féminine-UAF) was founded in March 1996 to provide psychological, legal and medical support to victims of violence and to follow their cases. We spoke to Fatima Maghnaoui, head of the Annajda office of the union and a human rights defender, about gender-based violence in Morocco.

“We broke the silence against all forms of violence”

Your union was founded to provide support to victims of violence. What are the aims of the union?

The Union of Women's Action was founded to provide psychological, legal and medical support to victims of violence and to follow their cases. We should first talk about the “8 March Newspaper” to talk about how the union was founded. The newspaper was launched in 1980 by the Progressive Union of Moroccan Women. We reserved a page of the newspaper called, “Let me talk” for Moroccan women who had a word to say. In order to break the silence against the phenomenon of violence, we analyzed women's pain and suffering and sought solutions to women's problems in law, sociology and psychology with experts in law, sociology and psychology. In the 1990s, the rape of a group of women sparked anger in Moroccan society.  We, as women’s organizations, including the Progressive Union of Moroccan Women, started to open up space to break the silence against all forms of violence. We even opened two support centers in Rabat and Dar Al Bayda to support victims of violence. Since then, these centers have provided support to many women and girls. In these centers, we have lawyers and psychiatrists to provide support to the victims of violence. Our union also opened 12 centers across Morocco.

“We created a hotline to support women victims of violence”

Could you tell us the activities of the union in 2021?

We carried out our activities under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. We also faced an economic crisis in 2021. The pandemic revealed the lack of mechanisms to ensure the protection and guarantee of women's most legitimate rights. Last year, we observed an increase in domestic violence. For this reason, our burden doubled. We created a hotline to support women victims of violence, particularly domestic violence. In 2021, the hotline received 5,000 calls. 

“Psychological violence is the most common violence”

You have worked with women victims of violence. Could you tell us your experiences with them?

Violence against women can have different forms according to societies. There are different forms of violence such as physical, psychological, economic, sexual and even social violence. We can say that psychological violence is the most common form of violence because every woman who is subjected to other forms of violence is also subjected to psychological violence.

“Comprehensive policies are needed”

What measures should be taken to prevent violence?

Laws need to be activated in order to spread the culture of equality in society, to implement all international conventions ratified by Morocco, to improve anti-violence laws and to meet the demands of women's movements. Comprehensive policies are also needed to prevent gender-based violence.

“Laws should be considered thoroughly”

The Union of Women's Action is one of the Moroccan women’s organizations fighting to change the Personal Status Code. What do you think about the current Personal Status Code?

The experience of activating Family Code through field studies carried out by both family courts and aid institutions for 18 years has led to major problems in violation of the principles of equality. In fact, most of the achievements guaranteed by law remain spiritual in essence. Therefore, these achievements have a spiritual quality and they have no effect on the status of women in marriage due to the lack of mechanisms to activate them. In order to solve these problems, the laws should be considered thoroughly.