Reading Morocco

In Morocco Being Unemployed is a Full Time Job

2012-01-27T14:24:00.004-06:00

Here is a piece from NPR( National Public Radio) on the situation of the unemployed in Morocco.
Click on the link to listen to the radio piece that accompanies it if you like.
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In Morocco, Unemployment Can Be A Full-Time Job

by Deborah Amos

January 27, 2012

It is rush hour in Rabat, the Moroccan capital, and time for the march of unemployed college graduates.

They are part of a movement that has become a rite of passage. It's a path to a government career for a lucky few, even though it can take years.

"I have a degree, a master's degree in English, and I'm here ... idle without a job, without dignity, without anything," protester Abdul Rahim Momneh says.

During the Arab uprisings over the past year, political grievances have received much of the attention. But youth unemployment is also a crisis for every Arab government. In Morocco, the jobless rate is more than 30 percent for young people.

Last week, five jobless college graduates set themselves on fire to protest unemployment. One has since been reported dead. Self-immolation has become something of a trend in the region ever since a young Tunisian street vendor set himself alight in December 2010, an event that sparked the uprising there and served as a catalyst for other revolts.

Government employment is hardly a solution for joblessness, say the movement's critics. Morocco's bureaucracy is already bloated and unproductive; the huge government payroll is a financial drain, they argue.

Yet, under pressure from these protests, officials often give in, adding a few more positions. Organizers hand the government a list of the most dedicated activists to choose from.

An Expanding Movement

Every year, even more graduates swell the movement, hoping for the lifetime security and perks that come with a government job.

They gather in a park, dumping their backpacks. Each group has a slogan displayed on colored vests they wear to every march.

Mokhliss Tsouli is with the yellow group. He moved to the capital after earning a master's degree to join the protest full time. He says he protests four or five times a week. He says his yellow vest translates to the word "spark."

This permanent protest movement has become part of the landscape of the capital. It's a movement with strict rules and rewards. Organizers keep a tally. There are points for attendance and extra points for scuffles with the police. The points determine who gets to the top of the list and gets a job, Tsouli says.

"Sometimes there are students who come once a week, and they are not really activists," he says. "So we are updating the list that we will give to the government, to the decision-makers."

The country's new government has vowed to tackle unemployment. It was elected after Morocco's Arab Spring moment last year, when widespread discontent brought tens of thousands to the streets. There was no revolution, but King Mohammed VI responded with a series of limited changes.

Jobs, Not A Revolution

But don't compare that political movement with the aims of these jobless college grads, says Nasreen el Hannch.

"Oh, it's not the same. We are totally different because we are just looking for jobs," she says. "They are looking [to] change Morocco; we are not looking for change, only to find a job. So, we hope."

There's no hope the job crisis will go away without substantial political and economic change. Until then, a little social blackmail means at least some of these students will get work.

The government has already pledged to hire 20,000 more workers, but there are many more protesters, and those left unemployed would have reason to keep up the pressure.

Unemployed Moroccan Men set Themselves on Fire at Rabat Protest

2012-01-21T13:05:00.004-06:00

Here is a short video from the Washington Post of Moroccan men protesting unemployment who then set themselves on fire. How terrible that people have to get to this point to be taken seriously.
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Five Men set selves on Fire during Protest in Morocco

Five unemployed Moroccan men set themselves on fire in the capital Rabat as part of widespread demonstrations over the lack of jobs, especially for university graduates, a rights activist said on Thursday. This video contains graphic content. (Jan. 19) (The Associated Press)

Stanford Professor and Prince of Morocco: Moulay Hicham ben Abdallah

2012-01-17T12:28:00.004-06:00

Here is an article from the Stanford Daily about Moulay Hicham ben Abdallah, the outspoken Moroccan prince who now teaches at Stanford University in the United States.
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Professor, Prince
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
By Natasha Weaser

Prince Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah Al Alaoui, third in line to the Moroccan throne and consulting professor at the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford. (Courtesy of Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah)

Wearing jeans and a plain black sweater, he blended into the crowd of Stanford students and visitors, none of whom knew they were in the presence of a prince.

Being a prince “can be more of a nuisance than anything else. People scrutinize you and have preconceived notions like…does he wear a turban?” he joked.

Ben Abdallah, whose full name is Prince Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah El Alaoui, is third in line to the throne of the Kingdom of Morocco and first cousin to the current King, Mohammed VI. Nicknamed the “Red Prince,” he is well known for favoring democratic reforms in Morocco and the Arab world. He does not, however, appreciate the title, stating in an interview with the French journal Le Debat that it was given to him by the same “information handlers” who nicknamed King Mohammed VI “King of the Poor.”

His unorthodox views in the conservative kingdom led to his expulsion from palace grounds by his cousin, who ascended the throne in 1999 after the death of his father and Ben Abdallah’s uncle, Hassan II.

Morocco’s Al-Alaoui dynasty has been in power for four centuries and traces its lineage back to the Prophet Mohammed. The monarchy does not tolerate criticism.

“The authorities use the restrictive press law and an array of financial and other, more subtle mechanisms to punish critical journalists, particularly those who focus on the king, his family or Islam,” states the Freedom House 2011 Country Report on Morocco.

“The monarchy is a cultural and historical symbol,” Ben Abdallah said. “This is why Moroccans are aware of its crucial role in society and push for reform instead of overthrowing the regime…but there is a deep sense of frustration and impatience.”

His decision to publicly state his controversial views in 1995 was not taken lightly.

“I thought profoundly about who I was and what my country was,” he said. “It was not easy. There were high costs, and one of them was being ostracized and even vilified.”

Nevertheless, Ben Abdallah remains an outspoken political maverick, unwavering in his support for controversial publications and journalists as well as groups like the February 20th Youth Movement.

Raised in the Moroccan capital Rabat’s Royal Palace complex, Ben Abdallah attended the Rabat American School and graduated from Princeton with a bachelor’s degree in politics in 1985. After pursuing several entrepreneurial and humanitarian endeavors, he came to Stanford in 1995 to pursue a master’s degree in political science.

“Deepening my experience and my knowledge one way or another has never been interrupted in my life no matter where I go,” Ben Abdallah said.

In his witty, yet diplomatic, manner, Ben Abdallah compared Stanford and Princeton.

“Princeton is like an orchestra where you cannot play out of note but produce great music,” he said. “Stanford is like one big rock band where everyone is encouraged to make their own sound.”

After leaving the Farm, Ben Abdallah stayed in close contact with Larry Diamond, director of the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL).

In 2007, Ben Abdallah left his home in Princeton, where he had been living since 2002, and returned to Stanford as a CDDRL visiting scholar.

At CDDRL, he has been deeply involved in the Arab Reform and Democracy Program doing research, mentoring students, giving talks and developing the program.

“My goal is to enrich myself and my community as well as foster general understanding of the region,” he said.

Although Ben Abdallah originally intended to stay at CDDRL for two years, he eventually decided to remain longer and is now a consulting professor. This means he regularly commutes back to Princeton, where his wife, Malika, and their two daughters live.

One of Ben Abdallah’s initial research projects at CDDRL was investigating the idea that the Arab world is incompatible with democracy, which he swiftly rejected as a false concept.

“There was an underlying thesis that there was something about Arabs that makes them accept authoritarianism, and I wanted to unbundle it,” he said. “I wanted to say, look, authoritarianism is here, but this is why it’s here. The factors are not cultural.”

The Arab Spring may have surprised the Western world, but not Ben Abdallah.

“I always felt that something was around the corner,” he said. “I knew that the status quo was untenable, and that in a few of these places something would have to give way.”

What surprised him was the movement’s place of origin, Tunisia, which had a strong security apparatus. He also did not envision the movement’s diffusion and transformation into what he called an “awakening.”

Despite the optimism in the movement, he said that the future of the region is uncertain. Setbacks, reversals and failures are all likely to happen as each country faces its own particular demons, he said, but he believes the trend towards democracy is irreversible.

“This is a new generation with new values,” he said. “Fear has receded, and societies will not remain idle.”

He also downplayed fears over the rise of Islamist parties throughout the region and in his native Morocco, where the Justice and Development Party, a moderate Islamist party, recently won parliamentary elections.

“This does not mean we will see the rise of theocracies,” he said. “People are not going to resist secular authoritarianism to fall into religious despotism.”

Although Ben Abdallah has vigorously championed reform in Morocco for the last two decades, he attempts to keep his expectations realistic.

“It took hundreds of years for the West to get things on track,” he said. “It will be a messy and laborious process for Morocco, but we’ll eventually get it right.”

Ben Abdallah’s work at Stanford and in politics is not the end of his pursuits. He also runs his own foundation, the Moulay Hicham Foundation for Social Science Research on North Africa and the Middle East, founded Princeton’s Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia and owns Al-Tayyar Energy, a renewable energy company that processes agricultural waste in Thailand.

“I barely have free time; I am juggling,” he said. “Every time I think I cannot handle more, someone else throws me another ball to juggle.”

Although his professional and family lives are rooted in the United States now, Ben Abdallah still keeps close ties with Morocco and returns often.

“I miss the community feel,” he said. “I miss my nephews and my friends. I miss walking on the streets hearing the call to prayer and smelling the odors of spices, so now and then I need to go back home.”

Moroccan Imams Being Dismissed After Requesting Freedom of Speech

2012-01-11T10:21:00.006-06:00

Here is an article from Deutsche Welle about ongoing protests for freedom of speech by Moroccan religious leaders.
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Moroccan Imams Call for Freedom to Preach

Tight government controls on religious preaching in Morocco has led to a surprising wave of protest among the country’s imams. The resulting dismissals of the leading dissenters has sent shockwaves through the provinces.

It's been raining steadily all morning in Boujniba, a suburb of the phosphate mining town of Khouribga. Children jump over the puddles in the potholed pavements on their way back from school for lunch and the muezzin calls the faithful to the noon prayer of Dhuhr.

Among the men in their long djellebah robes making their way towards the mosque is Mohamed Samir. Until October he was imam of this mosque. Then the government sacked him. The decision caused a great deal of outrage among the local population.

"We cried a lot over him. We cried over his being sacked. We cried because we love him because he is a great person, an important person and he was forbidden to say the truth," said a fruit and vegetable stallholder called Omar, one of the signatories of a petition for the imam's reinstatement.

Learned spiritual leader

After prayers we go to Samir's home. In his front room, books that have overflowed from the shelves are piled on the floor. From in between the titles in swirling Arabic script, the familiar forehead of William Shakespeare beams down as we sit, talk and drink tea. These days Mohamed Samir has too much time to read. And to mull over the sudden way and the reasons why the government put an end to his career as spiritual guide to the people of Boujniba.

"The pretext the ministry gave is that I preached outside of what is permitted," he said. "I spoke about bribery, problems in the administration… corruption."

He had been a preacher since 1990. Then last summer he and some of his colleagues founded the National League of Religious Employees (NLRE) and Samir became its president. The NLRE has two goals, says Samir: To improve imams' living conditions and to win more space for freedom.

Unusual protest

Samir can no longer speak his mind in the mosque. But, in principle at least, he and his fellow members of the League can say what they like in the street. And – an unprecedented sight in Morocco – they have been staging demonstrations. The main ones took place in Ouarzazate, the gateway city to the Sahara Desert where support for the League is strong and in the capital Rabat.

In October, an NLRE demonstration in Rabat was broken up by police. The government, which declined to comment on what it said was such a delicate subject, has, it would seem, been taken by surprise by the emergence of the League.

Mohamed Darif, political science professor at Casablanca's Hassan II University and a specialist in religious affairs, says the imam protest movement is something startling and quite new.

"We had come to believe that the State had succeeded in integrating and domesticating religious civil servants," he told Deutsche Welle, adding that King Mohamed the Sixth, who holds the title of Commander-of-the-Faithful, took the imams' support for granted.

"They have long been part of the State apparatus," he said. "And, through them, the monarchy has always tried to prove its legitimacy."

Tight controls

For a quarter of a century, the imams have been under close State control.

In 1984, not long after the ayatollahs had swept the royal family from power in Iran, Morocco's Hassan II, Mohammed VI's father, ruled that, henceforth, the government would write imams' sermons for them.

Since that date, every week in time for Friday prayers, all the imams in the country receive a sermon. Most read it word for word. Others use it as a guide and inspiration. And not doing so is asking for trouble. Mohamed Darif says a hundred imams have been removed from their positions for straying too far from the government-provided text over the past decade.

For Human Rights Watch's man in Morocco Brahim Elansari this is incompatible with the identity Morocco is now claiming for itself as Africa's first constitutional monarchy. He points out that Moroccans voted this summer in favour of a constitution which has now been passed into law which enshrines freedom of speech.

"But in practice," Elansari told Deutsche Welle, "the Ministry tells the imams what to say each Friday and they don't have the right to say anything else."

Fresh hope

Back at Mohamed Samir's home, the youngest son of the sacked imam brings in mint tea, pastries and Moroccan ‘m'smen' pancakes prepared by one or the other or possibly both of his… two wives. Might we meet them? The request apparently causes a bit of a flutter at the other end of the house with the two ladies apparently debating what level of head cover would be appropriate.

They finally receive us wearing niqabs (the cover that leaves the face visible). Was he, I ask Samir, what he might describe as a conservative? No he said. A conservative wouldn't have introduced me to his wives. And if he were an extremist… a Salafist… he wouldn't just have lost his job. He'd be in jail.

Samir's profile is close in fact to that of the PJD, the Islamist party usually described as moderate that won the general elections just over a month ago and which has just formed a new governing coalition.

The former preacher's main hope now is that the new PJD-led government will be more sympathetic to the League's demands and that he might even get his old job back. He's now working as a guard for the phosphate mining company:

"But that's not the job I was put on Earth to do," he said.

Author: John Laurenson, Morocco
Editor: Rob Turner

Swimming to Europe by Way of Cueta (Sebta), Morocco

2011-12-28T11:26:00.005-06:00

Here is an article from Radio Netherlands Africa about people from Sub-Saharan Africa seeking refuge in Cueta/Sebta as a step towards reaching Europe.

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Swimming Towards the Future
Published on : 27 December 2011 - 2:51pm | By RNW Africa Desk

The refugee camp in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, has been facing severe overcrowding during the last couple of weeks. Again. Africans have found yet another way to get in – by swimming around the border fence. Large numbers of people make the attempt at the same time to reduce the chances of being caught.

By Lex Rietman

Dusk is falling at Ceuta refugee camp. The sun is setting early on this winter day, but there is just enough light to enjoy the view over this fortified Spanish city on Morocco’s northern coast. The town is spread out below us, with the Strait of Gibraltar to the left. On the other side of the water, the last rays of sunshine bathe the rock of Gibraltar in a golden glow. That’s where the prosperity of Europe begins – a corny Hollywood movie couldn’t have done it better.

Crisis or no crisis, Europe still embodies the hopes and dreams of millions of Africans. For the residents of the Temporary Immigrant Housing Centre (CETI) – the official name of this compound on the mountain just outside town – only half the dream has come true. After all, Ceuta is Europe but then again, it isn’t. Across the water, on the Spanish mainland, is where the Schengen area begins. There, you are free to travel, with no internal border controls. But reaching Ceuta is nevertheless a big step towards realizing the dream.

Reinforced border
In recent years, Ceuta has been turned into an almost impregnable fortress. Six years ago, hundreds of Africans managed to force their way into the city from Morocco. The European Union has responded by spending millions of euros on border reinforcement. What is more, for a few years Morocco has been actively cooperating in the fight against illegal immigration. In return, Rabat has negotiated favourable trade conditions with the EU.

All these measures, however, don’t discourage the African refugees. Ibrahim Traore, a 21-year-old Cameroonian, has been in Ceuta for two weeks now. “Around 100 of us jumped into the sea on the Moroccan side – 78 of us made it,” he says. “I was very lucky, because I managed to get here after only three months of waiting in Morocco. On the other side of the border hundreds, maybe thousands of people like me are hiding in the mountains, waiting for a chance. Some have been waiting years.” Anyone unfortunate enough to be caught by the Moroccan police is deported to Mauritania, 3,000 kilometres to the south.

Speed record
“Four months and eleven days.” With astonishing accuracy, 26-year-old Cédric from Chad tells us how long he has been in Ceuta. He must have set some kind of speed record, because he left his village “on 12 March 2011”. Cédric also arrived in the Spanish enclave across the sea, but not by swimming. With six other people, he bought a Zodiac dinghy and they managed to reach the Ceuta coast. When asked whether he is doing alright in the refugee centre, he says: “Yes, I’ve got nothing to complain about, though I do get bored occasionally.”

CETI isn’t a normal refugee centre. The centres on the Spanish mainland are detention centres under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry. The poor facilities and harsh treatment of immigrants regularly prompt sharp criticism by humanitarian organisations.

Sense of dignity
But like Melilla, the other Spanish enclave in Morocco, Ceuta has an open refugee centre. Residents receive an ID card and are free to go wherever they want within the enclave. Director Carlos Bengoetchea stresses the psychological importance of this approach: “It gives them a sense of dignity and of being legally protected,” he says. “Finally they have become a person again, often after years of travelling without documents, at the mercy of corrupt policemen.”

In the centre, refugees can take computer, language and cooking lessons, and it has a small, but much-used gym. The original gym was bigger, but is now being used as a dorm, out of necessity. Today, the centre is home to 700 refugees, 200 more than it was officially built to house.

Relaxed
Even so, there’s a relaxed atmosphere in the compound. “The question is for how long,” says Carlos Bengoetchea. “We’ll have to wait and see what Prime Minister Rajoy’s new right-wing government decides to do with the centre. Judging from his party’s tough stance on immigrants, it doesn’t look good.”

Moroccan Clementine Production up 6% - Export Season Begins

2011-12-24T15:51:00.004-06:00

Here is an article from Freshplaza.com on the beginning of the citrus export season in Morocco. We already have some in our grocery store here in the US.
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Citrus production Morocco increases by 6%

The export season in Morocco has started. The season, which runs from November till the end of June, holds good promise. Sufficient rain fell during the last year (the citrus production is 70% dependent on water from reservoirs and 30% of sub-soil watehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifr) and the quantity of the production has increased by 1200 HA new plantings. According to the ministry of Agriculture the citrus production this year increases by 6% compared to the previous season, a quantity of 1,86 million tons.

The production of oranges is estimated at 975,000 tons, which is 52.3% of the total citrus production. It is expected that 496,000 tons of the variety Moroc Late (44%) and 375,000 tons (35.5%) of the Navel will be produced. The small citrus is also important in the total with a quantity of 764,000 tons, of which 509,000 tons are clementines. The new varieties, such as Nour, Nules and Afourer are estimated at 95,000, 84,000 and 43,000 tons respectively. Souss remains the most important region for the production of citrus fruit. This season a total production of 744,000 tons is expected, which is 40% of the country total. The region Souss is followed by El-Gharb with 336,000 tons, Tadla (272,000 tons), Oriental (269,000 tons), Haouz (140,000 tons) and Loukkos (35,000 tons).

According to Aspam the increase in the supply will result in an 8% increase in export. Nevertheless Morocco only exported 110,000 tons (mainly clementines) up to 1 December against 160,000 tons in the same period last year. This delay does not cause anxiety according to Ahmed Derrab, general secretary of Aspam. Also not when the traditional markets as a result of the crisis ascertain a decrease in demand. Various other contacts have strengthened in the meantime, such as those with North America, which now already obtains 12% of the export, just as the contacts with the new markets in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Lithuania. The Moroccan producers look more and more to Asia, especially China, where the citrus is available in the supermarkets in Shanghai.

The general secretary also mentions that on the traditional market itself there is enough to correct "Markets like Great Britain, Germany and the Benelux have been neglected. This is because they are selling areas where Spain causes problems for us and where we could not interfere because of the lack in the growth of production" Ahmed Derrab says. He also points out that there should be more invested in the Russian market, which bought half of the Moroccan export in 2010/2011.

This season the export is expected to be 1.3 million tons, of which 200,000 tons are clementines. The remaining quantity has already been booked by the local market, where the direct consumption by private citizens is very large and profits good because other products such as apples and bananas are very expensive. Nevertheless professionals complain about the taxes levied by the wholesale market without any reason. Also the condition of the logistics is also a reason to complain. To they add there is a bottleneck between the non-structured markets and the increase of the number of agents. "Contrary to what is believed the large distribution in Morocco does not take more than 15,000 tons in total annually" Ahmed says.

Aspam mentions that demand for the current year is present, but that they hope that this will increase, especially the demand for the variety Moroc Late. The big question is what prices will do. The clementine is expected to be somewhere between 0.49 and 0.81/kg and the orange between 0.25 and 0.57/kg. Morocco expects a citrus production of more than 2.9 million tons in 2020.

Publication date: 12/20/2011
Author: Gerard Lindhout
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com

More Moroccan Women Proposing to Men for Marriage

2011-12-20T17:53:00.003-06:00

Here is an article from Al-Arabiya, on the rising tendency of Moroccan women to express their intentions of marriage directly to Moroccan men.
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More Moroccan Women Propose to Men

Tuesday, 20 December 2011
By Khadija al-Fathi
Al Arabiya Casablanca

In conservative societies, it is always expected of men to take the initiative as far as marriage proposals are concerned and girls who decide to reverse the situation are likely to be criticized for breaking a long-standing tradition. The remarkable rise in the number of women proposing to men in Morocco has shed more light on the phenomenon and drove many to analyze the reasons for its prevalence.

“I proposed to my husband,” Naeema al-Mansouri told Al Arabiya.
Mansouri recounted the time she met the woman that later became her mother-in-law and offered to marry her son.

“We were in a wedding and I met her there. Another woman asked her how her son was and she said he found a job and was looking for a wife. I told her that I can make a good wife for her son and that I am good at cooking and household chores.”

The woman, Mansouri added, told her that she likes her and that she has no problem with her marrying her son, but said he has to decide when he gets to see her.

“I met him and he liked me. He said he would marry me provided that we live with his mother who would feel lonely if we lived away from her. I agreed and now she is like a mother to me.”

Hend, a woman in her thirties, first proposed to her future husband jokingly.
“I told him I am willing to bring a bunch of flowers and ask him to marry me,” she told Al Arabiya.

Hend added that he asked her whether she was serious and she told him that “the man who refuses to divorce his wife when she asks for it is not a man and so is the man who refuses to marry a woman when she asks for it.”

“Of course I am a man,” he replied then went to visit her parents with their family.

Hassan al-Haithami, editor-in-chief of the Justice and Development Party’s website, does not mind marrying a woman who proposes to him as long as she has all the traits he needs in a wife.

“There is nothing wrong with a woman asking a man to marry her. These are feelings and you cannot control them and decide who says what. There is nothing insulting for a woman to do that. In fact, I find it very brave,” he told Al Arabiya.

Rukaia Zayed, a housewife and a mother of four, disagreed to this breach of traditions.

“If a woman proposes to my and he agreed, I will disown him forever,” she told Al Arabiya.

Zayed explained that in this case she will discover what a weak personality her son has and how indifferent he is to the social and family norms in which he was brought up.

For sociologist and university professor Abdul Samad al-Dialmi, the rise in the number of women proposing to men is part of a female campaign to promote the principles of gender equality.

“Moroccan women are proving that they will not surrender to spinsterhood and that she has the right to tell a man if she likes him and wants to marry him because they are equal,” he told Al Arabiya.

Dialmi objected to regarding this action on the part of women as too daring and argued that society has to admit that this is one of women’s rights.
Abdul Razek al-Jay, professor of Sunna at Rabat University and member of the Scientific Circle for Islamic Studies, said that men are usually the ones who propose to women because this is what tradition has always dictated, yet there is nothing wrong with it from the religious point of view.

“Prophet Mohamed’s first wife Khadija was the one who proposed to him, yet this has not been part of the Sunnah because it is not socially common,” he told Al Arabiya.

Jay explained that Islam is the religion of equality and that is why it is the woman’s right to propose to a man if she finds in him the traits she seeks.
“The only problem would be if the woman proposes to the man because of how rich or handsome he is and without paying attention to his morals. She will in this case have fallen into the trap of imitating Mexican and Turkish soap operas that have lately invaded the Arab world,” he concluded.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)

A Global,Quality Education for Moroccans in Morocco?

2011-12-13T20:38:00.006-06:00

Here is an article from the Chronicle of Higher Eduction on a newish educational initiative, the International University of Rabat. The article came out a few months ago, but it seems more interesting than the recent coverage of events in Morocco.
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In Morocco, Visions of a Silicon Valley Campus
By Ursula Lindsey

Rabat, Morocco

Noureddine Mouaddib left Morocco to pursue his university studies in France over 30 years ago. He became a professor of computer science at the University of Nantes and a member of the French national council for higher education and research.

Yet Mr. Mouaddib's thoughts turned often to his native country, where, he says, emigration has remained unavoidable for those who want to pursue higher education. "In the global South, as soon as you graduate from high school, you wonder: Where will I go? Canada, France?" he says. "If you look at world rankings, there isn't a single internationally visible university in Africa, with the exception of South Africa."

Yet even as more and more young people in the region aspire to a good higher education, opportunities such as the ones he enjoyed have shrunk, he says. "Moroccan students and African students from modest backgrounds are no longer able to come to France or Europe to study. ... The door's been closed. With what they ask to get a visa—it's impossible."

It was those realizations that led him, in 2005, to envisage the creation of the first global research university in Morocco.

Mr. Mouaddib undertook a feasibility study and began talking with government officials, colleagues, and members of his country's diaspora about the need to create an internationally oriented, R&D-driven university in Morocco.

This September the International University of Rabat, here in the capital city, is set to welcome its first 200 students.

"Rather than young people traveling toward knowledge"—and finding their path littered with obstacles—Mr. Mouaddib says, "we'll move knowledge toward them."

The university is a public-private partnership. Mohammed VI, the Moroccan king, donated the 20 hectares—about 50 acres—in a new technology park on the outskirts of the city. Classes, which this fall are being held in temporary offices, will move there next year, and the campus should be completed by 2015. The university plans to have 280 faculty members and 5,000 students by 2020.

Two pension funds, one French-run, the other operated by the Moroccan government, are the two main investors, contributing over a third of the university's planned five-year budget of 1.12 billion Moroccan dirhams (about $130-million).
Moroccan Context

The curriculum has been conceived to complement government development plans and with emerging sectors in the Moroccan economy in mind.

The country is in a construction boom. In recent years, Moroccan authorities have begun major infrastructure developments focused on transportation, tourism and affordable housing. The government is also committed to developing local sources of alternative energy; plans are to have about 40 percent of the country's energy be wind- and solar-generated by 2020.

The new university has responded accordingly. "Many students can't find the degrees they want in Morocco," Mr. Mouaddib acknowledges. "We are focusing on disciplines that are new and that respond to national development needs."

In addition to business, political science, and information technology, Rabat will offer programs in renewable energy; railway, naval, automobile, and aerospace engineering (several airplane manufacturers have set up facilities in Morocco recently); and architecture and design.

Fifteen faculty members are in place for this fall, and the university plans to hire 20 more for next year, and to continue increasing the faculty ranks year by year.

The number of university students in Morocco has risen steadily over the past decade, to more than 300,000 today, and is projected to as much as double by 2015. Yet public universities here remain largely focused on humanities and social-science degrees that, critics say, give graduates no marketable skills. Morocco has only nine engineers per 10,000 people (compared with 40 in Jordan and 130 in France). The government has not yet met its goal of devoting 1 percent of gross domestic product to research and development.

Mr. Mouaddib says his standing in the academic community and decades-old network of contacts helped him get his project going quickly.

The university's faculty has been largely drawn from the Moroccan and North African diaspora. It was "something personal I wanted to do," says Mokhtar Ghambou, a professor of literature at Yale University, of his decision to help shape the Moroccan university's core humanities component. "At a certain point you feel nostalgia. You start to wonder, What can I do for my native country? To think about what you can contribute."

Many of the scholarly recruits have helped structure partnerships between Rabat and their own colleges, and have brought corporate research sponsors to the new university. Mr. Ghambou himself hopes to divide his time between Yale and Rabat.
International Orientation

In the new university's name, "the word 'international' is not rhetorical," says Mr. Ghambou. "This is a unique project. People are joining from all over the world."

Marcia C. Inhorn, a professor of anthropology and international affairs and chair of the Council of Middle East Studies at Yale, visited Rabat last year in a delegation led by Mr. Ghambou.

As part of its mission to promote understanding of the contemporary Middle East, she says via e-mail, the council is looking to collaborate with "promising partner institutions" in the Middle East and North Africa. Yale hopes to engage in student and faculty exchanges with the university in Rabat, she adds.

"Moroccan-American relations are being strengthened as well, and [the Council of Middle East Studies] wants to be a part of this hopeful moment," she writes. "Yale is currently in a major process of internationalization/globalization, and the Middle East is near the top of its lists of priority areas."

Most of Rabat's partnerships are with major French universities—not surprising, given Morocco's historic links to France. The goal is to "combine the French and U.S. systems, pick the good things from both," says Mohammed Cherkaoui, a professor of mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, who will lead the Moroccan university's engineering department.

Rabat hopes to offer dual degrees with many of its foreign academic partners. Students will be required to spend two semesters abroad, and instruction is to be in both French and English.

The new university's other defining characteristic is a focus on applied research.

Morocco's ministry of energy will finance a five-million-euro (about $6.5-million) project to increase the efficiency of solar cells, says Mr. Cherkaoui, who adds that the university will make research on renewable energy "part of its identity." Rabat's corporate research partners include the engineering giant Siemens AG, the media company Vivendi, and the aerospace company Thales Group.

Alongside government and corporate-backed research and development, says Mr. Mouaddib, the university will focus on "niche" research.

"We won't produce super-high-tech products," he explains. "We'll work on products that meet the needs of the local, of the African, market. In other words, inexpensive innovations."

The engineering department has already patented three alternative-energy devices. Designed to produce power for domestic use, they are a wind turbine that will function even with very weak breezes; a light panel that shuts off automatically when it detects other sources of light; and a solar-powered water heater.

There is demand for such devices in Morocco and other African countries, where many rural areas remain off the electrical grid, says Mr. Cherkaoui. In fact, Rabat is already negotiating their commercial mass production.
Regional Ambition

The university hopes that at least 20 percent of its student body will come from sub-Saharan Africa. And it wants to offer opportunities to deserving student of limited means. It will give academic scholarships, covering the approximately $7,500 yearly tuition, to a fifth of its students, as well as help them get bank loans to cover living expenses.

Dina El Khawaga, the Ford Foundation's program officer for higher education in the Middle East and North Africa, says the university has the potential to create a "more human and more egalitarian face to the internationalization of education in Africa."

But even South African universities—by far the best in the continent—haven't had an easy time attracting students from other African countries, she notes. Rabat's administrators will have to address a number of questions: "Will they offer remedial classes? Who says Morocco will facilitate visas for students? Will scholarships be available to non-Moroccan students? What kind of institutional partnerships will allow them to reach this 20 percent [target of sub-Saharan African students]? When you are in a Dar el-Salam high school [in Senegal], what will encourage you to get up and go to Morocco?"

"Theres a whole strategy that needs to be put into place," says Ms. El Khawaga, sounding a cautious but still optimistic note."I'm really dreaming that this will be a nice initiative by a non-oil country to make a research hub in the next decade. But we have to be patient. Our expectations have to be low."

Mr. Mouaddib's vision is nothing if not ambitious. He envisages his new university as a catalyst for national and regional development and innovation, the center of a North African Silicon Valley. "Morocco can be a regional leader." he says, "given its potential, its position, its stability."

Moroccan Elections are not the "model" for Arab Spring as the West Claims

2011-11-28T17:29:00.003-06:00

Here is an opinion piece from the CSM offering some insight on Morocco's elections.
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Morocco elections aren't a model for the Arab Spring as West claims

Contrary to the West's view, Morocco's parliamentary elections this weekend didn't signal a bold step toward democracy. They showed just how far the country has to go to achieve real reforms – and how much more power the king must give up.

By Ellen Lust / November 28, 2011

Rabat, Morocco

As the world turned its attention to the massive and sustained demonstrations in Egypt last week, much smaller but nevertheless significant protests took place in Morocco leading up to Friday’s parliamentary elections. As the country prepared for the first elections since King Mohammed VI implemented reforms last summer to give that body more power, thousands of Moroccans took to the streets in Casablanca, Rabat, and Tangier, calling for regime change.

The demonstrations highlight the wide gap between the West’s vision of Morocco as a leading example of how to transition into democracy, and the average Moroccan’s view of a regime reluctant to release power.

The West has been veritably giddy about King Mohammed VI’s “progressive” democratic reforms – implemented to head off Arab Spring turmoil and appease protesters. American Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton heralded the constitutional reforms that paved the way for this Friday’s elections as an “important step toward democratic reform” by a “longstanding friend, partner, and ally of the United States.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy, too, commended the king for embarking on a “path to democracy."

Yet viewed from within, the constitutional reforms passed in July look very different. Under the new constitution, the king loses his “sacred status” and appoints a prime minister from the majority party in parliament. But the king has not loosened his grip on ultimate power, maintaining control over the religious establishment, the military, and all security matters. He can also implement “emergency law” and maintains veto power over all minister appointments. All laws must still be confirmed by the king.

Independent voices from the opposition were not involved in the reform process this summer. The ultimate demands of the February 20 Movement for Change movement were not met. Rather, the king relied on the political parties that have historically supported his monarchy to pass the initial reform.

Indeed, the 98.5 percent approval rate in the July 1 constitutional referendum highlighted how little had changed. If anything, the extraordinary rate reflected the authoritarian rule of the king’s father, Hassan II, more than the democratic reform of the “progressive” king.

Still, Friday’s elections showed signs of progress. Voter turnout was up from 37 percent in the last elections to 45 percent. And the moderate Islamist PJD (Justice and Development Party) – the former opposition party – earned unprecedented success, coming out on top with 107 of the parliament’s 395 seats. These developments suggest real reform may be possible. But there is a long way to go.

Parties played old political games. A pre-electoral alliance of eight ideologically diverse parties, from Islamists to conservatives, is better understood as a vehicle for political ambition than of ideologically driven, vibrant political parties. The counter-alliance prompted many to see the parties as dividing spoils before elections, with little regard for the voters. They were engaged primarily in a quest to be close to the center of power, not a struggle for change.

Citizens were largely disengaged. When the campaign season opened Nov. 12 there was little sign of the upcoming polls. Earlier this month, as I walked Rabat’s brightly decorated streets, crowded with people celebrating the end of Eid, only headlines unveiling party platforms and political intrigues hinted at impending elections.

Campaigns did gather some momentum as the election approached, but not because people believed they would change Morocco’s political future. Rather, many hoped to take advantage of the electoral season to draw candidates’ attention (and resources) to local problems. Others hoped to benefit more directly – and often financially – from mobilizing the “electoral market.”

Few believe the new parliament will solve the many problems plaguing nearly 35 million Moroccans, where 1 in 3 young, urban males are unemployed and poverty is widespread.

A large part of the struggle over Morocco’s democratic future is not taking place within the elections, but outside them. A broad-ranging opposition coalition, from small leftist parties to the Feb. 20 movement, which arose at the beginning of regional Arab uprisings, and the popular, outlawed Islamist Al Adl Wa Al Ihssane group, called for a boycott. They hoped to use elections to call for real change.

And although voter turnout remained strong, their movement had an effect.

Campaign pamphlets and speeches frontlined calls for dignity, social justice, and fighting corruption, all brought to the fore in last spring’s demonstrations. Demonstrators, while small in number, made surprisingly strident calls for a change in regime, often drawing greater attention than the election rallies.

Perhaps most important, the parties reminded observers that the changes that followed last spring appeared more dramatic to the King’s Western allies than they did to most Moroccans.

Morocco’s problems remain unsolved, fueling widespread discontent and continued demand for reform. In the new Arab world, sluggish, half-hearted reforms of the last two decades no longer appease the people, in Morocco or elsewhere. Friday’s elections, and a parliament led by the moderate Islamist PJD party, may be a step forward in democratic reform. But, to make this hope a reality, the king still needs to take significant steps toward relinquishing power.

Ellen Lust is an associate professor of political science at Yale University specializing in Middle East politics.

هل ستضعف الانتخابات في المغرب الاحتجاجات الشعبية؟ Will Moroccan Elections Subdue Popular Protests?

2011-11-23T12:44:00.006-06:00

Here is an article from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website about the upcoming elections. The article is also available in Arabic.
There is also an recent call by Human Rights Watch asking Moroccan authorities to stop harassing people calling for boycott of the elections. That can be accessed here.
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Will Morocco’s Elections Subdue Popular Protests?
November 22, 2011 Maati Monjib

Morocco’s legislative elections on Friday will be met with an apathetic electorate—signaled by the reduced number of registered voters: despite population growth and a change in the voting age from 21 to 18, the number of registered voters has dropped by over two million to 13 million since 2003. The constitutional amendments announced in June do not alter the balance of power between parliament and the king, nor do they reform the electoral law that limits the ability of large national parties to win a majority of seats. For once, however, the identity of the party that will emerge victorious from the elections has become of interest to the public , as the outcome of the elections will influence the future of the popular movements pushing for change outside the institutional context.

Morocco’s February 20 popular demonstrations created a new political reality by bringing together hundreds of thousands of citizens: for the first time since the ascension of Mohammed VI to the throne, the country situated itself with the two principals face to face with one another: the street and the palace. Organized by a Facebook-based network of Moroccan youth that formed after the fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia, this pro-democracy movement demanded an end to corruption and autocracy, the dissolution of the government’s “elected” institutions, fair elections unsupervised by the Interior Ministry, and the establishment of a parliamentary monarchy in which the king reigns, but does not rule. Demonstrators did not criticize the king himself except in isolated cases—a decision intended to guard against violent police reactions and keep from alienating supporters of a constitutional monarchy. Instead, the king’s closest counselors, like Fouad El Himma (his most influential advisor) and Mounir Majidi (who is called “the Rami Makhlouf” of Morocco) were the primary targets of the street’s anger.
In his first response to the protests on March 9, the king promised demonstrators far-reaching constitutional reform that gave executive powers to the prime minister, who would be officially given the title “the head of government”; judicial reform and greater public freedoms were also pledged. The February 20th Movement has since perceived these assurances as an attempt to stall for time, claiming they still fall short of the street’s demands.

The new constitution—which was carefully drafted at every stage by the king and his closest aides—is vaguer than the previous one, especially regarding the distribution of power between the king and the government. If interpreted in isolation, some articles give the impression that Morocco is on the verge of becoming a genuinely constitutional monarchy in which the executive branch rules and parliament legislates. This possible interpretation makes the November 25 elections politically significant: the constitution requires that the king choose a member of the winning party as “head of government”—consequently, who the victorious party will be is now of greater interest than in previous elections.

With that, however, so as to ensure a preferable outcome the palace has pushed the loyalist “administrative parties” (those established or sponsored by the Interior Ministry—e.g., the Authenticity and Modernity party, known as PAM; the RNI, a liberal party; and the Popular Movement) to form an electoral alliance with smaller organizations: a confederation called “G-8,” after the global economic organization. Among other things, this royalist alliance aims to outmaneuver the Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD), as it rides the coattails of Ennahda’s victory in Tunisia. And although the PJD is more conservative than Ennahda (and thus, less likely to secure secularist votes), it aims to garner around 70 of parliament’s 395 seats—emerging from the elections as the majority party.

But the regime has not shown any sign that the elections, which are framed by the new constitution, will truly be different from those prior. The outlined electoral system does not introduce any fundamental changes to the 2002 law and consequently still relies on districting that undermines national political parties in favor of local powerbrokers, who have no qualms about buying votes en masse. They also enjoy the protection of the state and palace because their demands are specifically local or sectoral, rather than political, in nature. Furthermore, the Interior Ministry is still in charge of organizing these elections, despite its atrocious track record of tampering with results. It was even allowed to set the conditions guiding electoral advertising in official media outlets—a task that should have been given to the High Authority for Audio-Visual Communication (HACA), which has the experience and resources to undertake this role and had been declared an “autonomous institution” under the new constitution. Rather the Interior Ministry took the opportunity to ban any calls for boycott of the elections even though several political parties—such as the United Socialist party (PSU) and the Democratic Socialist Vanguard Party (PADS) as well as many supporters of the February 20th Movement—will boycott the election.

Further, local observers have drawn attention to the fact that a number of candidates who the security agencies consider to be regime opponents have been banned from the race; Judge Jaafar Hassoun, former head of the Marrakesh administrative tribunal, is the most prominent example. Local authorities rejected Hassoun’s nomination on the PJD slate in his hometown on the basis that he had been fired from the judiciary less than a year earlier. However, in the summer 2010, Hassoun was also prevented from running in a judicial election on the grounds that he had been removed from his position. The justifications are, of course, contradictory, and the real reason behind the ban is that Hassoun has demonstrated a rare independent streak that has led the Ministry of Justice to swiftly remove him from his post on unsubstantiated corruption charges and without compensation.

Because of these limitations, the largest groups within the February 20th Movement announced they will boycott the elections. They organized nationwide demonstrations on Sunday and demanded an “end to corruption and autocracy,” reasserting that the official reforms announced do not in any way change the nature of the “absolute monarchy.” They emphasized that the proposals were intended to buy time and undermine the momentum of the pro-democracy youth movement, and there is already some discussion on how to prepare for a “million-man march” on the first anniversary of the protest: February 20, 2012.

As Sunday’s events demonstrate, street politics are likely to continue, and these groups are still able to organize protests in a number of different cities. But the outcome of the elections will affect the movement’s spread. The worst case scenario would be for the PJD to come out as victorious, with one of its leaders named head of the government, as such an outcome would restore credibility to the king’s reforms and the PJD would be unable to push for any core reforms once within the system. A PJD-led government would also have sway with the street, which could curb the popular momentum that the youth movement still enjoys. It is the only party which has stated that it will actually rule if it wins the voters’ trust, and that it will not simply follow the orders given by the king’s advisors or influential security officials. This relatively hard line on the monarchy’s control over decision-making is what pushed some secular activists and supporters of the February 20th Movement, such as the well-known businessman Karim Tazi, to announce they will vote for the PJD.

In contrast, the triumph of the G-8 coalition and the appointment of one of its leaders as prime minister would be the best opportunity the regime could give to those demanding further reform: it would demonstrate more clearly the limits of the proposed constitution—and remobilize the Moroccan street.

Maati Monjib is a political analyst and historian at University of Mohammed V-Rabat. He is the editor of Islamists versus Secularists in Morocco: Amsterdam, IKV, 2009.

This article was translated from Arabic.

Thousands in Rabat Call for Boycott of Upcoming Elections

2011-11-20T12:45:00.003-06:00

Here is an short piece from the AP on the continued calls for election boycotts in Morocco.
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Thousands call for Morocco election boycott

(AP) – 46 minutes ago

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Thousands of Moroccans from the pro-democracy movement braved pouring rain and high winds in the capital to make a final call to boycott upcoming elections.

At least 3,000 people marched through downtown Rabat on Sunday, chanting slogans against the elections. It was the largest of these weekly demonstrations by activists in months.

Early elections are being held Friday in the North African kingdom as part of government reform efforts responding to pro-democracy demonstrations earlier this year.

Protesters, however, maintain that the political system is corrupt and elections are pointless when the king and his court hold the real power. Past parliamentary elections in Morocco were marred by low turnouts.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Boarding School in Ain Leuh Provides Education to Girls in Rural Morocco

2011-11-08T20:39:00.003-06:00

Here is the article from the AFP about a school in the mountains near Ifrane providing educational opportunities to needy girls from rural areas.
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Mountain boarding school gives hope to Moroccan girls

By Omar Brouksy (AFP) – 21 hours ago

AIN LEUH, Morocco — In the heart of the snowbound Atlas mountains in central Morocco, a boarding school takes in young girls from isolated villages in a bid to fight poverty and illiteracy.

There are more than 300 such schools in Morocco, with another 30 planned for construction next year. They are now both home and class to almost 16,700 girls, who are often living far from their families. More than 70 percent of them come from a rural background, according to official figures.

"The criteria for admission to the dormitory? They are simple and clear: poverty and remoteness. A committee studies requests and the girls are swiftly selected on the basis of these two criteria," said Souad Arkani, the headmistress of the establishment in the village of Ain Leuh.

The dormitory has taken in 35 young women, just a little way from the school they attend each day.

Despite landmark changes in the family code known as Mudawana, pushed through by King Mohammed VI in 2004 against tough opposition from religious conservatives, many women are still second-class citizens in the north African country. In conservative rural zones, only one out of every two girls finishes middle school and only two out of every 10 goes to high school.

The king promoted the boarding schools -- for both boys and girls -- soon after he took power, in 1999.

"My parents live a few dozen kilometres from here. But thanks to this home, I'm doing my studies in good conditions because I'm looked after and the school is just nearby," Khadija, 19, told AFP.

"They are taken in hand, with a precise programme from morning to evening: breakfast, going to the nearby school, lunch at 12:30 pm, studies and, finally, lights out at 10:00 pm," Arkani said.

The boarding school is financed and jointly run by the ministry of social development and a local non-governmental organisation, the Islamic Association of Charity (AIB).

Ain Leuh is located in the province of Ifrane, 300 kilometres (185 miles) east of the capital Rabat, at the heart of mountains covered with cedar trees where it often snows in winter.

"From November, it begins to get very cold because the region is mountainous. The girls stay in the home all week, but they can spend the weekend with their relatives or close family," Arkani said.

To see her parents, Khadija must first take a "big taxi" (a collective taxi) for several dozen kilometres. Then she needs to walk down a track for at least an hour to get home.

When he encouraged these boarding schools, the king stated that he wanted to make up for the lack of infrastructure in rural regions, but according to some of the staff at Ain Leuh, inaugurated by Mohammed VI in 2003, the means are limited and help from any quarter is welcome.

"Local communities, the ministry (of social development) and our association participate in the finance, but we have to struggle to balance our budget," said Mohamed Bouyamlal, vice-president of the AIB.

"We have to make choices which are sometimes difficult and choose the strict minimum, which is to say food," he added.

The headmistress only earns 1,200 dirhams a month (106 euros / 148 dollars), which is less than the national minimum wage of about 125 euros.

But in spite of the difficulties, the results are promising. The schools say their success rate in graduating girls runs between 80 and 100 percent, and more than half the boarders end up following university studies.

Overall, the rate of illiteracy among rural women has dropped from 64 percent in 2006 to 40 percent in 2011, according to official figures.

And the rate at which girls drop out of school in rural areas has fallen from 14 percent in 2006 to 10 percent in 2010, thanks to this programme. School is by law compulsory in Morocco until the age of 15.

Apart from the studies, Ain Leuh offers otherwise isolated girls a new social network, to exchange views and open their minds.

"When I arrived from my distant home in the country, I was very shy," said Souad, one of the students. "The home has broadened my horizons and I have realised I can be autonomous and independent."

"I have ambitions and I see my future differently," she added proudly. "I want to be a mathematics teacher."

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

Morocco Needs a New Social Contract to Promote Stability

2011-11-02T21:03:00.004-05:00

Here is an article from The Nation on the need for a social contract in Morocco that addresses problems in a way that can support sustainable social peace.
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Morocco needs a new social contract to promote stability

Lahcen Achy
Nov 3, 2011

The social package implemented by the Moroccan government in the first few months of the year has cast a shadow over the preparation of next year's budget. The budget deficit is expected to be around 6 per cent of GDP by the end of the current fiscal year, a level unprecedented in the last decade.

The Moroccan government - in an attempt to preserve social peace and avoid any escalation in the protest movement sparked by the Arab Spring - increased civil servants' wages by about $70 (Dh260) a month, announced plans to hire more than 4,000 unemployed college graduates and doubled subsidies to preserve the price stability of fuel and basic consumer goods whose prices have risen considerably on the world market.

The worsening of the budget deficit in Morocco comes at a time of scarce liquidity in local banks and public dissatisfaction with the privatisation process, which has played a key role in the country's economy over the last few years by allowing the sale of public assets to keep pace with high public spending. The high interest rates on loans in international financial markets, due to the sovereign debt crisis and the repercussions of the Arab Spring, have seriously reduced the government's margin for manoeuvre.

The postponement of the budget law's approval ahead of critical legislative elections scheduled for the end of November reveals Morocco's vulnerability to structural imbalances. The country needs frank and transparent dialogue among the various stakeholders to come up with a social contract that ensures stability and balances current social demands and future economic growth goals. This requires an ambitious, yet realistic development strategy whose implementation may take years.

Policymakers need to focus on three structural distortions. First, Morocco suffers from a large trade deficit: it imports almost twice as much as it exports. This situation reflects the inability of Moroccan producers to compete globally and the inefficiency of economic policies that have failed to develop the local industrial sector and bolster its potential to compete in foreign markets. Morocco has grown accustomed to covering its increasing trade deficit with income from the tourism industry and remittances from emigrants, but these will both pose a challenge for the Moroccan economy over the coming years.

Despite their high resilience during the past decade, the long-term sustainability of remittances should not be taken for granted. New waves of emigrants are critical to support the continued growth of remittances. But policy barriers to Moroccans' traditional destinations have been increasing. The inability, so far, of the European Union's member states to develop a common migration policy has seriously impeded legal migration flows to Europe.

The ageing of former emigrants and the migration of entire families tend to cause a decline in remittances. New generations, born abroad, continue to remit, but less so than their parents' generation. Most of them have acquired the citizenship of their host countries and have different consumption and remitting habits.

More educated emigrants also tend to remit less and instead use their savings to invest in real estate in their country of residence.

And in the current climate, Europe's slow economic growth, high unemployment and austerity measures to reduce public deficits are likely to affect remittances negatively.

Morocco faces a second structural distortion because it will not be able to build a strong and competitive economy without a skilled and well-trained labour force. The government needs to allocate more human and financial resources to its adult literacy strategy to increase its efficiency and extend its coverage. Policymakers need to remove barriers to participation in literacy programmes and adapt their content and time schedules to fit the needs and desires of recipients.

The third structural weakness is that despite Morocco's efforts over the past decade, poverty rates have remained persistently high, particularly in rural zones, and inequality has been on an upwards trend. The poorest 10 per cent of the population accounts for 2.7 per cent of total consumption. At the other extreme, the richest 10 per cent makes up one-third of total consumption.

Consumption and income inequality are only part of the story, as inequality of ownership is even worse. Data on the distribution of agricultural land indicate that 5 per cent of farmers own one-third of all land.

Policymakers need to reinforce public redistribution policies to reduce inequality among individuals and territories. They should fight tax evasion, implement a more progressive taxation system and increase taxes on property and wealth. They also need to cancel full tax exemptions that benefit the entire agricultural sector, regardless of the size of a particular business and the income it generates. This exemption, which has been in force since the mid-1980s, is socially unfair and economically inefficient.

The next government, which will enjoy greater powers under the new constitution, should establish its priorities to ensure a balance between immediate popular demands and the requirements for economic growth based on human capital and the stimulation of investment, and to establish an equitable tax system to ensure a sustainable social peace.

Lahcen Achy is a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut

Thousands Protest in Morocco Calling for Election Boycotts

2011-10-23T21:10:00.002-05:00

Here is an article from Reuters with information on the protests that took place today in Rabat and other places in Morocco.
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Moroccans protest polls, violence in the capital
Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:38pm GMT

* Thousands call for boycott of Nov 25 polls

* Police beat, kick protesters in in Rabat

* King Mohammed promised fair and transparent polls

By Souhail Karam

RABAT, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Thousands of Moroccans demonstrated in cities across the country on Sunday, calling for a boycott of early parliamentary polls next month whose outcome will be key to the future of reforms crafted by the royal palace.

The protests are the latest in a series of regular peaceful demonstrations by the youth-led opposition February 20 Movement, inspired by uprisings that ousted leaders in Tunisia and Egypt to demand a parliamentary monarchy and punishment for officials accused of graft.

In the capital Rabat, a Reuters reporter saw dozens of riot police with truncheons beating and kicking protesters who had gathered in front of the parliament building at the end of a march by around 3,000 people.

A local elected official in the country's biggest city, Casablanca, said about 8,000 people took part in a similar protest there. Several thousand took part in protests in other cities including Fes and Tangier.

"These nationwide protests were held around the common theme of calling for a boycott of November 25 parliamentary polls," said Omar Radi, an activist from February 20 Movement's local committee in Rabat.

"It is obvious that the polls will bring to power the same figures who have for years been plundering the wealth of the country and holding hostage the future of the Moroccan population," he added.

King Mohammed has promised in recent speeches that the elections will be fair and transparent. The main opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD) has decried laws recently passed for the polls as doing too little to prevent vote-buying.

Under reforms approved in a July referendum, King Mohammed will hand over some powers to elected officials but will retain a decisive say over strategic decisions. The new government will draft laws enshrining a new constitution.

In March the 48-year-old monarch, reacting swiftly to protests inspired by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, promised to reduce his powers through changes in the constitution. The parliamentary poll was brought forward from September 2012.

But protesters in Rabat, joined for the first time this week by hundreds of jobless graduates, chanted "The elections are a charade, you will not fool us this time."

"Money and power must be separated," read a placard carried by the protesters, while many brandished pictures of the body of Muammar Gaddafi, the slain deposed leader of Libya, with the caption: "This is what happens to despots."

The charter drawn up by the king won near-unanimous support in a July referendum that critics said was itself far too hasty to allow proper debate.

Parliamentary elections have been held in Morocco for almost 50 years in what was widely perceived as window-dressing for the kingdom's Western allies. The king and a secretive court elite named the government and set key policies.

Their grip on power was helped by high illiteracy rates, an ingrained deference to a dynasty that claims descent from the Prophet Mohammad, and control over the media.

The interior ministry has used a mixture of repression and divide-and-rule tactics to tame political dissent. This has led many Moroccans to lose interest in politics: turnout at the last parliamentary polls was officially 37 percent. (Editing by Tim Pearce)

© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved

Morocco's Rejection of Irish Pototoes

2011-10-21T15:15:00.003-05:00

Everything has gone global, even our potatoes. Here is an article from the BBC on the rejection of a shipment of Irish potatoes by Moroccan authorities and the problems it caused for farmers in Northern Ireland.
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18 October 2011 Last updated at 13:53 ET

Committee grilled on 'embarrassing' potato rejection

The Department of Agriculture has been answering questions as to why a shipment of Northern Ireland potatoes was rejected by Morocco.

It is estimated the refusal to admit the seed potatoes could have cost local farmers over £500,000.

The 1,200 tonne shipment from Warrenpoint in January 2010 was rejected because of skin blemishes.

The chairman of the agriculture committee called the entire episode "embarrassing".

The committee discussed the matter at the assembly on Tuesday.

With annual shipments of up to 7,000 tonnes, Morocco is a valuable market for Northern Ireland seed potatoes.

Department of Agriculture officials inspected the potatoes before they left Northern Ireland, but the Moroccan authorities said too many of the potatoes had a skin blemish called silver scurf.

But spokesman Alan McCartney said the Department of Agriculture inspectors did their job properly by declaring the cargo fit for export.

"Our senior inspector, who was in Morocco the following week, inspected the consignment of potatoes and found them all largely to be within tolerance and that was despite the time lag there had been from the last inspection over in Warrenpoint dock," he said.

But the chairman of the agriculture committee, Paul Frew, said it had caused considerable damage to Northern Ireland's reputation.

"We cannot even put a figure on the damage it has done with regards to relationships, with regards to our credibility throughout the world," he said.

"At a time when the agriculture minister is trying to promote agri-foods , trying to push exports in this country, we have this embarrassment hanging over our heads."

The Department of Agriculture has rejected the committee's calls for the farmers to be compensated. It said there is no scheme for doing so.

The committee will now take the issue up with the Agriculture Minister, Michelle O'Neill.

Moroccan Cab Driver In the U.S. is a Dispenser of Wisdom

2011-10-15T20:19:00.003-05:00

Here is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle about Si Sulayman Cherif, a Maghrebi who drives a cab in the Bay Area. Its quite humorous.
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Cab driver has learned volumes about human nature

Edward Guthmann, Special to The Chronicle
Monday, October 10, 2011

Sulaymaan Cherif looks at the guest book he keeps in his cab. Cherif says he enjoys dispensing advice. "There is no difference between me and Dr. Phil," he says.
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Cab driving is his trade, but the way Sulaymaan Cherif approaches his work, he's also a life coach and dispenser of wisdom.

Cherif, 43, emigrated from Morocco in 1996. Divorced, he lives alone in a Richmond District apartment where he served Moroccan mint tea and bread while discussing his job and his life.

I recommend everybody to drive a cab because it's very fun job. You have so many experience. You learn from people, and what you learn from people you teach other people. It's like a circle.

I have a guest book in my cab. When I have a good conversation with somebody, and they're nice and say they like me, they start writing in my book.

You advise people, people advise you. Somebody gets in your cab, they cry. Having a problem with their parents, their boyfriend, their husband. You have a communication. You are like in the doctor office.

A woman ask me, "What can I do? I am spending 10 years with my boyfriend. And right now he want to leave me because he doesn't like to get married with me." I tell her, "If he doesn't like to get married today, I don't think he's going to marry you five years after."

I tell her, "There is no difference between me and Dr. Phil. Only difference, Dr. Phil has a studio and camera."

I'm from Casablanca. It's my city, where I born. I have three older brothers and two sisters. I am the baby of the family. My dad got married when he was very old. He died at 105, in 1984. He lived through six kings in Morocco.

I moved to United States in 1996 and lived two years in Fresno. I moved to San Francisco in 1998. To be cabdriver, you took a class for one week and they give you a certificate. You learn, like, the names of the hotels, the locations of the hotels. Museums, hospitals, cross streets.

When you get a certificate, back then, you take a written test at Hall of Justice to get a license to drive a taxi in San Francisco. When you pass that test, you are recognized from the city as a cabdriver.

In the beginning, driving a cab was hard. The good part is, most San Francisco people are very helpful. They tell you which way to go, shortcuts. They don't scream on you. They say, "It's OK, you will learn." Back then, there is no GPS.

I work for Luxor Cab. I share a cab with my friend; we have a lease. We trade shifts and when you finish your shift, you have to put the gas. You return your waybill to the company, and if there's any problem with a customer, you have to report it.

Once I pick up a guy with his girlfriend and he's drunk. His girlfriend is telling him how he treating his mom kind of badly. "Your mom, she's nice to you." I take them to Leavenworth and Filbert.

One week later I pick him up. He get in my cab alone; now he is not drunk. I say, "Leavenworth and Filbert?" "How do you know?" I tell him, "You have an Asian girlfriend?" He say, "What! You know everything about me?"

I tell him, "Last week you were drunk and I pick you up from 16th and Valencia. You have a very nice girl. You have to take care of her. And more than that, you have to be more nice to your mom!"

The fare was $12, and he gave me $20. He say, "You give me a good advice. Thank you very much."

Imams in Morocco Protest Government Controls Over Their Preaching

2011-10-10T20:03:00.003-05:00

Here is an article from the Washington Post on a recent protest by imams in Morocco to have the freedom from government control over their sermons (khutab). It seems as if changes in Morocco continue to unfold. Slow and steady wins the race.
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Moroccans mosque imams protest tight government controls on preaching

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, October 10, 8:50 AM

RABAT, Morocco — Dozens of preachers from mosques across Morocco protested Monday in the capital over tight controls on their preaching, the first time such a demonstration has been allowed to go forward.

The small protest was significant because Morocco keeps a very close watch on the nation’s mosques to guard against extremist thought like that of al-Qaida.

Imams are given prepared sermons to read during weekly Friday prayers and are not permitted to deviate from the text.

Police attempted to disperse the protest in front of the parliament, tussling with the imams and briefly detaining three of them. The protest of around 50 imams dressed in traditional long robes and skull caps was eventually allowed to proceed away from the parliament on Rabat’s main boulevard.

“The imams of the mosques demand freedom, dignity, justice and their full rights,” said one of the banners held by the protesters.

Protests by imams are unprecedented in this North African kingdom, where King Mohammed VI is the final arbiter on all matters of religion in the country.

Imams attempted to protest in June and were quickly attacked and dispersed by police, shocking many in this country of 32 million.

“We want liberty and dignity,” said Ait Lashgar Hussein, a preacher for the last 28 years in the city of Marrakech. “I am just demanding my rights.”

Many of the imams say they have been threatened and intimidated by police since the June attempted demonstration.

The imams said their demands included higher salaries, permission to give their own sermons and to be consulted on matters of religion and law.

The king’s preeminent role in religious affairs is enshrined in the new constitution and is seen as a bulwark against the extremist thought found elsewhere in North Africa.

The protesters also carried a Moroccan flag and pictures of the king to show their support. They blamed the minister of religious affairs for their dissatisfaction.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Eating Morocco: Wolfert and Lahlou Offer Two Directions for Moroccan Cuisine

2011-10-05T18:19:00.001-05:00

Here is an article from the NYTimes on two well-known cooks of Moroccan food and their differing approaches; one could be termed "classic," and the other "new-age." la baas bi him, as long as it tastes like Morocco, right? There are some recipes on the NYT page if you're interested
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Two Directions for Moroccan Cuisine

By JULIA MOSKIN
Published: October 4, 2011

MOURAD LAHLOU and Paula Wolfert would not seem to have much in common. He is the 43-year-old chef of Aziza in San Francisco, his arms decorated with tattoos that signify “strength” in Arabic, a son of Casablanca, Morocco, who works wonders with spices and preserved lemons, sous-vide and meat glue.

She is a 73-year-old daughter of Brooklyn, an industrious ex-hippie and renowned culinary anthropologist in Sonoma, Calif., whose favorite kitchen tool is an unglazed clay pot.

But for more than 40 years, both have been immersed in the flavors, aromas and techniques of the Moroccan kitchen. And now each has written an authoritative, enticing cookbook — from diametrically opposed perspectives.

Ms. Wolfert, the outsider, is the stickler for authenticity and tradition.

“He has made this incredible jump,” Ms. Wolfert said of the food at Aziza. “But his food is not the Moroccan cooking I know. He took steps that only he could take.”

Mr. Lahlou, the native son, is the activist for change and modernity. “We started from the same point in time in Morocco, but she looks backward, and I look forward,” he said.

As much as he respects Ms. Wolfert’s work, Mr. Lahlou said that her depiction of Morocco may have kept Americans — and even Moroccans themselves — from tasting its true potential.

Ms. Wolfert’s new book, “The Food of Morocco” (Ecco), is a magisterial rework of the book that put her on the map in 1973, “Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco.” After its publication, she lived in Morocco for several more years, then moved on to study other Mediterranean cuisines.

“I didn’t think there was any ‘Son of Couscous’ to be done,” she said.

Mr. Lahlou’s book, “Mourad: New Moroccan” (Artisan), is a more personal, idiosyncratic work that flows mostly from two small rooms: his family’s kitchen in Marrakesh and his own in San Francisco. It perfectly illustrates his mission: to use the tools of the modern chef to rethink Moroccan food from the ground up.

“Why are we still cooking the vegetables so much? Why does the meat have to be so dry?” he asked, referring to the traditional slow-cooking methods that make the most of less-than-sparkling ingredients. “Why can’t we enjoy the flavor of the meat and use less spices? Everything starts to taste the same.”

The native food culture of Morocco was that of the Berbers who lived there, on the northwest edge of the Sahara; later, successive bastings in Arab, Persian, Spanish, Turkish and French influence made the cuisine rich and complex.

“Lamb with honey and prunes, chicken with olives, couscous,” said Mr. Mourad, who came to the United States as a college student in 1986. “The first time I went back, I was stoked to eat,” he said. “It was amazing the first day, but then it became apparent to me that there was not going to be anything else.”

The food of Morocco, Mr. Lahlou said, is extraordinary but has become stuck in a few narrow ruts.

“Changing the herb garnish on a tagine is still considered daring,” he said. “Cooks are afraid to change the way things have always been done.”

And, he said, the old-school dishes do not reflect modern Moroccan reality; now there are high-quality ingredients, ample refrigeration and skilled cooks with access to food media, the Internet and foreign travel.

“The Morocco I was born into was very poor and very rural,” he said. At that time, Ms. Wolfert said, about 80 percent of the population lived outside major cities; electricity, running water and cooking stoves were rare. Today, that proportion has been reversed, and Moroccans, many of whom speak French and English fluently along with Arabic, have become sophisticated food consumers.

Mr. Lahlou’s book is a persuasive attempt to engage cooks with this modern Morocco. The first seven chapters are devoted to tradition (one is called “Dude, Preserved Lemons”); the rest, to the recipes that he has served at Aziza, like artichokes and saffron-braised onions in cumin broth, or beef cheeks with carrot jam and harissa emulsion.

(Ms. Wolfert, the purist, does not even consider harissa to be Moroccan — it is Tunisian, she said — although it is now ubiquitous on Moroccan tables, like ketchup.)

The sweet earthy spices, velvety textures, complex braises and tangy flavor sparks of Morocco are only the starting point for Mr. Lahlou’s cuisine.

“I came from that culture, so what is intriguing to me is what else is out there,” he said.

That is just what Ms. Wolfert was looking for in the late 1950s, when she left the United States to live abroad as a 19-year-old literary-feminist beatnik.

“I was young, and excited about words, and Jack Kerouac told me I had great legs,” she said. She was drawn to Morocco, along with many young Europeans and Americans, by the country’s enlightened reputation and cheap cost of living after it won independence from France in 1956.

In 1968, when Mr. Lahlou was born in Casablanca, Ms. Wolfert was living outside Tangier, around the corner from the American writer Paul Bowles, and was a suddenly single mother of two small children (her husband having left her for a Swedish painter he met during the student strikes in Paris). She sated her restlessness in the kitchen, where the cook, Fatima, taught her to grind spices, preserve lemons in salt and strip the stalks of freshly cut wheat to prepare the berries for the mill.

“The work of feeding one family was all-consuming,” Ms. Wolfert said.

Eventually, her interest led to the childhood home of the Moroccan consul general to the United States, where she was tutored by his mother and her brigade of cooks, and where she began the revolutionary act of writing down how the traditional dishes were made.

“There was no tradition of sharing recipes in Morocco,” said Mr. Lahlou, describing the significance of Ms. Wolfert’s work. “Cooking jobs were very valuable, literally handed down from generation to generation, and they were not about to give their secrets away.”

In 1973, she published the book that introduced a generation of food-loving bohemians to Moroccan cuisine. The fragrant recipes and evocative photograph of Ms. Wolfert in a soft green caftan, with vendors in a dusty marketplace, put a thousand tagines onto American tables.

At the time, Mr. Lahlou was 5, the constant companion of his family’s chief food supplier: his grandfather, who did the daily shopping. (Mr. Lahlou’s father had also left his wife and children, a situation that was considered so tragic that others spoiled the young Mr. Lahlou with food and attention to make up for it, he said.) He, his brother and his mother, Aziza, lived with her extended family in a compound that encompassed grandparents, cousins and aunts — but only one kitchen.

Like most Moroccan boys, he was never taught to cook. But, he said, he was immersed in food as the family spent an hour at breakfast debating what to have for lunch, and another hour at lunch debating the relative merits of eggplant, okra and peppers with dinner.

As a college student in San Francisco, he began cooking as a way to manage homesickness, and followed his older brother into a job as a waiter at Mamounia in the Richmond district, one of the first upscale Moroccan restaurants in the United States.

When the brothers decided to open a restaurant instead of proceeding to graduate school, he said, backers assumed that belly dancers and waiters with pointy-toed slippers would be prominently featured. He refused.

“I wasn’t going to open a Moroccan Disneyland, and I wasn’t going to make Moroccan ’70s hotel food,” he said.

From there, he said, he developed a style on his own that, in the book, reads like a very hyphenated, modern cuisine, as much American as Moroccan.

In their new books, both authors push beyond what Americans think they know about Moroccan food. For example, bread, not couscous, is the everyday and much-loved staple of Moroccan tables. (Mr. Lahlou said that his family went through eight loaves a day.) Tagines are never spooned over couscous, but scooped up with bread: in cities, with bits pulled from yeast-risen loaves, but among the Berbers, with round flatbreads baked on griddles.

The Berbers use an unusual leavening method that gives a warm, earthy aroma to the loaves: a mix of semolina flour, water and garlic cloves that quickly ferments into a pungent starter. The recipe provided by Ms. Wolfert requires three kinds of flour and takes two days, but is richly rewarding in flavor.

Mr. Lahlou, on the other hand, has invented entirely new breads like harissa-spiked rolls, grilled semolina flatbreads and delicate lacy pancakes (beghrir) made with almond flour. In Mr. Lahlou’s family, only his mother is considered expert at making beghrir, and as a traditional Moroccan cook, she did not share her recipe even with her son. So he worked for years to develop a foolproof method for Aziza’s pastry chef, the pancakes dripping with melted butter and honey.

Many of the skills of the traditional kitchen — how to roll couscous, how to slow-preserve meat in the desert, how to make the paper-thin pastry dough called warqa — are disappearing fast, the authors agree.

They also agree that the daily lives of Moroccan cooks are better without such labor-intensive practices. But there is a fundamental conflict between them: the traditions that Ms. Wolfert has gone to such pains to record are the very ones that Mr. Lahlou is trying to change.

“Moroccan women now are the equivalent of American housewives in the 1950s: they want to use the pressure cooker to make tagines, they want to go to the supermarket,” Ms. Wolfert said. “I don’t want to tell them they have to go back into the kitchen, but something is being lost. I’m out to preserve what I can still find."

"Arab Spring" Disrupts Moroccan Tourism

2011-10-01T09:19:00.006-05:00

Here is an article about the affect of the "Arab Spring" on the tourism industry in Morocco.
It seems that turmoil in one "Arab" country causes Western tourists to hesitate to visit them all. There is a benefit however in learning to become less dependent on tourist dollars and all of the strings attached to those dollars.
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'Arab Spring' hits Moroccan tourism

2011-09-30

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 30/09/11

It has been a tough year for tourism in Morocco. The Arab Spring, the Marrakech bombing, the economic slowdown and the fact that Ramadan coincided with August all took a heavy toll on the sector, Tourism Minister Yasser Znagui said last week.

The sector growth dropped by 6% in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. Znagui admitted that the growth was weak but added that it was higher than the global average of 4.5%.

Despite a downward trend, Morocco fared better this year than other North African countries. Tunisia witnessed a decrease in tourist arrivals by more than a third, and Egyptian tourism fell by 60%.

"Morocco is the only tourist destination in the region that came away with its head held high in 2011 despite a difficult situation marked in particular by the Arab revolutions," the tourism minister said on September 21st at Top Resa, France's biggest tourism fair.

Sociologist Amine Mrabti echoed the sentiment. The Arab world is perceived as a uniform whole by Westerners, he said, and events in one country affect the others on all levels.

Many industry insiders were disappointed with the figures. Ramadan, the beginning of the school year and regional turmoil have impacted tourism, said travel agent Mohamed Charrati.

"A lot of people opted to postpone their travels," he said. "We've coped so far, but we fear the worst. Officials must come up with effective and fast solutions to support us and turn things around."

Domestic tourism should be encouraged by means of attractive offers, said economist Moha Zaki, and Morocco's strategy on advertising in foreign countries should be reconsidered.

The tourism ministry vowed to ramp up its advertising campaign. The focal point will be the country's diversity, with various aspects to be promoted to potential visitors: the seaside, rural Morocco, ecotourism, mountains, the desert and so on. The campaign will target the traditional markets of Western Europe.

The Last Storytellers: An Anthology of Moroccan Stories

2011-09-22T21:05:00.007-05:00

Here is an book review from the National on The Last Storytellers: An Anthology of Moroccan Stories. This book hopes to capture Moroccan oral folktales before they are forgotten.
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The Last Storytellers: An anthology of Moroccan stories

Noori Passela
Sep 23, 2011

As with some other literary traditions, the decline of oral storytelling can be traced to the rise of social media.

While the BBC correspondent Richard Hamilton laments this trend in his introduction to this compilation of Moroccan tales, his woe is thankfully temporary. Instead, The Last Storytellers is a celebration of literature, an anthology of 36 stories rescued from the dwindling numbers of Morocco's hlaykia or paid storytellers.

Considering that many readers are only likely to be acquainted with One Thousand and One Nights, these lesser-known stories offer a new, refreshing insight into the Oriental literary tradition.

They range from expeditions featuring a bold hero and an elusive princess to be won over (The Gazelle with the Golden Horns) to the more symbolic and moral (The Birth of the Sahara). Interestingly, there are also many that border on scandal, using a repertoire of love, lust and betrayal to shock (The Eyes of Ben'Adi). Dramatic fare all around, but with entertainment being the sole purpose, this is hardly a let-down. Instead, this is addictive material.

Moroccan Youths Lack Religious Knowledge?

2011-09-18T12:43:00.005-05:00

Here is an article from Magharebia.com that argues that there is a knowledge gap in Moroccan youth's understanding of religion (i.e., Islam). Yet, the article really only gives examples of a lack of knowledge about Moroccan religious institutions. I don't know if the two can be equated.
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Moroccan youths lack religious knowledge, survey finds

2011-09-07

Moroccan young people struggle to find a balance between their religious convictions and modern practices.

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat - 07/09/11

Moroccan authorities need to re-visit the way religious knowledge is presented to young people to nurture a better understanding of faith, a recent study concluded.

Moroccan youths lack religious knowledge and have limited confidence in state religious institutions, according to the survey carried out by the Moroccan Centre for Contemporary Studies and Research (CMERC).

To reach the conclusion, the centre conducted two surveys among young people aged 15 to 35 in twelve regions.

The problem lies in the way religious knowledge is passed on to young people to enable them to live out their faith in total harmony with their beliefs and behaviour, said CMERC chief Mustapha El Khalfi. He added that violence was not apparent in young people's conduct.

Few of the people interviewed were able to identify the rites adopted by the kingdom or remembered the name of the Minister of Habous and Islamic Affairs. Young people do not join religious movements and associations, which shows a lack of communication with youths, according to the study.

The mosque and the family constitute the main sources of religious education for young people, with television and the internet used as a last resort. Over 40% of the respondents said that they derived their knowledge from imams, while 23% learn from families.

A broad national dialogue is required to discuss the nature of public youth policy, Khalfi said.

The state and religious scholars need to re-think what they say and adapt to the needs of the current age, argued Mohamed Chantoufi, a teacher of Islamic education.

"We need to ban the traditional methods and be innovative in our communication," he added.

Among the new methods are appealing television programmes with new faces to lure people instead of satellite channels, which often send fundamentalist messages, the scholar added.

According to the survey, Moroccan youths have a particular interest in Middle Eastern preachers.

Egyptian Mohamed Hassan tops the list, followed by Amr Khalid and Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Given the conservative nature of Moroccan society, religion still has a social role to play, and a great many young people live a life of contradiction between their concept of religion and their daily behaviour, explained sociologist Samira Kassimi.

"I know a lot of young people who don't pray, but who are convinced that it's their duty and they hope that one day they'll have the faith to do it regularly," young teacher Saad Moutaraji told Magharebia. "Many others do it, but at the same time they remain completely open and tolerant."

Saudi Women Fear Entrance of Moroccan Maids in Their Country

2011-09-14T22:09:00.004-05:00

Here is an article from Arab News, It is a follow up of the last piece we posted. It seems that recent moves to facilitate the recruitment of Moroccan women to work in Saudi Arabia is causing alarm amongst some women in Saudi because of stereotypes of Moroccan women being "magicians, man-stealers and pliant." It is both an amusing and sad commentary on the state of things.
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Moroccan maids may ‘spell’ trouble, warn some women

By WALAA HAWARI | ARAB NEWS
Published: Sep 14, 2011 23:04 Updated: Sep 14, 2011 23:04

RIYADH: Saudi women have voiced reservations against recruiting domestic helpers from Morocco as suggested by the chairman of the Saudi recruitment committee.

This is due to an old belief that Moroccan women use black magic to lure men to marry them. Some Saudi women urged the Shoura Council to intervene, while others threatened to quit their jobs to look after their homes if housemaids from the country were brought in.

Najla, a 32-year-old teacher at a private school, said she felt threatened by the news, pointing out that Moroccan women are known for being pliant and willing to adjust to varying situations, and this posed a threat to a working wife who is not at home most of the day.

Raja is a housewife who hopes the move falls through. She said Moroccan women are known for their black magic and could use it in Saudi homes. “It is better to be safe than sorry,” Raja said.

“It all depends on the upbringing of the man,” said Nuha, a physician and mother of three young children. She expressed support for the initiative to bring in Moroccan workers and pointed out that any threat can come from workers of any nationality and not only one.

Sawsan, a 40-year-old housewife, sees no harm in the initiative as she believes Saudi women should have confidence in themselves. “If a woman knows how to keep her husband satisfied, nothing can threaten her home.”

Sameer, a divorced businessman, believes that “black magic” is the key phrase frightening people. “However, other nationalities, as we have experienced in the Kingdom, use black magic to control families.”

“I am against having a live-in domestic helper in general,” said Majed, a single lawyer, adding that having a stranger live in anyone’s home is not healthy and can cause many problems, especially in marriages. “It is like bringing in an alien seed and planting it in your garden. No one can predict the outcome.”

Umm Fahad, a 27-year-old mother of three, has worked with a Moroccan maid for seven years, and she thought it was the best experience.

“She was so clean, quiet and kind, and since she left I have been suffering with workers of other nationalities,” she said, adding that at least the maid spoke the same language and understood Saudi traditions.

On the other hand, PR manager Abdullah saw no harm in recruiting from Morocco provided that a minimum age for workers is set and that watchdogs control visa allocations closely to prevent any foul play.

Moneera, a single journalist, saw no point to the fuss surrounding this issue. “Many families have recruited Moroccan domestic workers for many years now and there might have been minor complaints about them, like any other nationality.”

“It is a ridiculous fear that is without base,” said marriage counselor and psychoanalyst Hany Al-Ghamdi, pointing out that if a man has no respect for his family, nothing will stop him from having an affair and that any concerns about nationality are invalid. It is a misconception, Al-Ghamdi points out, to stereotype in this way based on nationality.

“If there is to be a reasonable analysis, we should ask why Moroccan women know how to attract and keep their men,” said Al-Ghamdi, suggesting that Saudi women who feel threatened should take a closer look at themselves.

“There is no black magic in a relationship between a man and woman. But there is the magic of love, caring and tolerance,” said Al-Ghamdi, adding that some women do not know how to understand their men and show tolerance toward them.

Tolerance, according to Al-Ghamdi, means being able to overcome problems and disputes and show love and femininity.

Moroccan women, in his opinion, are feminine by default. “They feel and express their femininity and surrender to their husbands, which is in their nature, while other women might look at it as degrading,” said Al-Ghamdi, adding that marriages involving Moroccan women in the Kingdom are not a trend that could threaten Saudi women.

Teaching love, Al-Ghamdi believes, is one way to reduce Saudi women’s fear of being threatened by other women.

“Aisha, the wife of Prophet (peace be upon him), was the first to open a ‘school for women.’ She was teaching women about even the most intimate details of their lives with their husbands.

We need more of this teaching, instead of the rigid curriculum we are teaching girls in schools,” said Al-Ghamdi, stressing that even Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said “there is no alternative for love but to marry.”

In his opinion this is a clear sign that there is love before marriage or at least strong admiration and desire, on which homes should be built to dispel any such threats.

Moroccan Women on Their Way to Work as Maids in Saudi Arabia

2011-09-09T21:48:00.004-05:00

Here is a piece from Arab News about the establishment of new recruitment companies to facilitate the importation of Moroccan women to work as maids in Saudi Arabia.

Anyone familiar with the general treatment maids receive in Saudi and the way Saudis view Moroccan women will find little to feel encouraged about with this new development. Let us pray that the women will actually be treated humanely and not forced into other less honorable professions.
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Moroccan maids on their way

By ARAB NEWS
Published: Sep 9, 2011 22:22 Updated: Sep 9, 2011 22:22

RIYADH: The recruitment companies that are to be established soon will be licensed to bring in housemaids from Morocco, East Asia and South Africa, Al-Watan Arabic newspaper reported Friday quoting Saad Al-Baddah, chairman of the recruitment committee at the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Al-Baddah added a caveat to the recruitment process of housemaids from Morocco saying that immediate employment of Moroccan maids could prove an issue as there were no official recruitment offices in Morocco to process the papers of prospective domestic helps.

He, however, said there could be a way around the problem with the citizens being given work visas to bring housemaids from Morocco on their own.

The chairman warned Saudi citizens against contacting any offices claiming to be able to send housemaids from Morocco to the Kingdom.

“They are all fake. You should not heed the false claims of these fake offices,” Al-Baddah warned prospective employers.

The spokesman of the Labor Ministry, Hattab Al-Anzi, said the recruitment offices would grant citizens work visas for housemaids from Morocco.

“It is now the responsibility of the citizen to look for authorized private recruitment offices to bring workers from Morocco,” he said.

The spokesman said the new recruitment companies to be established soon would be licensed to import housemaids from Morocco.

Nothing Has Changed: Morocco & the "Arab Spring"

2011-09-05T18:00:00.002-05:00

Here is a piece from the Levantine Culture Center website about what, if anything, has changed in Morocco during the past few months of hoopla.
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Morocco and the Arab Spring
posted September 2, 2011 - 5:51pm by Editor
An inside look at the mood west of Libya and Tunisia
By Youssef Ait Benasser

The other day, a big wig in the Moroccan blogosphere asked in one of his articles: what has changed in our lives? This question reflects the preoccupation of Moroccan society as a whole with the adoption of the new constitution, which passed on July 2nd, 2011 with a 98% approval rate. The referendum woke up the whole country from an era of political quietism, thus raising people's hopes and expectations for a better tomorrow. Two months have passed since then, and for many, it is now time for assessment, following the popular saying "a good dinner frees its scent as of the early afternoon."

An analysis of the current situation in the "Most Beautiful Country in the World" (according to an advertisement for tourism in Morocco) shows that the Kingdom is evolving at two distinct speeds: the pace of official discourse displaying promises of a new era on the one hand, and on the other, another pace that completely contradicts that speech. Since the 2nd of July, repression has not rested; public media outlets remain just as biased and closed to opponents as they were previously; corrupt and abusive officials haven't been ejected from the ruling circles (and some have even gained new prestigious titles); political prisoners have not been freed; and Rachid Nini—the nation's most popular columnist—has been sentenced to jail. Local and international newspapers are still seized and censored each time the King is concerned (most recently, the French weekly Courrier International has been censored because of a caricature of the King ). To partisans of the February 20 Movement, nothing seems to have changed. Some even argue things have worsened as the July referendum's legitimacy untied the Palace's hands.

What change do we want?
The change Moroccans expect consists of putting an end to the system's cronyism and corruption, thus creating an opening for equal opportunities. Tensions in Morocco are indeed mainly due to social, economic, and political "elevators" all being out of service. Parties have become hermetic corporatist groups, the economy is languishing under royalties-owned monopolies and domination, and the education system is no longer a ladder that leads to ascending social status. Getting out of this gridlock is necessary if the system wants to avoid an escalation of tension. Promises of democracy have obviously failed in cleansing the streets of protest. What Moroccans are yearning for are actions that can be felt, and up to now, there has been no political will to implement any.

What change are we getting?
The general elections date has been set for late November. The legislative election is expected to be the first under the rule of the new constitution. It is officially featured as a turning point in Moroccan politics and the start of a new democratic, free phase. However, the handling of the legal and logistical preparation of the event has not changed in comparison with the way things were done in our 2007 legislative elections. Back then, the participation rate was as low as 37%. The parliament that emerged from the results was the least representative of the people's will. As a result of regrouping and shifting alliances, the biggest party in the House is one that didn't even exist at election time. Many legitimately fear that things will not differ in November. The almighty Minister of Interior Affairs, appointed by the King himself, is using redistricting as a tool for imposing a pre-conceived political map. His ministry is indeed the only institution in charge of elections and it undergoes no real accountibility as it is completely dependent on the Royal Palace.Moroccans might not see much change in their lives as political beings, but they will witness changes on the socio-economic level. Government's generous social policy has more than exceeded the country's financial budget. Decrees related to integration of unemployed degree-holders into public service, or automatic and general raises in salaries, have been able to keep the middle class out of the streets for now. But it will not be long before it generates the opposite effects as sovereign debt drastically raises leading to a double-dip recession.

Either there is a change or there is not.

Aware of this complex situation that Morocco is facing today, the February 20th Movement has raised the cogent questions, and is therefore a legitimate counter movement. It is now up to the system to provide the appropriate answers. And with a social time bomb ready to explode, the system may not have that much time.

Moroccan Boy Wins Interntional Quran Recitation Competition

2011-08-28T12:54:00.005-05:00

Here is an piece from The Peninsula on the International Young Quran Reciter contest that was held in Qatar, and the first place winner Abdul Basit Abdul Fattah Warrash from Morocco.
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Moroccan wins Quran recitation contest
Sunday, 28 August 2011 03:32

DOHA: Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) and the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Qatar celebrated the conclusion of International Quran Recitation Competition in “Laylat Al Qaree Al Saghir” (The ‘Young Reader’ night) yesterday.

The Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs H E Dr Ghaith bin Mubarak Al Kuwari and Mahmoud Bouneb, Executive General Manager of Al Jazeera Children’s Channel, handed out prizes to the first three winners namely Abdul Basit Abdul Fattah Warrash from Morocco and Amjad Yehya Nasser from Yemen, and Noura Al Shahama Taqiyah bint Nouri Najmi from Malaysia who have successively won QR100,000, QR75,000 and QR50,000.

A prize of QR50,000 was granted to the best recitation by a non-Arab contestant, which was dually won by Bilal Nour Eddine (11 years old) from Indonesia and Zakaria Faydallah (10 years old) from Bangladesh, and a prize for the best teacher valued at QR30,000 went jointly to Mozah Bint Mohamad Center for Holly Quran and Islamic affairs (Qatar) and Wahat Al Furqan Quran teaching Center (Egypt).

The event, attended by Islamic scholars, teachers and public figures, took place in Katara Cultural Village. “Laylat Al Qare Al Saghir” aired live on JCC and QF Radio, and was also broadcast via JCC website (www.jcctv.net) and the competition webpage (http://www.jcc-quran-competition.tv/)in addition to the Arab States Broadcasting Union and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).

It showcased live participations of children from Al Quds (Jerusalem), Baghdad, Cordoba, Toronto and Brasilia and hosted children from China, USA, Niger, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Tajikistan, and Thailand who have excelled in reciting from the Holy Book.

Over two thousand participants from different nationalities across the globe - aged between 9 and 12 years - took part in the preliminary competition. In the final stage, three children competed by reciting verses from the Holy Quran at the “Laylat Al Qaree Al Saghir” event in front of a panel of qualified jury and judges. The winners were selected based on their diction (Tajweed), performance, melody and voice.

Dr Ghaith bin Mubarak: “We value this fruitful partnership with Al Jazeera Children’s Channel, the children’s channel of choice that took this remarkable competition worldwide and reached out to the young talents in Quran reciting.”

The Moroccan Debate Over Eating in Ramadan and Religious Freedom

2011-08-21T00:40:00.002-05:00

Here is an article from the Global Post about daytime eating during Ramadan and the controversy over religious freedom.

Yet, to eat or not to eat during the daylight hours of Ramadan (the month when Muslims believe the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him) may not really be the crux of the problem.

Certainly no one is under the illusion that everyone in Morocco (or other Muslim-dominated countries) is fasting as Islam requires. There has to be a delicate balance between personal freedom and the personal sacrifices that come from living as a minority in a place with a dominant culture. For example, for Muslims living in the United States, which is technically a secular country, Christianity is obviously the dominant order. A certain amount of respect has to be given to Christian holidays and beliefs in order to be cordial and be a good neighbor, co-worker etc, even if one fundamentally disagrees with the basis of the faith.

Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, yet there has to be a middle ground based on respect. As the Qur'an tells believers to say to non-believers " To you your way and to me my way." It is going too far to make people renounce Islam in order to eat at McDonalds! Believers can be weak (in faith or knowledge), or they can even have legitimate excuses to eat. At the same time the Qur'an also says that there is " no compulsion in religion." True faith cannot be forced upon someone, and certainly not by laws and police.
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Morocco: Controversy over religious freedom

Despite its new constitution and other reforms, Morocco is not a secular state.
Aida Alami August 20, 2011 08:48

CASABLANCA, Morocco — The slogan displayed on the profile pictures of hundreds of Moroccan Facebook users was stark: “In Morocco, Eating Kills.”

The message referred to the incident two years ago when six Moroccans were arrested for having a picnic during Ramadan in protest of a law banning eating in public during Ramadan.

Two years and a new constitution later, Morocco still doesn't have provisions guaranteeing more religious freedom for its citizens.

During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the debate over the introduction of more secularism is again in the spotlight because of Article 222 of the Moroccan Penal Code: It mandates a one to six month prison term for anyone "well known for their affiliation to Islam" who breaks the fast in public.

As a result, Moroccans who are non-practicing Muslims are obligated to respect the fast in public, while others escape abroad to avoid the restrictions.

"I am fortunate to live abroad because during Ramadan, Islam is forced upon people regardless of their beliefs,” said Habib, a 27-year-old engineer who lives in Paris. “To most Moroccans, being Muslim is not a personal choice of faith but the identity of an entire community that one is obligated to be a part of.”

MALI ( the acronym in French for Alternative Movement for Individual Liberty), the group that held the protest picnic, was formed in 2009. It campaigns for more individual freedoms. Its members have been arrested and intimidated by authorities and members of the general public since launching their first action, the picnic.

“It was not Ramadan that was 'targeted' but instead, we demanded freedom of religion and conscience, the freedom to believe or not, to practice or not, to be a Muslim or not," said Ibtissame Lachgar, 36, the co-founder of MALI and a political activist. “It is a spiritual choice that is personal and individual. We wanted a symbolic action that can really point the finger at the contradictions between the law and international treaties ratified by Morocco.”

Morocco's current political system is not compatible with the establishment of a secular state following the Turkish model, said Pierre-Jean Luizard, a historian and researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research in France.

“Morocco is a special case since the king is also the Commander of the Faithful," he said. "The Moroccan political system is based on the religious legitimacy of the sovereign, which gives secular claims a revolutionary character, and which is not the case in other Arab states. However, this does not mean that secularism is an absent claim as a value, with its corollaries: equality of citizens, freedom of conscience and religion and women's rights.”

One element that Morocco shares with other Muslim countries is that Islam, having been the main framework of anti-colonial struggles, became the language of the society, said Luizard. “What can be perceived as the conservatism of an entire society is also a reaction against the West and against overbearing authoritarian and corrupt regimes — like Morocco — supported by the West itself,” he said.

Abdelillah Benkirane, the leader of the main opposition party, The Islamist Justice and Development Party, condemned demands for a more secular state during a meeting in June, a few days before Morocco’s ruler, King Mohammed VI, introduced the new constitution to the people.

“They want to pervert the faith of this nation and Ramadan to no longer be sacred," he said. "They want to picnic during the holy month and set an example for young people, for your children. It seems that future reforms will restore 'sexual deviance' [homosexuality] — we may see people who say publicly that they are 'sexual deviants'."

Benkirane warned his audience that establishing more religious freedom in a new constitution would threaten the country’s foundations. "If the king adopts it, we will have a serious problem," he said. "Morocco is a Muslim state, and the country’s religion is Islam.”

But an ideological commitment to secularism on the part of the state is not necessarily a prerequisite for democratization, according to Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, a professor at Northwestern University specializing in religion and politics.

“There are many, many modalities for managing and negotiating across lines of religious difference, both historically and today, that do not fly under the flag of the doctrine of secularism,” she said. “Advocates of democratic change, wherever they find themselves, would do better to work for a deep pluralism that engages both 'religious' and 'secular' views conventionally understood rather than boxing themselves in with a commitment to secularism.”

Other Moroccans, like Sara, a 19-year-old student from Marrakesh don’t feel too concerned about the lack of religious freedom. “Except the other day when I tried to eat at Mcdonald’s in Marrakesh: I was asked to leave or they would call the police,” she recalled. “They told me they couldn’t let me eat there unless I proved I wasn’t Muslim. I asked myself right away, how do you prove such thing?

Latest Ramadan Lecture at the Royal Palace in Casablanca

2011-08-19T23:46:00.004-05:00

Here is a piece from the state-run Moroccan press (MAP) about the latest Ramadan lecture given before King M6 and broadcast on TV. It covered the subject of family in Islam.
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HM the King Chairs New Ramadan Religious Lecture

Casablanca - HM King Mohammed VI, Commander of the Faithful, accompanied by HRH Prince Moulay Rachid and HH Prince Moulay Ismail, presided, on Thursday at the royal palace in Casablanca, over a new religious lecture, the sixth such talks held during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The lecture was delivered by Bahija Cheddadi, member the local ulema council of Kenitra, on "the foundations of the family in Islam", drawing on the Quranic verse: "And among His Signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquillity with them, and He has put love and mercy between your (hearts): verily in that are Signs for those who reflect."

The speaker stressed, from the very start, the need to renew Islam’s conception of the family with regard to many issues that challenge today this fundamental nucleus of society, in the context of changes taking place in the world, especially in the economic field and in connection with the exercise of freedoms.

Islam, in this regard, lavished great attention to the family with the establishment of standards and legal provisions that govern the behaviour and practices each of its members, she said.

The constitutive act of marriage is the most decisive element in conjugal life, said Cheddadi, stating that its provisions are intended to preserve the interests of the spouses, the sustainability of this relationship, and the avoidance of any defect or failure that could affect the validity of this sacred act.

In the conclusion of the marriage, the validity of the form is as important as for contractors who must be converged with the objectives of Sharia’ (Islamic law) in the matter.

Following the lecture, HM the King Mohammed VI, Commander of the Faithful, was greeted by several Muslim figures and scholars coming from all over the world.

Last modification 08/19/2011 04:00 PM.
©MAP-All right reserved

King M6 Distributes Ramadan Foodstuffs to the Poor in Temara / الملك يطلق عملية رمضان

2011-08-03T09:39:00.004-05:00

Here is a short piece from the Moroccan National Press on some Ramadan charity being carried out by King M6. Another Moroccan publication, Hespress has video of the distribution here. Ramadan Mubarak to all!
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HM the King Launches in Temara Foodstuff Distribution Operation on Occasion of Ramadan

2 August 2011

Temara — HM King Mohammed VI handed out, on Tuesday the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, food baskets to needy people in Al Massira neighbourhood in Temara (near Rabat).

- Around 58 million dirhams earmarked to finance the "Ramadan 1432" operation.

- The initiative will benefit 2.37 million people from 473,900 households.

This marks the launching of a 58 million dirhams ($7.2 mln) operation which consists in delivering foodstuffs to the needy, especially the widows, the elderly and the disabled.

The operation is to benefit 2.37 million people from 473,900 households, 403,000 in rural areas, across the Kingdom.

Each household receives a basket containing 10 kg of flour, four kg of sugar, five litres of cooking oil and 250g of tea.

5,000 people are mobilized to carry out this operation monitored notably by two field-based committees to ensure the supply of these centers, identify the beneficiaries and distribute the foodstuff.

Ramadan in America with Moroccan Immigrant, Karim Moukrime

2011-07-31T11:23:00.005-05:00

Here is a piece from the Springfield News-Leader about Muslims in America fasting Ramadan. It highlights one specific Moroccan immigrant, Si Karim Moukrime.
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Ramadan: Faith through prayer and fasting
Americans adjust personal schedules for Ramadan; in other nations, communities switch day and night.

Jul. 30, 2011 |
Written by
Linda Leicht

Monday morning, hours before the sun comes up, Muslims around the country will arise to eat and pray. It is the first day of Ramadan, and once the sun rises most Muslims will begin fasting -- refraining from eating, drinking, smoking, sex and any other wordly temptation -- until the sun sets again that night.

Karim Moukrime is looking forward to it. "All Muslims look forward to Ramadan," he insists.

A native of Morocco, Moukrime has loved Ramadan since he was a little boy when the entire family and community would observe the cycle of fasting and eating, with days and nights switched, special foods served and gatherings planned.

He also loves the prayers and the renewed emphasis on reading the Quran and living a good life.

"We try to be the best people we can be for the sake of God," he says. During this time, Muslims believe that the doors of heaven are opened, while the doors of hell are closed and Satan is chained.

"Ramadan is the holy month when the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him," Moukrime explains.

Daylight fasting

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, required of every Muslim.

Throughout the month, which will conclude Aug. 31, Muslims will not eat or drink even a sip of water during the daylight hours.

With daylight lasting as long as 14 hours at this time of year and temperatures soaring into the three-digit range, that can be a challenge.

So Moukrime will start his day about 3:30 a.m., about three hours before the sunrise. Then, he will prepare food -- suhoor, drink as much as he can, and will pray. He will then crawl back into bed to rest until he has to get up to teach his 10:30 a.m. Arabic class as Missouri State University.

While most countries with a majority Muslim population will adjust schedules during Ramadan, living in the United States means activities continue as usual.

For Moukrime, that means teaching classes, attending meetings, going to the store and other daily duties. But he makes sure that he stays cool and gets plenty of rest.

"Naps are good," he says. "Naps are very good."

In the evening, he will try to relax until sundown, when he will eat iftar -- breakfast. He will start with water and have some harira, a tomato lentil soup that is traditional in Morocco, and maybe a small selilou -- a pastry his mother made for Ramadan with crushed almonds, flour, sesame, sugar and spices. He points out that it is important not to overindulge after a long day of fasting. Later, he will eat a more substantial meal.

A few times a week, the members of the Islamic Center in Springfield will meet together for Iftar. With a diverse membership, representing a variety of countries and cultures, the food is always interesting, says Moukrime. And the community will celebrate Eid al Fitr when Ramadan ends.

"Ramadan mode"

Dr. Bill Bayazed, an internist at St. John's Hospital and a native of Syria, remembers the excitement of staying up all night during Ramadan and sleeping all day, but in the United States that is not usually possible.

"I remember when we were kids we could not wait for Ramadan," Bayazed says. "It brought up such feelings of joy and happiness. ... It was so much fun."

The community would "switch into Ramadan mode," with each community participating in its traditions and rituals.

"The whole community goes into this ritual," he explains. "You go to prayer early, before sunrise. People stay up all night."

Both men are clear about one thing, that observing Ramadan is an important part of their faith journey.

"It's all about your relationship with Allah," says Bayazed. "Whether you do that with your heart, your body or your work. It is about your devotion to Allah, to God."

Young Moroccans Unlikely to Stop Pushing for Democratic Change

2011-07-21T10:37:00.004-05:00

Here is an article from the New York Times on the Moroccan youth movements dissatisfaction with what some believe to have been a move towards democracy in the country.
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Morocco's Democratic Changes Fail to Appease All

By AIDA ALAMI
Published: July 20, 2011

RABAT, MOROCCO — A stressed middle-aged woman in a taxi in Casablanca looked with disdain at thousands of protesters on a main avenue. “We are fed up with them,” she told the driver. “Can’t they just leave us in peace. They wanted a new constitution. They got it. What else do they want?

“They are fighting for our rights,” he replied. “I hope they keep on marching until our health and education systems are fixed and corruption, the biggest ill of this country, is gone.”

A landslide vote in a July 1 referendum paved the way for a new constitution, introducing more freedoms and gender equality. The constitution was approved by 98 percent of those who voted, winning King Mohammed VI congratulations from world leaders, including President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But critics dispute the validity of the referendum, saying that only 13 million of 20 million eligible Moroccans were registered to vote. They also say the constitution fails to enshrine significant separations of powers within the government.

Leading democracy activists including the February 20 Movement for Change, which began on Facebook and has carried out a series of rallies in major cities, have rejected the outcome and pledged to continue to fight for the establishment of a fully democratic state.

Abdeslam Maghraoui, a political science professor at Duke University in North Carolina specializing in North Africa, said the referendum was a short-term fix for Morocco’s problems.

“It seems that the monarchy and its supporters have managed to pull together a hasty and contested constitutional referendum,” he said. “This will give the monarch a few weeks or months to claim a political victory.”

Mr. Maghraoui said irregularities in the voting process and opposition from large segments of civil society, the main Islamist movement and some political parties had delegitimized the process.

“I would not be surprised at all if we go back to an atmosphere of crisis and possibly violence before the end of the year,” he said.

When the February 20 movement started organizing, shortly after the fall of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, the Moroccan regime activated an extensive propaganda campaign to paint protesters as enemies of the state manipulated by the Western Sahara liberation movement, Polisario.

Still, the movement, linking human rights activists, small leftist parties, youth activists and a banned Islamist party, Justice and Charity, mobilized thousands of people in more than 50 cities and it has since organized marches every Sunday, countrywide.

Its most significant victory has been to raise awareness among Morocco’s politically disengaged youth, who for the first time decided to get involved. Two weeks after taking to the streets, the movement gained ground when the king, in a speech on March 9, promised significant constitutional changes and the introduction of more personal liberties. He then appointed a commission to draft a new constitution, which he unveiled on June 17.

Still, the king’s call to Moroccans, citing the Koran, to vote for the charter was perceived by opponents as an improper interference in the process.

Mehdi Soufiani, a 24-year-old law school student in Rabat, said: “The king is an arbitrator. He shouldn’t have influenced the voters, making the vote about his popularity and not about whether the constitutional changes are what the country needs.”

In July, an organization of Moroccan students in France, Cap Democracy Morocco, which advocates the establishment of democratic institutions, organized a three-day workshop in Rabat that invited young people and scholars to a discussion titled, “Thinking Democracy After February 20.”

Younes Benmoumen, a 24-year-old graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies and president of the association, called the referendum a plebiscite on the king and the constitutional changes only cosmetic.

“There is a complete absence of a democratic spirit in the constitutional reform process,” Mr. Benmoumen said, “and no actions were taken to show a willingness of the regime to change.”

During a debate at the Cap Democracy workshop, many raised concerns that the movement had failed to assemble crowds as large as in Tunisia and Egypt and said it risked running out of steam and dying out.

Fouad Abdelmoumni, a member of the Coalition for Parliamentary Monarchy, a group of parties and activists that supports February 20, told young people at the workshop: “A push for radical change in society is only starting to bloom. It will not easily happen. Protesters are going to need to show endurance and patience because the road is still long.”

Najib Akesbi, an economist who teaches at the Institute of Agronomy in Rabat, predicted that the coming legislative elections would send people into the streets again. He said the referendum vote was flawed by coercive pressures from imams and local government officials, vote rigging and one-sided broadcast media coverage.

“Absolutely nobody knows what the majority of Moroccans think as a result of years of repression,” he said. “The movement remains strong in its fundamentals, at its core, and the protesters remain very determined. After Ramadan and summer, the protests will very likely intensify in September.”

Analysts say the newly engaged if widely disparate groups of young Moroccans are not likely to stop pushing for change. That assessment echoes what the young protesters themselves say.

“We are fighting for something meaningful and we will win,” said Mr. Benmoumen. “We are not subject to any deadline, and the course of history is on our side.”

Jewish Moroccans in the Netherlands: Balancing Between Cultures

2011-07-19T00:08:00.000-05:00

Here is an article from Radio Netherlands about Moroccan Jews who live in the Netherlands. They are all at once, Moroccan, Jewish, Dutch, and also sometimes Israeli.
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Jewish Moroccans in the Netherlands: Balancing Between Cultures
Published on : 3 July 2011

Stories about Dutch Moroccan youths verbally abusing or physically threatening Jews crop up fairly frequently in the Dutch media, and politicians - especially Geert Wilders and the Freedom Party - call for hard measures against “Moroccan street terrorists". What's it like to live in the Netherlands if you're both Jewish and Moroccan?

By Jannie Schippers and Mohamed Amezian

Victor Bohbot, 56, has seen the climate in the Netherlands change over the years: “I came here in 1974, the entire country was pro Israel. When I was a soldier in the IDF, met lots of Dutch truck drivers who would come to Israel to volunteer."

Until very recently, Victor ran a number of restaurants in Amsterdam, Deventer and Bussum. In 1984, he and his family left ‘for good’ and went back to Israel. However, four years later they were back in the Netherlands. “It's difficult. What am I? For the Dutch, I'm a foreigner but I'm also not a real Israeli or Moroccan".

Cross the road
Out on the street, some people comment on the Star of David that Victor wears around his neck. He says, “A little while ago, I was standing outside when a group of kids came along, about 14, 15 years old." When he greeted them in Moroccan slang (‘la bas?), everything was all nice and friendly: “When they realise I speak Arabic, everything is okay on the surface, but the way they look at me..."

Victor says that in recent years numerous Jewish Moroccans have emigrated to Israel from France: “There have been a lot more incidents in France; people really don't feel safe. I know someone who goes back and forth every week. He sent his family to Israel but he still works in Paris." Victor does not believe that it will get as bad in the Netherlands as it is in France: “The Jewish community here in the Netherlands is much smaller and much less visible". Even though Victor says he will never leave his Star of David at home because it's safer, he won't wear a yarmulke in the streets and only puts it on when he gets to the synagogue. “I don't think it's necessary to be provocative. If I see a problem walking towards me, I cross the street. My brother thinks that's cowardly; he doesn't let anybody get away with being abusive.”

"I'm one of them"
Jacob al-Malagh, a 47-year-old Jewish Moroccan mechanic, comes into contact with Dutch Moroccans on a daily basis: “About 70% of my customers are Moroccan; I work with Moroccans and for Moroccans." He meets members of the small Moroccan Jewish community in the Netherlands – between 50 and 100 people – at the synagogue and during the holidays. Jacob says his strong bond with Israel has never caused him a problem in all the 26 years that he has lived in the Netherlands. “Moroccans treat me like one of them and according to the Dutch, one says I'm an Israeli, another sees me as a Moroccan or a Jew, while another thinks I'm Dutch. I really don't care what anyone thinks.”

Bad reputation
Both Jacob and Victor say that politicians such as Geert Wilders only make the problem worse. According to Victor, “He has very extreme ideas. Wilders is not pro-Israel, his real focus is internal Dutch politics." Jacob avoids politics: “As soon as someone starts yammering about Arabs and Jews and Muslims I say sorry, that's nothing to do with me. What other people do, that's up to them. I live in the Netherlands and I want to live in peace with everybody else".

Victor has noticed that both his son and daughter have distanced themselves from the land of his birth: “My son doesn't want to admit that his father is from Morocco. Moroccans have a really bad reputation here in the Netherlands and he doesn't want to be a part of that. But I can't forget where I come from. My grandfather always used to say that if you don't know where you come from, you’ll never know where you're going."

(Partial) History of Jews in Morocco
After the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Jews were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, including what is now modern Morocco. In 1492, Jews and the remaining Moslems were expelled from Catholic Spain and many ended up in Morocco. Moroccan Jews had a specific niche in society and had their own synagogues. After the establishment of the state of Israel in the wake of the Second World War, many Jews left the country, fearing outbreaks of religiously-motivated violence. There are less than 5,000 Jews left in Morocco.

Buying the King Some Time: Morocco's Referendum is a Very Small Step

2011-07-13T11:29:00.004-05:00

Here is a piece from the Economist, which offers a well-rounded, honest look at the recent referendum and how it does not really address the most pressing economic and quality of life issues for the average Moroccan.
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Morocco's Referendum
A very small step
The king has offered some reforms, but the opposition is not satisfied

Jul 7th 2011 | BENSLIMANE |

WITH the easterly wind, the shergui, enveloping them in hot desert air, most of the residents of Benslimane, a sleepy town in north-west Morocco, waited till dusk to vote in a constitutional referendum on July 1st, pressed by officials who wanted a strong turnout for what has been as much a test of King Mohammed VI’s popularity as a poll about reform.

Businessmen backing the yes vote held celebratory street parties. Imams at Morocco’s mosques were instructed to preach in favour of what was heralded as the king’s constitution. But even in conservative Benslimane, some 800 dissidents campaigned for a boycott. A headmaster at a local school serving as a polling station was overheard muttering that the whole exercise was a masquerade.

The result—98.5% in favour—drew guffaws of disbelief from members of the February 20th movement. The coalition of leftists, independent liberals and Islamists from the banned Justice and Spirituality movement surprised many when its protests for social justice and democracy drew thousands of sympathisers across the kingdom earlier this year. It called for a boycott of the referendum.

The new constitution includes some important reforms. It establishes human rights as core principles, recognises Berber, spoken by many Moroccans alongside Arabic, as an official language and calls for gender equality. It gives new powers to the prime minister and parliament and inaugurates a much-needed overhaul of the judiciary. It no longer deems the king sacred, though he is still “Commander of the Faithful”.

Critics complain that many of the new constitution’s articles refer to “organic laws” that have not yet been written, making the extent of some changes uncertain. Others depend on the creation of special commissions, mostly headed by the king. Political parties, a majority of whom backed the “yes” vote, only saw a draft of the constitution at the last minute. No mention is made of King Mohammed’s promise, which came in a speech in March, of moving towards a parliamentary monarchy. The king remains—directly or indirectly—in control of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, or as the new constitution puts it, a “supreme arbiter” of political and institutional life. In many respects, the new constitution merely codifies an existing method of governing that allows the palace to micromanage at its whim.

When the February 20th movement was launched, inspired by the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions earlier this year (but never calling for the king’s head), it drew much public sympathy. Many Moroccans felt enthusiastic about Mohammed VI, dubbed the “king of the poor” at the beginning of his reign in 1999. But less so in recent years, during which press freedoms were dramatically curtailed, incidents of torture returned and corruption increased.

Yet many Moroccans have been frightened by the attempted regime change in Libya and Syria. “We want transformation without violence,” says Saad Eddine Othmani, a leader of the opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party, which supported the new constitution. “This…is a beginning.”

General elections expected later this year could bring further change. But although the new constitution may have bought the king some time—helped by a doubling of food and fuel subsidies, the creation of new government jobs and the boosting of civil-service salaries—the regime is still not dealing with people’s main grievances, notably failing public-health and education systems, and rampant corruption. The political elite needs to take note, cautions Omar Belafrej, the head of a left-leaning think-tank. “There is little goodwill left.”

Morocco Struggles with Surge in Street Vendors

2011-07-09T17:19:00.004-05:00

Here is an article from Magharebia.com on the apparent problem of informal street vendors threatening small shop owners in Moroccan cities.
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Morocco struggles with surge in street vendors

After reviewing an alarming new government report, Moroccan officials are working to integrate cart operators into the formal sector.

By Hassan Benmehdi and Siham Ali for Magharebia in Casablanca - 08/07/11

A street vendor may have launched the Arab Spring, but the proliferation of roadside carts in Morocco is straining residents' nerves.

After unemployed Tunisian graduate turned vegetable vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself afire, igniting a democratic revolution that spread from Sidi Bouzid to Tahrir Square and beyond, Maghreb police became wary of cracking down on illegal carts.

Law-enforcement officers once confiscated street vendors' wares and forbade them from occupying public spaces. With the threat of arrest and loss of goods now gone, however, merchants have pushed their barrows into the busiest spots.

In Morocco, the situation is becoming critical.

"These traders have installed themselves along the alleyway beside the mosque, preventing motorists and pedestrians from passing," says Moussa, who lives in Casablanca's Oum Rabia I.

"After the vegetable sellers with their carts, the kitchen utensil sellers appeared on the square, and they were followed by the live chicken sellers, who even dare to slit their throats and pluck them on the spot, causing inconvenience for the neighbourhood," he tells Magharebia.

The informal traders are also having an impact on local businesses. Si Arroube, a public-sector worker, says that ever since street vendors in Casablanca's Belvedere and Roches Noires districts began offering items at rock-bottom prices, some small shops have been forced to close.

"These mobile traders don't pay rent or municipal tax," he explains. "The small retailers can't survive the competition."

Ahmed Ktiri, an economist, agrees that the phenomenon of street vending is having negative repercussions on the formal sector, due to illegal competitive practices.

"The youngest people should be offered training, and at the same time, jobs offering acceptable and viable conditions should be found for them," he suggests.

It is more than just price wars. Hassan, who lives in the city centre of Casablanca, says that the streets are no longer as clean as they used to be. "The goods are inexpensive, but these carts are a nuisance," he tells Magharebia.

For unemployed young Moroccans, however, they provide an income.

Informal trading is becoming a way of life for many young Moroccans.

"I have a family to take care of and if I don't sell anything, I risk ending up on the streets with my children and wife," says Aziz, a young street vendor of fish.

The government recognises the urgent need for a solution. "We must accept that we now need a new approach to integrate these people better into the formal sector," Trade Minister Ahmed Reda Chami told legislators in May.

"We need to create and set up new markets and spaces, but we also need to involve other departments, such as the interior ministry, and local authorities," Chami said.

Economic Affairs Minister Nizar Baraka said that the Moroccan government is paying particular attention to the issue and that help is on the horizon: "The main thing is to bring about a transition from the informal to the formal sector, that's what needs to happen."

A recent study commissioned by the Ministry of Trade revealed that Morocco now has 238,000 street vendors, 90% of whom are men. And since some 70% of them never went beyond the primary level in school, their employment options are limited.

The government report's recommendations will be implemented soon, Trade Minister Chami said in June. The aim, he said, is to integrate street vendors into the formal sector in order to improve their standard of living.

Absorption and integration of the informal sector would reduce poverty and exclusion, agrees Abdeljalil Cherkaoui, the president of REMESS (the Moroccan Network for Solidarity and Social Economy).

The informal traders, meanwhile, are in desperate straits.

Charaf Hamdani is a 35-year-old father of three who holds the baccalaureate. For the last five years, he has worked as a street vendor selling fruit. His decision to take up this vocation came after several years of unemployment, during which his wife supported the family. He hopes to have his own shop one day.

"I've suffered a lot," he tells Magharebia. "You can't afford to be sick. No one protects us. On the contrary, our activity is regarded as unofficial. I'd really like to switch, but I don't have the money for that."

His average monthly wage is between 2,000 and 2,500 dirhams.

Mhamed Daouli, who is 47, has been a street vendor for more than 15 years. He has sold fish, clothes, furniture and vegetables. At the moment, he is selling underwear. He does not believe the government's promises and feels that officials are merely trying to get rid of street vendors by sending some of them to markets far away from town centres.

"They need to find solutions within cities," he says.

Creating a Children's Refuge in Morocco's Slums

2011-07-06T21:45:00.003-05:00

Here is a New York Times article about the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center that is reaching out to provide opportunities and life-saving rescources for poor children in Casablanca.
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Creating a Children's Refuge in Morocco's Worst Slums
By KRISTEN McTIGHE
Published: July 6, 2011

CASABLANCA — There are few places Yacine, 13, likes to be. Not his school on the outskirts of Casablanca, where he says his teacher comes to class drunk. Not his crumbling home in the city’s sprawling slums, where his mother hit him with an ax.

“She woke up in the middle of the night and found him standing with a knife in his hand by her feet, so she hit him in the head,” said Boubker Mazoz, a community organizer. “She told me she went out to buy acid to pour on him during his sleep. When she was on her way to the store, that’s when she thought of me and came to ask me to put him in an orphanage.”

But here at the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center, on the grounds of a former garbage dump in a neighborhood known for its extreme poverty, Mr. Mazoz has given Yacine a place he says he likes to be. “I told him to consider me his father and that he could tell me anything,” Mr. Mazoz said. “I had to stop this before something worse happened, before one of them killed the other.”

In a country where drug abuse, delinquency and extremism have compelled government officials to embark on what has been hailed as one of the Arab world’s most aggressive programs of slum eradication, the center is trying to lure marginalized children away from the troubled paths so often followed by those living in squalor.

Mr. Mazoz, a retired public affairs specialist for the U.S. State Department, founded the center in 2007 with private financing and the help of the town’s mayor. “I went into the slums and found that these kids were amazingly talented,” Mr. Mazoz said. “They were just never given a chance.”

The center is run by Idmaj, Arabic for “integration,” an association of youths who come from the impoverished neighborhoods they are serving. Mr. Mazoz believes that no one understands the needs of these youths more than their peers and that the children can lead by example.

The center has several classrooms, computers, an extensive library and a stage. Students join sports activities, learn French or English, attend conferences or gather to debate the issues they face. They recently began a journalism project, Words for Change, in which the children blog about their lives.

“My story is only the beginning. It is a point in a sea of interesting stories of the people in the Hofra,” wrote Leila Gouacih in “The Hofra Diaries,” where she blogs about her home in one of the country’s worst slums, Al Hofra, Arabic for “The Hole.”

“The stories here are about the tragedies that have happened to these people,” she wrote. “Through this blog I will be a voice for the people who don’t have a voice. A voice of hundreds of residents. Men. Women. And even children.”

Marisa Mazria-Katz, an American journalist who is helping to run the program, said that blogging had emboldened the children. “I was so impressed with their ambition, their drive, their tenacity, their love of telling the stories around them, and their deep respect for their subjects,” she said. “It gave them a lot of self-esteem.”

Bolstering self-esteem has been a goal of Mr. Mazoz and Idmaj. Where social advancement is made difficult for many because of the stigmatization and discrimination faced for being born in these parts, the center has empowered many.

“Before I was ashamed to say I was from Sidi Moumen, but now I am proud,” said Abdssamad Nifkiran, as he showed off a Sidi Moumen Cultural Center T-shirt that he said he wore around town.

Parents see Mr. Mazoz as a savior.

“What he is doing for these kids is amazing,” said Naima Wahid, whose children come to the center. “He is the best person I have ever known.”

Others say the center is an escape from the hardships of everyday life. “The kids have nothing to do and nowhere to go, they just hang around,” said Hassna Fatoumi, another mother, whose three children come to the center.

Many of the children endure horrid living conditions. Heaps of rotting garbage swelter in the heat and hundreds of people cram into makeshift rooms that serve as living quarters, sleeping quarters and kitchens rolled into one. Often there is no running water, no electricity and no windows for fresh air or light. Bathrooms are rare.

Poverty has led to high levels of school dropouts, illiteracy, drug use, delinquency and worse. Every one of the 12 suicide bombers who strapped explosives to their chests in central Casablanca in 2003 were products of the Sidi Moumen slums. That was the deadliest attack on Morocco to date. Those who detonated themselves in the city in 2007 also came from those slums.

In 2001, aware of the problems growing within the slums, King Mohammed VI made poverty eradication a priority, calling for a supreme jihad to eradicate the social conditions that had created the shantytowns. Then, after the attacks of 2003, he introduced “Cities Without Slums,” a program aiming to eliminate all slums from the country by 2012.

The program offers land to developers at cut-rate prices if they sell some floors of the apartments to families from the slums below market price. Loans are made easier and the families receive grants to help them pay. For a country with limited financial resources, the program has become a success story for the government.

“It was a priority of the nation because the slums were a black stain on Morocco,” said Ahmed Taoufiq Hejira, the housing minister. “The people of the slums are not people who don’t matter. They are not a separate category. The slums are an interest of all Moroccans.”

“It’s not easy, we’ve chosen a difficult problem,” he said.

But Mr. Hejira said Morocco was on track to meet its goal of a slum-free country by 2012 if all partners in the program continued to work together.

Driving through these neighborhoods, change is visible. New buildings are springing up. Children play on fields awaiting construction where slums have been cleared. During the past decade, Morocco has decreased poverty drastically and the slums are shrinking.

“As of May 2011, 43 cities have been declared Cities Without Slums,” said Fatna Chihab, director of social housing at the Housing and Urban Planning Ministry.

While impoverished residents once dismissed government promises as mere talk, today they are more optimistic. “These people are living in the slums, but they have it in their minds that one day they will be relocated,” Mrs. Chihab said. “They have hope.”

Still, some in extreme poverty say the housing is still out of reach.

“The program works, I’ve seen many leave. But I don’t have the money and can’t afford the loans,” said Fatna Helam, a single mother whose husband died in an accident while working in Libya, leaving her to raise her daughter alone. Her home, a two-square-meter, or 22-square-foot, room in Casablanca’s Al Menzah slums, is shared with her one daughter.

“I don’t have a son to work to help pay,” she said. “I don’t have an education to get a better job.”

Mrs. Chihab, however, says such cases are the exception. “There are some cases of people in extreme poverty and we must try and find adapted solutions for them,” she said.

Still, some say the new housing units are becoming cement ghettos because families with limited finances have to go in on apartments together, cramming many into a small space. “It’s just creating new slums,” Mr. Mazoz said.

For those who wait, the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center and its youth volunteers will continue to reach out to children like Yacine, who Mr. Mazoz recently took to a psychiatrist. He also found the boy a new living situation. “The mother came back two days ago with a big knife and started beating him, but the members of Idmaj were there to save the kid and call the police,” Mr. Mazoz said.

On a recent Sunday, parents gathered, music blared and a group of Sidi Moumen children took to the stage to present a play entitled “There Is Always Hope.” Mr. Mazoz stood up to thank the volunteers and encourage the children to continue. Before he could speak, the youths erupted in cheers and chants. “Father Mazoz, you love us and we love you!” they shouted, as Mr. Mazoz smiled.

Moroccan Families Taking Loans for Summer Vacations

2011-07-04T15:38:00.006-05:00

Here is a piece from Al-Bawaba about Moroccans borrowing money for summer vacations in order to prop up their social status.
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Moroccan families taking loans for summer vacations
Published July 4th, 2011 - 09:18 GMT

Moroccan took out loans totaling 83.3 billion dollars by the end of 2010, an increase of 7.1% from 2009

This summer, thousands of Moroccan families are visiting loan companies and specialized financing institutions to take loans for travel and vacations. Private loan companies use tempting publicity and advertising to attract millions of people in Morocco who want to spend their holidays in or outside the country, luring them with specials and requirements that seem easy but lead many families into an endless spiral of loans.

The phenomenon of travel loans has spread to many Moroccan families due to the steady rise of prices. Thousands of families in Morocco go to specialized institutions and companies who offer consumer loans, including entertainment and travel offers for the summer holidays, targeting those with limited or medium salaries who cannot afford to save a portion of their salary throughout the year for a comfortable holiday.

Summer holiday loans increase during the hot months. According to new statistics issued by the Professional Association for Financial Institutions in Morocco, people took out loans totaling 83.3 billion dollars by the end of 2010, an increase of 7.1% from last year.

Researcher in social economic science, Abdul Razak Blumblah, believes that Moroccan families aren’t embarrassed anymore to take loans to travel to distant cities within the country, or even to touristic countries such as Turkey for a few days. According to Plumblah, this rush of Moroccan families to take summer loans is due to many factors, such as globalization and the desire to be distinguished while socially similar to others.

As such, families take out loans which lead to a falling spiral of loans from summer to summer, because once families pay the bills on the original debt, summer has arrived again, and thus those who have limited salaries find themselves in a vicious circle which they cannot get rid of it easily.

He confirmed that this loan spiral creates a permanent worry to the debt seekers, impacting their social and moral relationships negatively, leaving them always thinking about solutions of their financial problems, and unable to give any productive and useful solutions to develop their private and general life.

In Morocco: Voting Early and Often

2011-07-01T22:23:00.009-05:00

Few are surprised that the "vote" for the constitution passed.
Here is an interesting piece from Al-Arabiya on voting irregularities in Morocco, which actually seem to be par for the course.
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Mustapha Ajbaili: In Morocco, ‘Vote early and vote often’ even if the results are preordained

Saturday, 02 July 2011
By MUSTAPHA AJBAILI

On the day my country was asked to go to the polls and say “Yes” to a new constitution, I called my parents who live in a tiny Berber village southeast of the country to ask them if people were going to vote.

My father told me that local authorities, represented by the Moqaddam, brought him voting cards for me and for my brothers who live outside the country. The Moqaddam asked my father to cast vote on our behalf.

This was without the apparent consideration to the fact that we might vote in our consulates abroad. Apparently it was O.K. to vote twice than not vote at all. Amid calls for boycott, turnout was key in the first constitutional referendum during the reign of King Mohammad VI.

Videos of people casting ballots without neither voting cards nor national ID cards are abundant on the Internet. In some cases, authorities used school buses to transport the elderly from remote areas to the voting centers.

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.

But 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.

A One-Sided Campaign for the Moroccan Constitution, or Stop Praising Morocco for Being a Model of Reform it Hasn't Yet Become

2011-06-29T18:42:00.009-05:00

Constitution. Can't live with one, can't live without one (apparently).
Here are links to 3 recent articles from the Guardian, The Brookings Institution, and AFP about the Moroccan constitution and the run-up to the typically one-sided election. The Brookings article is also pasted below.
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One Sided Campaign Spurs Moroccans to Vote "Yes" to Reforms

Morocco's Moment of Reform?

Morocco's Reform Reflect Real Divisions Within the Society

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Morocco's Moment of Reform?

Anouar Boukhars, Assistant Professor of International Relations, McDaniel College
Shadi Hamid, Director of Research, Brookings Doha Center

The Brookings Institution
June 28, 2011 —

Keen observers of Morocco have long argued that the gradual democratization of the rules of the political game will not materialize without bottom-up pressure from ordinary Moroccans. It is public outrage over corruption and political systems oriented around power and privilege that have served everywhere as a catalyst for systemic change. Despite the popularity of the monarchy in Morocco, there has been a growing mismatch between the public’s aspirations for development and democracy and ruling elites’ insistence that the existing institutional architecture is needed to accommodate gradual reforms while maintaining stability.

In the absence of a credible opposition willing to challenge the monarchy’s prerogatives, it seemed only a severe crisis of governance or external shock could force democratic change onto the policy agenda. That moment finally came with the stunning overthrow of the strongmen of neighboring Tunisia and Egypt. Those dramatic events gave birth to the February 20 protest movement. Despite its relative failure to mobilize large numbers of Moroccans, the protesters—a loose coalition of leftists, liberals and Islamists—injected a new nervousness in the corridors of power. The monarchy quickly grasped that the strength of the leaderless movement did not come from its numbers but from the legitimacy of their demands.

King Mohammed VI’s March 9 speech, in which he outlined parameters for constitutional change, was a direct reaction to the rise of new opposition forces. In an attempt to seize the initiative, he promised wide-ranging reforms, including an elected government and independent judiciary. He announced the formation of an ad-hoc committee entrusted with revising the constitution. The king’s preemptive moves, coming so quickly after the initial protests, helped in stealing some of the opposition’s momentum.

Indeed, the last two months have seen the February 20 movement lose some steam, limiting its ability to reach the levels of popular mobilization seen in Egypt, Yemen or Bahrain. In addition, public perception of the protesters has shifted as the movement struggles to articulate a workable vision for political change while shaking off suspicions it has been hijacked by radical Islamist forces. The horrendous terrorist attack in Marrakesh on April 28—in which 17 were killed—only intensified the uncertainty surrounding the movement and heightened anxiety that social and political agitation could end up benefiting violent Salafi movements.

These fears accentuated with the revolts of Salafi prisoners in May and the hardening of the February 20 demands, as reflected in their calls for cancelling the king’s popular Mawazine Festival (featuring Shakira) and direct attacks on Morocco’s notorious intelligence services (DST) for running secret detention facilities. The protesters’ targeting of the DST came at an inopportune moment, as the agency’s reputation for effectiveness was boosted with its swift arrests of the perpetrators of the Marrakesh attack. The February 20 refusal to back down elicited a violent response from the state’s security services, leading to demonstrations on May 29 in which dozens injured and one killed—the pro-democracy movement’s first “martyr.”

With King Mohammed’s June 17 speech outlining long-awaited constitutional revisions, February 20 finds itself at a difficult crossroads, trying—and struggling—to devise a response to one of the few Arab regimes that has demonstrated a flexible and apparently effective approach to the Arab revolts. Its lack of charismatic leadership and raucous decision-making process have also given the impression of a movement lacking in organizational discipline and riddled with ideological contradictions.

On the eve of the king’s speech, the balance of power between the regime and the protesters had clearly changed from the early months of 2011. In a move that kept labor unions and other syndicates off the streets, the government doubled subsidies, raised public sector salaries, increased minimum wage, recruited 4,300 graduates in the public sector, and cancelled farmers’ debt. Unlike the zero-sum political games of other Arab states facing turmoil, the Moroccan regime skillfully portrayed the promise of top-down reform as a win-win compromise between the old authoritarian constitution and the parliamentary monarchy model demonstrators have been calling for.

The new constitution provides for an “elected” prime minister drawn from the ranks of the largest party in parliament. With the king’s consent, he has the authority to appoint and fire ministers as well as dissolve parliament. Under the proposed reforms, parliament—which had long been relatively weak—now has the potential to play a more assertive role. The exercise of parliamentary oversight of the executive branch is strengthened by lowering the threshold for launching investigations (just one-fifth of its members) and introducing a censure motion against cabinet ministers (one-third). The new constitution also sets into motion a decentralization process, whereby more power is devolved to elected regional councils. On the flip side, the constitution maintains the king’s dominant position in Moroccan politics. He remains the country’s supreme religious and military authority. In matters of security—it is up to the king to decide what exactly that means—he, rather than the prime minister, will have the authority to convene the cabinet. In other words, the king will continue to have veto power over all major decisions.

Despite its failure to significantly limit the king’s powers, the new constitution provides a margin of political maneuverability that did not previously exist. The key question, then, is whether Morocco’s established political parties will use it. The success of the king’s reforms—thus far unrealized—will depend on the ability, or more likely the willingness, of parties and civil society organizations to maintain pressure on the monarchy and push the envelope further. Here, there is little reason to be optimistic. The parties’ responses to the king’s original March 9 speech were disappointing, as evidenced in their timid proposals for constitutional reform.

With few exceptions, none of the parties dared discuss the provisions outlining the king’s religious (article 19), “sacred” (article 23), and legislative (article 29) powers. Even the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), arguably the country’s only credible opposition actor, adhered strictly to the framework that the king laid out in his two major speeches. It should come as no surprise, then, that the political class assured the public that the proposed constitution exceeded their demands and expectations.

It is perhaps unrealistic—and at odds with much of political history—to expect King Mohammed, however benevolent, to voluntarily diminish his own relevance as monarch. Certainly, he can be blamed for falling short of February 20’s expectations, but the legal opposition, including Islamists and leftists alike, bears responsibility for failing to push harder. Of course, it is difficult to determine the origins of the problem. Political parties, after all, were legalized and allowed to participate in elections because they accepted the king’s legitimacy and prerogatives. They operate in an environment where speech criticizing the king—who the constitution considers “inviolable”—is criminalized.

Many Moroccans hold out hope that the youth wings of the established parties succeed in challenging (and perhaps dislodging) their compromised leadership of patronage-driven elites and politicians. Whatever its tangible successes or failures, the effects of the February 20 movement are undeniable. The movement has helped bring to the fore a new dynamic of young political activists mobilizing against entrenched power structures and calling for greater democracy and representation not just in Morocco as a whole but also within the political parties and organizations of which they are a part.

There is now, then, an unprecedented opportunity for both sides. The new constitution empowers the parliament and the political parties to play a more assertive role—if they choose to play it. The threat of revolt and instability—as well as their own indigenous protest movement—give them bargaining power vis-à-vis the king. Importantly, the constitution’s provisions also allow the king to use his unlimited prerogative to block real changes. What he does, and chooses not to do, is critical. As unlikely as it now seems, the best-case scenario is that the king follows the spirit rather than the letter of the new constitution, respects the will of his people, and resists the urge to intervene in affairs of the elected government. Constitutions matter, but what matters more is what people do with them.

This is where Morocco’s friends in the West come in. The time for prioritizing economic liberalization at the expense of democratic reform is over. While Morocco may be more “progressive” than most its neighbors, it is still a state that relies on political restrictions and repression, albeit with a subtler touch. The United States and the European Union should stop heaping praise on Morocco for being a model of reform it hasn’t yet become. American and EU policy must be re-oriented to focus on a number of critical priorities: freedom of association and speech, constraining the powers of the king and the makhzen (royal court), and strengthening the role of elected institutions, such as parliament. Meanwhile, economic aid, as the new European Neighborhood Policy states, must be linked to the idea of “more for more” with “precise benchmarks and a clearer sequencing of actions.”

King Mohamed has declared his commitment to substantive reform and democratization. It is only fair that the United States and Europe hold him to his own promises. The stakes are considerable. If constitutional reforms lead to separation of powers, independence of the legislature and judiciary, and a monarchy that removes itself from day-to-day rule, the regional implications could indeed be significant. Then—and only then—should Morocco be considered a “model.”

"They've Got Money and We've Got Nothing:" The Hellish World of Sex Tourism in Morocco

2011-06-25T18:35:00.007-05:00

Here is a video report from France24 about the rising levels of foreign sexual predators in Morocco, especially those targeting Moroccan children.
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Morocco: the Hellish World of Sex Tourism
By Aziza NAIT SIBAHA / Karim HAKIKI

Think of Morocco and you think of palaces, bustling souks and age-old traditions. But the postcard image hides a darker reality: the country is a magnet for paedophiles and sex tourists. Across the country, hundred of thousands are being exploited under the gaze of their pimps. Ours reporters took secret footage of this hellish world where men, women and children are all for sale.

The New Moroccan Constitution: Real Change or More of the Same ?

2011-06-21T13:25:00.005-05:00

Here is a commentary from Marina Ottaway of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
It gives a good background to the main issues and parties involved in the constitution debate. At the end she comments that, "The new constitution might bring about significant change, but only if Moroccans continue to exercise pressure on the king."
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The New Moroccan Constitution: Real Change or More of the Same?

Marina Ottaway Commentary, June 20, 2011

The constitution King Mohammed VI announced to his country on June 17 has been greeted by Moroccans with a great deal of ambivalence. Although it appears to be a foregone conclusion that a majority of Moroccans will vote “yes” in the referendum announced for July 1, many will do so with reservations. The young protesters who have been organizing periodic demonstrations beginning on February 20—hence the name, February 20 movement—have already announced that they do not intend to stop their actions. In fact, protests took place on June 19, drawing thousands of protesters in Casablanca and smaller numbers in other cities.
A large number of interviews during a recent trip to Morocco suggest that the king may well have succeeded in staying ahead of the protest that has led to the demise of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and plunged Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain into turmoil and violence. Whether this is just a short-lived victory in the first skirmish of a long battle or a turning point on the road to transforming Morocco into the Arab world’s first constitutional monarchy will depend not only on how the king acts in the coming months, but also on the capacity and willingness of Moroccan political organizations to build on the opportunities the constitution offers them. It may also depend to some extent on the persistence of a protest movement that has so far not been able to mobilize the huge crowds seen in Tunisia and Egypt.

Drafting the Constitution
The constitution, like all preceding ones, was written by a commission of experts appointed by the king, rather than by an elected constituent assembly or another representative body. It thus falls in the category of constitutions granted to the nation by the king, rather than those crafted by a representative organization embodying popular sovereignty. The guidelines for the new constitution were outlined in a speech given by King Mohammed VI on March 9 and the commission subsequently worked to flesh out an outline provided by the palace or, as Moroccans put it, “le pouvoir.” The commission was headed by Abdellatif Menouni, an advisor to the king, leaving no doubt where the directives came from.

The palace also set up a consultative body to work in conjunction with the commission of experts. The strangely named “mechanisme de suivi,” or accompanying mechanism, was also headed by an advisor to the king, Mohammed Moatassim, and functioned as liaison between the drafters of the constitution and political parties, labor unions, businessmen associations, human rights organizations, and other groups or even individuals interested in having an input in the new constitution. Some presented entire constitutional drafts, some only suggestions on key points. Once the submissions were made, however, there was no follow up or debate. The organizations were not shown a draft of the new constitution until June 8 and even then they were not shown a written document but only able to listen to an oral presentation that they discussed in a marathon ten-hour meeting. Inevitably, in the following days the country was abuzz with conflicting rumors of what the new constitution entailed, as various parties and individuals leaked their version to the press. The members of the “mechanism” only saw a written draft on June 16, the day before the king presented it to the nation in a televised speech. Similarly, the council of ministers was asked to vote on the draft on the same day of the public announcement.

Despite the narrow limits of consultation and participation imposed on the drafting of the constitution, the process was probably more open than previous ones. The mainstream political parties represented in the parliament accepted the process and have already made it clear that they will campaign for a “yes” vote in the referendum. This is not surprising, because the parties represented in the parliament are tame and more concerned about maintaining their prerogatives by supporting the initiatives of the monarchy than setting forth programs of their own. Remarkably, the Party for Justice and Development, the Islamist party that came in second place in the 2007 parliamentary election but remains in the opposition, has made it clear that it supports the new constitution, arguing that it contains sufficient guarantees of democracy. The major reason for the party’s acquiescence is apparently the desire to continue and complete the process of integration of the Islamists in the legal political process, a goal that the PJP has been working toward for years.

The February 20 movement on the other hand rejected the new constitution even before it was unveiled because of the manner in which it was drafted and pledged to continue protesting. The February 20 movement has never succeeded in mobilizing huge crowds similar to those that brought down Zine al Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. By the participants’ own estimates, their most successful protests were carried out on March 20 in Casablanca, Rabat, Tangiers, and a number of other towns, but even these protests were relatively small compared to those other countries experienced.

Like protests movements in other Arab countries, the February 20 movement is a leaderless and structureless amalgam of young people. It holds monthly general assemblies in the towns where it exists, with each assembly being autonomous of the other. The assemblies are open to the public and coordination among the different groups takes place, to the extent it does, via Facebook—the number of users in the country doubled in the last few months. The movement is looked at with suspicion by the mainstream political parties, although, as in other countries, the young wing of many parties have joined in without official blessing by the parent organization. The movement appears to have broad demands—essentially for democracy and jobs—but not anything that could be called a program.

Parallel to the youth groups that constitute the February 20 movement, a number of leftist political parties, independent labor unions, left-leaning human rights organizations, and Islamist movements have set up a Council to Support the February 20 movement. Most important among them appear to be the Islamist movement al-Adl wal Ihsan (Justice and Charity, or Justice and Spirituality as it insists on translating the name recently), the United Socialist Party (PSU), and the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH). Given the array and the ideological diversity of parties and organizations that belong to it, the support council is deeply divided with members forming alliances against each other. More structured than the movement itself, the support council holds meetings and issues communiqués, but it is not clear that the members of the February 20 movement themselves agree with the positions taken by the support council or even, as some conversations revealed, know of its existence.

Identity Politics
The two most controversial issues to surface during the debate over the constitution were related to the definition of the identity of the Moroccan state: whether Morocco should be defined as an Islamic state, and whether Morocco should recognize Amazigh, the language spoken by the Berber minority, as an official language.

The discussion concerning the place of Islam is caught in the problem of the relationship between Islamist parties and organizations and “civil” ones—the increasingly accepted word to denote parties that outsiders would define as “secular.” Such parties refuse to be characterized as secular, fearing the latter term can be interpreted as implying irreligiosity. The term civil not only has no such implication, but also put the religious parties somewhat on the defensive as being “uncivil.” The tension between Islamic and “civil” parties is not unique to Morocco but common to all Arab countries, particularly in this period of transformation. Indeed relations are even more difficult in Tunisia and Egypt. In Morocco, the Party for Justice and Development is legal and has been participating in several cycles of parliamentary and local elections. Although it remains a devil for some, it is at least a known devil. But the issue is far from being solved even in Morocco.

What exactly happened in the debate over the place of Islam in the Moroccan state remains difficult to understand with precision, in part because of the confusion between what different organizations actually said and what they are alleged to have said and in part because of the use of code words that are not always clear. Islamists have been accused by civil parties of having insisted that Morocco continue to be defined as an Islamic state. Islamists deny that this is the case and argue that they even favored a definition of Morocco as a “civil state with an Islamic reference.” On the other hand, there is no doubt that a suggestion that the constitution includes a reference to “freedom of conscience,” rather than the guarantee that people belonging to other religions would be free to perform their religious practices was vehemently denounced by the general secretary of the PJD as opening the way to unacceptable and provocative behavior such as public display of homosexuality and violating in public the Ramadan fasting. In the end, the constitution defines Morocco as a Muslim state in the preamble, and states that Islam is the state religion in Article 3, which also guarantees freedom of religious practices to all faiths. Compared to the text of most Arab constitutions—which proclaim sharia as one of the sources, if not the source of law—the new Moroccan constitution, like the previous one, is quite liberal. It should also be noted that in Morocco religion is an integral part of the king’s power: as the officially recognized “commander of the faithful” the king would see his position somewhat diminished if Morocco was not defined as an Islamic state.

The new constitution also recognizes Amazigh as an official language, despite the objections by conservative elements and by those who thought such recognition would dilute Morocco’s Arab identity. It also contains a reference to the plurality of influences on the Moroccan culture, including Andalusia, more broadly the Mediterranean culture, the people in the Sahara, Christianity, and Judaism. The compromise in this case appears to be language that makes it clear that the official status of the Amazigh language will be implemented slowly.

The King’s Power
Identity issues caused the most controversy while the constitution was drafted, but in the long run the real issue is how much power the king will exercise under the new constitution—and thus how much progress Morocco has made toward becoming a constitutional monarchy or, in the language favored in Morocco, a parliamentary monarchy where the king does not govern.

Even the most ardent supporters of the new constitution do not claim that the new charter reduces the king to ruling without governing. That, they argue, is neither possible nor desirable in Morocco. The new constitution reserves for the king three areas as his exclusive domain: religion, security issues, and strategic major policy choices. In addition, the king will remain the supreme arbiter among political forces. Under those rubrics, the king could very well control all important decisions, if he so chooses.

There are new formal limits on the king’s power. He cannot choose any prime minister he wants, but must respect election results and name “the president of the government,” as the prime minister is now called, from the party that received the most votes. The king will no longer participate in and preside over the meetings of the cabinet. Rather, it is the president of the government who now presides over the renamed Council of Government. However, the king presides over the cabinet, which in that case is still called the Council of Ministers, when security issues or strategic policy decisions are at stake. Since the constitution does not clearly spell out what would constitute a strategic decision, it appears that the decision is up to the king himself. His position as arbiter also gives him the power to weigh in on the most important issues.

The constitution undoubtedly broadens the power of the parliament, allowing it to pass laws on most issues; it takes steps toward protecting the independence of the judiciary; and it increases the role of a number of independent commissions. What it fails to do clearly and unequivocally is reduce the power of the king.

How much change
The new constitution might bring about significant change, but only if Moroccans continue to exercise pressure on the king. The history of political reform in Morocco shows the importance of pressure. The first big recent wave of change came when King Hassan was approaching the end of his life and understood the importance of opening up the political system some in order to facilitate his son’s rise to the throne. He was under pressure to make changes. King Mohammed followed on the path of reform, but progress was made increasingly slowly as he felt more sure of his position. It took the Arab Spring, with the example of what can happen to regimes that refuse to change and the beginning of street protest in Morocco, for the king to conclude that it was time to relaunch reform.

The impact of the new constitution depends on the way in which it is implemented. As an opposition legislator put it to this author, the constitutional text has potential. In order for it to be realized, the parliament has to adopt the necessary legislation and make sure that it provides maximum space for the political forces. The past performance by the parliament suggests that it is not a foregone conclusion that the parliament will make good use of the potential. Although Morocco has a stronger tradition of political parties than most other Arab countries, the parties suffer from the same problems as the entire political system does: they are top-heavy, internally undemocratic, with little renewal of leadership.

As a newer party more committed to change, the PJD may be less hidebound than other organizations, but one party is not enough. Furthermore, if the Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) wins the parliamentary elections that will probably be held in October, the power of the king is likely to remain strong. The PAM was created by a friend of the king before the 2009 municipal elections. Not only did it perform well at the level of the municipalities, but it established a strong presence in the parliament without ever participating in a parliamentary election—members of other parties simply moved over to the newly created entity. Before February, the PAM was expected to do extremely well in parliamentary elections, but it is not so clear how recent events will affect it. There is no doubt, though, that if a party close to the king was to win elections the reform momentum could easily be dissipated. The outcome will also be affected by the capacity of the February 20 movement to stay alive if a large majority of Moroccans approve the constitution in a credible referendum.

How far the king’s top-down reform will go may well depend on the strength of a bottom-up push by political parties and protesters.

Reading Morocco's New Constitution: The King Proposes Limited Changes

2011-06-17T23:20:00.005-05:00

Some have called the changes "revolutionary," others believe that they are no where near being enough. It all depends on your viewpoint. Here is an article from the New York Times about King's speech on Morocco's new constitution. ___________________________________________________
Morocco King Proposes Limited Steps to Democracy

By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: June 17, 2011

In a major effort to try to respond to calls for more democracy and accountability, King Mohammed VI of Morocco announced proposed constitutional changes on Friday night that would reduce his own nearly absolute powers and name a prime minister from the largest party elected to Parliament as head of the executive branch.
Related

But his plans fall considerably short of the constitutional monarchy that many protesters have demanded and leave the king with absolute control over the military and religious matters.

The proposals will be put to a national referendum on July 1 instead of in September as originally planned.

The prime minister, who would be formally called “president of the government,” would be able to appoint government officials and ministers and would have the power to dissolve Parliament. The judiciary would be an independent branch; the king has headed the council that approves all judges.

It would mean a “government emerging through direct universal suffrage,” the king said in an eagerly awaited speech on national television. The changes, he said, will “make Morocco a state that will distinguish itself by its democratic course.”

The king would remain head of the Islamic faith in Morocco and be called “commander of the faithful.” But a reference to the king in the current Constitution as “sacred” would be replaced by the expression: “The integrity of the person of the king should not be violated.” Islam would remain the state religion, but there would be a new guarantee of religious freedom.

The king, who is 47 and has been in power since 1999, has been facing growing pressure to respond to calls for democratic change and a constitutional monarchy from the February 20 Movement for Change, which began on Facebook and has carried out a series of rallies in major cities. While thousands attended the rallies, they did not compare in size to those elsewhere in the Arab world, and there has been relatively little violence or state repression of the demonstrators.

As the Arab Spring has rolled through the Middle East and North Africa, monarchies have withstood the demand for change better than secular autocrats. And Morocco, on the western edge of the region, has not escaped the demand for change. The king, who is considered a reformer and a more gentle ruler than his feared father, King Hassan II, has been criticized for stalling far-reaching reforms after terrorist bombings in Casablanca in 2003.

He has also been accused of allowing the advisers and former schoolmates around him to become wealthy from state contracts and monopolies, and of tolerating corruption.

But the proposals he unveiled on Friday were a considerable effort to try to get ahead of the calls for change.

In the last few months, he released some 200 Islamist prisoners who had been jailed in the roundups that followed the 2003 bombings.

The final draft of the reformed Constitution explicitly grants the government executive powers. Government ministers, ambassadors and provincial governors would be appointed by the prime minister, subject to the approval of the king. The prime minister could dissolve the lower house of Parliament after consulting the king, House speaker and head of the Constitutional Court.

And in another response to demands from protesters, Berber will be made an official language alongside Arabic.

The king said that the constitutional reform “confirms the features and mechanisms of the parliamentary nature of the Moroccan political system” and lays the foundation for an “efficient, rational constitutional system whose core elements are the balance, independence and separation of powers, and whose foremost goal is the freedom and dignity of citizens.”

The proposed changes did not satisfy all the protesters, who say they will continue to hold rallies pressing for more change, including one scheduled for Sunday.

Najib Chawki, an activist from the February 20 Movement, told Reuters that the reform “does not respond to the essence of our demands, which is establishing a parliamentary monarchy. We are basically moving from a de facto absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.”

But many Moroccans will see the changes as a judicious effort by the king to promote a gradual move toward democratic accountability. Mohammed Nabil Benabdallah, secretary general of the small Party of Progress and Socialism, said they show Morocco is entering a new era.

“There will be a new balance of powers,” he told Bloomberg News. “It paves the way toward the establishment of a democratic state.”

Moroccan Artisans Restore North African Jewish Center in Jerusalem

2011-06-12T22:14:00.006-05:00

Here is an article from Haaretz about Moroccan artisans who have traveled to Jerusalem to restore a center for North African Jews in traditional Moroccan style.
There is an interesting comment by a reader about the (Muslim) Moroccan quarter that was destroyed by the Israeli army in the old city of Jerusalem in 1967, and the possibility of acknowledging its destruction. But alas, we are in the era of selective, fragmented,and competing histories.
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A touch of Morocco in the heart of Jerusalem

A newly restored center for North African Jewish heritage promises to become one of the capital's most colorful tourist sites. But not everyone is thrilled with the ambitious renovation project.

By Nir Hasson

When you ask 24-year-old Abdullah Dara his profession, he replies "soccer player." But for the last few months, the 24-year-old from Rabat, Morocco has been working in Jerusalem - in the family business.

Dara is an expert in the art of zellige, the Moroccan mosaics that decorate walls and floors. His work involves preparing ceramic surfaces painted in various colors and breaking them with a delicate hammer into thousands of tiny, identical pieces. Then he and other workers arrange the miniature pieces into a giant puzzle to create a beautiful colored surface.

For the last few years, a team of Moroccan workers has been immersed in a zellige project in the heart of Jerusalem - the renewal of the David Amar World Center for North African Jewish Heritage.

The center will be dedicated on Sunday in the presence of President Shimon Peres and former President Yitzhak Navon. Dara did not hesitate to come to Israel. "We work all over the world," he says. "My brother has already worked in Spain, Dubai and France."

The center is situated between King David and Agron streets behind the Palace Hotel in Mahaneh Yisrael, one of the first neighborhoods outside the walls of the Old City. The building was constructed in the mid-19th century by Rabbi David Ben Shimon, founder of the community of North African Jews in Jerusalem who distinguished themselves from the general Sephardic Jewish community. It was used to house new immigrants from the community.

After four years of renovation and hundreds of thousands of stones, which Dara and his friends assembled into dozens of square meters of mosaic, the old building looks like a sultan's palace. It has definitely turned into the most colorful building in Jerusalem.

Authentic Moroccan style

The association of Jewish communities of North Africa, which has reconstructed the building, decided to build it in authentic Moroccan style - complete with an Andalusian-style garden, water fountains, carved and painted doors, ornamentation on the walls, and colored floor tiles.

Since there is not a single contractor in Israel who knows how to do this kind of work, the organization recruited the help of contractors and artisans from Morocco. However, the Interior Ministry tried to prevent their entry. "They didn't understand that they aren't foreign workers, they're artists. Every time they went home for a two-week holiday, it took me half a year to bring them back," says Haim Cohen, chairman of the association. When the workers finally did arrive, they didn't keep to the schedule. The Israeli employers were so afraid that the mosaics would not be ready on time for the festive ceremony that they prepared an emergency plan: wooden boards with a photograph of the mosaic, meant to serve as a cheap substitute for the real thing.

The renewal of the building in this style angered Jerusalem preservationists, who see it as importing foreign architecture and damaging a historic building.

Preservationists had reservations

"This undermines preservation, but I admit that it turned out special and has tourism value," says Itzik Shweiki, Director of the Council for the Preservation of Sites in Jerusalem. "This style is what was supposed to be the original character of the neighborhood," says Cohen.

Indeed the site is expected to become one of the city's leading tourist attractions. "The purpose of the center is to preserve the [North African Jewish] heritage through dress, music, vessels, piyyutim [liturgical poems] and prayers...and bring them to the general public," says Cohen. This will be done through exhibitions, a library and a computer center for studying the history of North African Jewish communities.

The Clash of Images [of Morocco] by AbdelFattah Kilito

2011-06-08T22:25:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting review and discussion from a popular book lover's website on a recently published translation of Si AbdelFattah Kilito's The Clash of Images. The reviewer writes that The Clash of Images will force American readers to question their understanding of the images that pervade our society and the power they exercise in our lives.
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The Clash of Images by Abdelfattah Kilito, translated by Robyn Creswell
By Natalie Storey

Abdelfattah Kilito sets his short stories in places rich with stunning imagery, such as in the shadows of a cinema, where an Arab boy watches cowboy movies, “anxious and trembling with desire.” The movie’s images -- the duel, the mount-up, the Indian attack, the fight in the saloon, the kiss -- help push the boy into adulthood and leave him troubled by their power to entrance. “In the cave whose lights had just come on they were freed of their chains, yet they wanted nothing more than to put the chains back on, to dive back into the darkness, lose consciousness of themselves and let their gazes glide over those fleeting, illusory, and deceitful images,” Kilito writes in his collection of stories, The Clash of Images, recently translated into English by Robyn Creswell.

Such scenes and the reflection that follows them provide a fascinating analysis of images in post-modern society, by an author who proves he is not desensitized to them. The collection contains 13 loosely linked stories, told mostly from the perspective of young North African men and boys. Kilito, a professor at the Mohammed V University in Morocco, primarily writes criticism of Arab literature, but makes a deft turn to a blend of fiction and memoir in The Clash of Images. The stories verge on family and cultural history, blurring the line between fiction, fantasy and reality in an attempt to cope with the meeting of Islam and the West’s various forms of image making -- the photograph, the comic book, the film and even literature like Don Quixote. Kilito attempts to map the transition of a culture from oral and text based modes of representation into today’s world, where the image rules. The stories accomplish deep reflection about the role of the image and its manipulation of identity in post-modern society with winsome storytelling and delightful characters.

The Clash of Images will force American readers to question their understanding of the images that pervade our society and the power they exercise in our lives. In the author’s note, Kilito wonders whether the image ushered Arabs into the modern world, pointing out that everyone must have a “double” today, at least in the form of government identification. This rests uneasily in societies that forbid making physical representations of God’s creation. Kilito’s Arab ancestors were faceless, lacking ids and photographs, he writes. Yet, “My idea is not at all to pity them,” Kilito writes. “What I’d like to know… is what profit they made by giving up figural representation.” The question to American readers of themselves becomes: What profit do we make by living in a society obsessed with images?

When I lived in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 2008 to 2011, I experienced the clash between the Muslim villager’s idea and my American idea of images. The refusal of my Arabic teacher’s eldest daughter to be photographed frustrated me. I couldn’t understand how else to remember her face, if I did not possess an image of her. While studying the stories of Islam, I found it difficult to visualize the Prophet Mohammed, of whom no authentic images exist. I asked my tutor over and over again, “But what did he look like?” I thought it would be easier to understand the stories they told me if I could imagine the main character in detail. Finally, my teacher acquiesced, providing a brief description from a hadith: He was handsome, with long eye lashes, and he wore a beard that often carried the red hue of henna. I quickly realized my error. The physical description of The Prophet allowed me to imagine a caricature, a stereotypical Muslim, like one from a cartoon strip in an American newspaper, an inaccurate representation. Yet, I still regret the lack of photographs of the women I cared about in Jordan. The contours of their faces have faded, a fact I cannot interpret any other way than a loss, one that an image might have remedied, at least partially. It seemed then like a contradiction for which there was no solution and Kilito, while skillfully sketching the lines of the conflict, doesn’t provide one either. Images both trouble and awe the characters of his stories.

The narrator of the story, “The Image of the Prophet,” takes up a similar issue, that of representing the Prophet Mohammed to facilitate understanding. A young Muslim boy in a French school, the narrator is confronted by an image of the Prophet in a French text book in a picture depicting the Hegira, the Muslims’ forced migration from Mecca to Medina. In the picture the Prophet, “wore a turban, a checkered jalabiya, and a flat leather sack strung across his chest. A short, trim beard covered his jaw.” Upon seeing the image, the narrator reflects:

This was, on the part of the illustrator, a risky undertaking, and one whose full consequences he didn’t seem to have considered -- unless, knowing the students who made up his audience were rather provincial, he was simply defying a prohibition he felt to be unjustified.

Although the image disturbs the narrator, his instructor never mentions it. The narrator’s pondering leads him to this conclusion: “The image is a site where eyes flee from each other, where glances never meet, where there is no face-to-face or actual encounter.” Here, Kilito’s narrator emphasizes the inherent superficiality of representation. While the image is beautiful, and while it conveys information, it also manipulates. In this way the story reaches its crescendo -- lacking dramatic action, the narrator instead offers a meditation on a small, but revealing instance of cultural collision.

The power of images has occupied Kilito’s work before, surfacing in his book of literary scholarship, Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language, translated into English by Wail Hassan. Kilito describes the shock and confusion of the Moroccan scholar as-Saffar, who first saw a crucifix in France in 1845. (Aside from the figure appearing real, as-Saffar was shocked because Jesus Christ, a prophet in Islam, is not believed to be the son of God, nor is he believed to have died on the cross.) As-Saffar notes the “strong passion for mirrors” of the French and a set of a play in the theater that, although drawn on paper, looks real. As-Saffar, according to Kilito, described the French as “masters of deceptive appearances.” The statement reads nearly like a prophecy, a foreshadowing of the airbrushing of models in magazines, video games with hyper real graphics and other types of image manipulation, which saturate Western society today.

Although the stories lack what Western readers would think of as narrative arc -- their conclusions come instead as brief epiphanies of thought -- they gain charm and believability from their young narrator or, in the case of third person narration, the young main character, and his earnest attempt to reconcile the two worlds he grows up in. The narrator proves obsessed with comics, books and films. In “Pleiades” Abdullah follows a girl named Pleiades (Thurayya in Arabic) through the streets, hoping they will accidentally meet. Pleiades earned her reputation by removing a photo of a boy from her bra and eating it to demonstrate her passion. When Pleiades has a change of heart and finally kisses Abdullah, he thinks of literature. “The verse of Mallarme, 'It was the blessed day of your first kiss,' sprung inevitably to his lips, along with the bittersweet aftertaste of an old photograph.” Kilito’s boy characters will grab the attention of readers with their humor and capacity for introspection. While the stories offer myriad insights into the world of young Moroccan boys, they also provide a site of reflection, points of reference to begin questioning our own cultural values, our own ideas of image and identity. The translation of this book into English is truly a gift to American readers.

The Clash of Images by Abdelfattah Kilito, translated by Robyn Creswell
New Directions
ISBN: 978-0811218863
128 Pages

Moroccan Poet Wins Ashiqat Poetry Contest for Arab Women

2011-06-04T11:55:00.007-05:00

Here is an article about the Ashiqat poetry contest and first prize winner Bahija Nahoudi from Morocco who won for her poem, بقايا امرأة or,"Remains of a Woman" The poem is also pasted below in Arabic.
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By MARRIAM N MOSSALLI | ARAB NEWS
Published: Jun 2, 2011 15:18 Updated: Jun 2, 2011 16:58

anaZahra.com and Yves Saint Laurent celebrate the winners of Ashiqat poetry contest

Ashiqat, the region wide poetry contest for Arab women initiated by anaZahra.com in collaboration with celebrated Saudi poetess May Kutbi, and inspired by Belle, the new oriental fragrance from Yves Saint Laurent, concluded its ten-week run on a festive note, with a recital celebrating the winners of the poetry writing contest. The six winners, determined by audience voting on anaZahra.com, will be featured on Ashiqat 2, a follow-up to May’s successful lyrical debut album.

The competition received nearly one thousand of entries from women across the Middle East: UAE, KSA, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Morocco."The level of participation has surpassed our expectations. We were looking for individuality, creativity and potential and were delighted to see so many talented and confident women join Ashiqat”, said May Kutbi who screened all entries and selected the finalists on a weekly basis, alongside a distinguished panel of Arab poets and journalists.

 The following are brief profiles of the winners:

Bahija Nahoudi from Morocco, placed first garnering 2,083 votes from anaZahra audiences for her poem Bakaya Imra’a (Remains of a Woman).

__________________________________________

بقايا امرأة

بهيجة ناهودي - المغرب

سئمتُ شكي
سئمت اكتئابي
سئمتُ أسئلةدون جوابِ
سئمتُ أرضا ته تز فوقهاأقدامي
وأصطدم فيها بالحائط والجدارِ
سئمت ضعفي
سئمتُ يقيني بأنني
في حياتك،
الإختيارالثاني

سئمتُ بقاياامرأة أخرى
سئمتُ منك حبا
يشبه الشفقةأوالعطفَ
فهي ما تركَت لي منك شيئا
لَعِبَت دور البطولة في كل القضايا
وكَتبَت لنا أنا وأنت دورالضحايا
ما تركت لي إلا أشلاء وبقايا

أخذَت نارك وإحساسك المجنوْن
أخذَت ورودك وكل الغصوْن
ما تركَت لي إلا أشواكا وشجوْن
ما تركَت لي إلا صمتا و سكوْن
وخنجرا يمزق أحشائي بجنوْن
كلما رأيتها بعينيك تجول

أخذَت منك الفرح وحتى الْدُّموْع
ما تركَت لي إلا الدمع من الْشُّموْع

فهي لم تُغادرك يوما
ما زالت فيك سيفا
يذبحك بعنف إن تَذَكَّرْتَ
ما زالت فيك عطشا
بأنهاري وبحاري ما ارتوى
ما زالت فيك حمى
تقاوم دوائي بكل القوى
فإلى متى
ستدمرني حرائق بِغيرتي أنا أشعلها
وأمشي على أشواك لا ورود لها
إلى متى
/> سأدور كالإعصار في عواصفي ورياحي
وأخوض حربا بيني وبين كبريائي
إلى متى
سأقاوم شبح امرأة لم تُغادرك
والآن لا تُغادرني
وأرضى بدور البديلة في فيلم حياتي
إلى متى
سأرضى بقطرات حب منك
وأنا أموت من الظمإ
إلى متى يا قاتلي

أيا رجلا يزرع الآهات ب صدري
ويرسم التجاعيد على جبيني
لقد تعب الفؤاد من التسولِ
والإنتظارعلى باب الأضلعِ
وصبري خَلَّفَنِي وحيدة
على أرض الأحزانِ
أمشي على رماد آلاف سبقوني
أيا رجلا يكتب بدمائي
قصة أنيني
سألتك بالله
كفى استنزافا لشراييني
سألتك بالله
مَزِّق صفحاتها من دفاترك
أَو مَزِّق صفحاتي

Police Violence Against Protesters in Morocco Reaching New Levels

2011-05-30T18:42:00.003-05:00

Here is an article from CNN.com. It seems as if the official Moroccan stance on protests has changed from the initial tolerance witnessed months ago. The whole world is (still) watching.
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Police violence reaching new levels in Morocco with Sunday beatings
From Martin Jay, For CNN
May 30, 2011 -- Updated 2224 GMT (0624 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Protesters say police on motorcycles struck out with truncheons
Government spokesman says demonstrators were provocative
EU calls for restraint from government
Protesters want more freedom, jobs, better conditions

Casablanca, Morocco (CNN) -- Security forces in Morocco appear to be intensifying their hard-line crackdown on demonstrators, with a second violent clash over the weekend leaving scores of youths injured.

On Sunday there were bloody battles on the streets between a youth movement and police. It was the second weekend in a row that police have beaten protesters with long truncheons.

Fevrier 20, Morocco's Facebook youth movement, staged a rally in the country's commercial capital without permission from the government Sunday -- sparking waves of police violence and in some cases panicking from individual officers, according to at least one YouTube video clip that shows an officer kicking and striking an old woman caught in the frenzy at least once with a baton.

The same clip shows a young man on the ground being beaten and kicked by officers while other colleagues on motorcycles accelerate through crowds striking protesters with long batons.

Mounaim Ouihi, one of the organizers of Sunday's protest, said 15,000 people gathered in the Sbata district of Casablanca to demand more democratic freedoms, jobs and better social conditions. He said police sealed off streets around the district to block people, swelling the numbers, then sent several 30-strong squads of truncheon-wielding officers charging into the crowd.

"There was a lot of violence, and we are now calling a halt," Ouihi said. "This protest has again sent out our message demanding freedom."

Yet perhaps it's a message that has fallen on deaf ears in Rabat, the country's administrative capital. The government's chief spokesman said the demonstration was banned and that police acted in response to what he described as provocative behavior by the protesters.

The protesters "were warned that this protest was illegal but their behavior was provocative," Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said. He added that there had been counter-protests in Casablanca, Rabat and Fez by citizens who wanted to express their anger at the damage to the Moroccan economy caused by the Fevrier 20 protests.

"We are concerned about the violence used ... We call for restraint in the use of force and respect of fundamental freedoms," European Union spokesperson Natasha Butler said. "... We call on Morocco to maintain its track record in allowing citizens to demonstrate peacefully. We are following these demonstrations very closely, and encourage all parties to engage in a peaceful dialogue with a view to finding solutions to the issues raised by the demonstrators."

In Morocco, unlike many other Arab countries, demonstrations are usually permitted, as long as a formal application is made to the state.

The youth movement claims it has never applied for permits and it is just recently that the government is using this as a pretext to hit it hard.

"Now we are just a few weeks away from the constitution being announced by the king's own committee and they don't want any more protests," said a protester who wished to be known only as Imad and who was injured in the battle Sunday.

Imad claims the police injured "around 100 people" who took to the streets Sunday as an immediate show of defiance to the previous weekend. Then, Moroccan police quelled a number of protests across the entire country, stopping supporters of the youth movement demonstrating against corruption and demanding more jobs. The May 22 demonstrations ended in a huge number of casualties and arrests. According to Fevrier 20, some 90 protesters were hurt, six with fractured arms and two with fractured legs.

Neither Sunday's nor May 22's demonstrations were legal, according to the government.

Soccer Player Ibrahim Afellay Role Model for Moroccan Immigrant Communities in the Netherlands

2011-05-28T00:21:00.006-05:00

Here is a piece from Radio Netherlands about the Moroccan Soccer (Football) Player Ibrahim Afellay and his positive infleunce on youth in Moroccan immigrant communities in the Netherlands.
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Football star Afellay shines a light for Moroccan immigrant community
Published on : 26 May 2011 - 3:17pm | By Johan van der Tol

Ibrahim Afellay plays for FC Barcelona in their Champions League final against Manchester United on Saturday. Though he hasn’t yet had much field time at the European level for the club, ‘Ibi’ is already a star. The Dutch footballer has become a role model for children from Moroccan immigrant communities in Barcelona and back home in the Netherlands.

To what does Ibi owe his popularity?

According to talent scout for Ajax Amsterdam Mohammed Boussatta, Ibi enjoys a good image. “It’s the way he presents himself in the media, what he’s like in public and how he treats his family. Despite getting to the top, he hasn’t forgotten where he came from,” says Boussatta.

Spare ground
Apart from looking after his mother and other relatives – his father died when he was young – Ibi is recognized as someone who provides for the wider community. He funded a project to lay artificial turf on some spare ground in Al Hoceima. Now kids in the northern Morocco town can kick a ball around.

When he was young, Mr Boussatta himself used to kick a ball around. The Ajax scout shared a small square in his Amsterdam neighbourhood with future soccer stars such as Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit. He would also see a whole generation of Dutch-Surinamese footballers grow up, including Clarence Seedorf.

So, will there be a generation of Dutch-Moroccan footballers in Ibi’s wake? Mr. Boussatta is optimistic.

“I think they’ll be even better, because Moroccan kids still play a lot on the street or on odd patches of ground. That’s why they have so much skill: there’s a mix of Brazilian technique, African mentality and Dutch tactics. That makes a player like Afellay, and those who’ll follow him, even more interesting.”

Ordinary kid
Sociologist Iliass El Hadioui is a fellow member of the Moroccan-Dutch community. According to Mr El Hadioui: “Afellay is still a kid; he comes across as nice. He behaves ordinarily – the way he’s still connected to the neighbourhood in Utrecht where he grew up and to his religion.”

“The way he still observes Ramadan is especially important, that he still fasts even when he’s playing top-level soccer. It’s physically draining. While other players choose the easier way, he practises his faith in terms of spirituality and religion. That’s won him lots of points with Moroccan kids.”

Beyond the field
Mr El Hadioui has done a lot of research into the street life of kids from Moroccan and Turkish communities in the Netherlands. According to the sociologist, they find ‘macho’ sports such as kick-boxing and football important because opponents can be outplayed and humiliated.

Ibi appears to have popularized the game among Dutch-Moroccan youth. His story has allowed young men in his community to realise they can also succeed beyond the football field, says Mr El Hadioui.

Role models evolve naturally
Youth from the Moroccan immigrant community figure relatively high in Dutch crime statistics. Can Ibi do something about that? Mr El Hadioui doesn’t think the footballer should necessarily take part in a government campaign to steer them away from trouble or towards bettering their quality of life. “Role models evolve naturally,” he said.

“As soon as the government or some other group makes use of them in a campaign, the kids on the street know that it’s cooked up. I think that would be counter-productive.”

(mw/kh)

Moroccan Police Beat Protestors in Pro-Democracy Rallies

2011-05-22T22:38:00.008-05:00

Here is an article from Reuters on the violence that met peaceful protesters today all across Morocco.
Keep Hope Alive !
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Many Wounded as Moroccan Police Beat Protestors

By Adam Tanner and Souhail Karam
RABAT/CASABLANCA | Sun May 22, 2011 7:40pm EDT

(Reuters) - Moroccan police beat protesters who defied a ban on demonstrations across the country on Sunday, leading to arrests and dozens of injuries, some of them life threatening, witnesses said.

The violence appears to signal a tougher government line against the protest movement, which has become more defiant after festive demonstrations starting in February, but has yet to attract mass public support.

Some protesters are also becoming more outspoken about criticizing King Mohammed but the demonstrations have failed to match the scale of those in several other Arab countries.

Much of the anger was directed at the Makhzen, Morocco's royal court. "Protest is a legal right, why is the Makhzen afraid?" crowds in Casablanca chanted. "Makhzen get out. Down with despotism."

A Reuters correspondent saw seven riot police attacking one bearded man in his 30s, repeatedly hitting his head and body, causing severe bleeding.

"We have been called here to preserve order because of this unauthorized protest," said a senior police officer on the scene who declined to give his name.

In Fes, three leading members of the city's protest movement were in "very critical condition," said demonstrator Fathallah al-Hamdani. Injured were also reported in Tangier and elsewhere.

No one was available at the Interior Ministry to comment on the protesters' reports.

Protesters wanted to camp in front of the parliament in Rabat, but authorities were anxious to avoid a repeat of the events in Cairo earlier this year when protesters occupying Tahrir Square eventually helped to topple the government.

In major cities, police armed with batons and shields moved people off the streets wherever they gathered. Protesters broke off into smaller groups, often with police chasing behind.

One protest leader in Rabat who had already been beaten a week ago suffered severe concussion on Sunday, said protester Jalal Makhfi.

Some human rights activists were beaten in front of police headquarters where they had tried to win the release of 13 members of the AMDH human rights group, said Khadija Riyadi, another member of the group.

Demonstrators said police beat dozens in Casablanca.

"We are standing together for dignity," one protest leaflet said. "We are against despotism, against corruption. We are for dignity, freedom, democracy and social justice."

PROTESTS GATHERING FORCE

Long seen as a relatively moderate and stable state, Morocco has experienced increasing unrest this year inspired by successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

In recent months, protesters seeking more democratic rights and economic benefits have held several nationwide protests in the country of 32 million, resulting in at least six deaths.

On Friday, a group of jobless graduates worked their way through a crowd to near the king after he led Friday prayers and chanted "Your majesty, we want jobs." State television cut off a live broadcast as the slogans began.

The outburst was considered a daring breach of protocol in a country where the king's portrait adorns many shops and public spaces and many treat him with reverence. The king is also the commander of the faithful, the leader of Moroccan Muslims who is said to descend from the Prophet Mohammed.

The royal family has ruled Morocco since the 17th century and survived both French colonial rule and independence.

Morocco has the lowest per capita GDP in the Maghreb region that also includes Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria. Many live in poverty and nearly half of the population is illiterate.

In response to the public protests, the king announced in March that he would amend the constitution to allow more democratic rights. A commission is due to announce a draft constitution next month

Berber Odes : Poetry from Morocco's High Atlas Mountains

2011-05-19T15:37:00.006-05:00

Here is a piece about a recently published compilation of Moroccan Berber poetry in translation. The article is geared towards travelers (aka tourists), but good books are for everyone.
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Book Review: Berber Odes
by Heather Carreiro.

Part of Eland’s Poetry of Place collection,Berber Odes is a compilation of poetry in translation edited by Michael Peyron, visiting professor at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco.

From my year spent studying abroad at Al Akhwayn in 2003-2004, I still have vivid memories of professor Peyron’s 8:00 a.m. course, History and Culture of the Berbers. Since no textbooks were available, we used a heavy, photocopied reader that he’d compiled over the years. It was full of academic essays, poetry, proverbs, snippets on Berber dialects, black and white photos and historical accounts.

During class, Peyron would often deviate from the day’s lecture to give a quick pronunciation lesson, share the tale of a Berber saint or expound on a proverb. His excitement made clear that he loved learning about the Berber people and sharing their culture with others.

Berber Odes is the product of almost 20 years of Peyron’s work in Berber poetic genres. Morocco’s Berber population is spread throughout the country, with Tarifit-speaking Berbers in the northern Rif Mountains, Tamazight-speaking Berbers in the Middle Atlas and Tashelhit-speaking Berbers in the Souss region in southwest Morocco. While the book focuses on poetry from the Middle Atlas, Peyron’s primary area of research, it also includes a short selection of poetry from the Rif and a substantial selection of poetry from the Souss.

The original poems were either collected via audio recording by Peyron, accessed in the Berber archives stored in Aix-en-Province, collected and shared by Peyron’s colleagues and students or derived from other historical records.

The book is a thin, light, 4” by 6” volume that can easily fit into a purse, backpack or a coat pocket. Poems are organized by region, and the back of the book includes a bibliography for further reading and an index of the poems listed by both title and first line. Each poem is given in English translation, in verse form, and is followed by a paragraph of detailed contextual information from the editor.

The collection ranges from humorous ballads to didactic religious instructions and appeals to saints, although many of the poems focus on the themes of war and bravery. The breadth of these traditional odes and the context given for each one offers unique insight into Berber history and culture. As these poems have never been translated into English before, Berber Odes is an invaluable resource for scholars and travelers who wish to learn more about Morocco’s indigenous people.

The following excerpt demonstrates the tension felt among the Berbers, who traditionally have lived in Morocco’s highland areas, regarding urbanization, moral decline and trusting outsiders.

Excerpt from “Hospitality Betrayed” (pages 84-85)

To fresh matters must I now refer, indeed there’s much to say.
Our first night I spent passing as a guest in a friend’s house.
Sufficient was the meal, even though today, come what may,
Some men are reluctant to open their door to visitors.
It takes but little patience to spend the evening together,
Enough time for intentions, worthy and unworthy, to show.
Say what I must, these times are at once good and bad.
As to what fate holds in store, how should we know?
We lack nothing material, yet our minds are in turmoil! [...]

In peace do I wish to live, trusting in fellow Berbers,
Whereas in big cities, with mixed population, crime is rife,
Women, newborn babies, all are victims of misfortune!
For a handful of coins a man will slay his neighbor!
In these times, e’en the highlands are dangerous [...]
No safety in sleeping near a nomads’ encampment!
With thy name do I comment, O Lord, thou and
Thy eternal dwelling-place!

I would definitely recommend that anyone interested in Moroccan culture pick up a copy of Berber Odes. The contextual explanations are written with a general audience in mind; you don’t need to be a poet or a scholar to appreciate the wealth of cultural knowledge that can be gleaned from reading these odes and ballads.

What I like most about the book is its small size and easy navigability. Most of the poems are shorter pieces, and you don’t need a solid half an hour to digest one of them. Instead, you can pull it out of your pocket or backpack while waiting for a grand taxi, sitting at a cafe or taking a short break while hiking in the Middle Atlas and read one or two poems.

The book is easily portable and could make for an excellent discussion starter with English-speaking Moroccans you meet during your travels. The verses and information packed into its 125 pages represents decades of the editor, Michael Peyron’s, work among the Berber people, and the book contains information and cultural insight that you won’t be able to find published anywhere else.

If you plan on visiting Morocco or know someone else who is, Berber Odes would make an ideal travel companion. Reading it made me anxious to get back to the mountains of Morocco myself.

Allegations Upend Lives of Two Moroccan Muslims in the US Army

2011-05-14T12:11:00.006-05:00

Here is an article from the New York Times about Moroccan immigrants in the US army facing discrimination and punishment due to their Islamic religious background.
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Allegations Upend Lives of 2 Muslims in Army

By JAMES DAO
Published: May 13, 2011

Two years ago, Khalid Lyaacoubi and Yassine Bahammou, immigrants from Morocco, enlisted in the Army National Guard, recruited for a program that promised higher rank, bonuses and quick citizenship to Arabic speakers who could help fill the military’s need for interpreters.

Shortly before Christmas 2009, they graduated from boot camp, proud just to have made it. But as they prepared to leave Fort Jackson, S.C., they were instead questioned by military investigators who suspected them and three other Moroccan immigrants of plotting to poison fellow soldiers.

For the next 45 days, they were placed under a form of barracks arrest, prevented from calling their families without sergeants present, forbidden to speak Arabic to each other and required to have escorts to the mess hall and the bathroom. No charges were filed, but their laptops, cellphones and passports were confiscated.

Only after the intervention of a Muslim chaplain were they finally allowed to go back to their homes. Last May, the Army concluded that the allegations against them — initially raised by a relative of a soldier — were unfounded. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation has kept its inquiry open, officials say. As a result, the men have been unable to receive security clearances, become citizens, deploy to Iraq, obtain concealed weapons permits or get government jobs, the soldiers say.

“Am I one of them, a soldier?” Specialist Lyaacoubi, 34, asked in an interview. “Or am I like one of those prisoners in Iraq?”

The handling of the two soldiers’ cases underscores the conflicted nature of the military’s relationship with its Muslim troops since the Fort Hood shootings in November 2009. A Muslim soldier, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is accused of killing 13 people there.

Specialists Lyaacoubi and Bahammou were recruited into a program intended to put Arabic-, Dari- and Pashto-speaking immigrants in uniform to help frontline commanders operate in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a promotional video from 2008, an Army officer said the program — known as 09 Lima, after the Army designation for interpreter jobs — “saves both American and local lives.”

Having Muslims in uniform also helped the military combat the view propagated by Al Qaeda — but also held by many Muslims — that the United States was at war with Islam. Perhaps for that reason, the Army chief of staff at the time, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., strongly defended the need for Muslim troops and warned about harassment of them after Major Hasan was arrested.

Despite the general’s pleas, however, Specialists Lyaacoubi and Bahammou say they were swept into a tide of suspicion after the Fort Hood shootings, which occurred midway through their Fort Jackson training.

Treated with dignity during the first half of their training, they say other soldiers ransacked their bunk room and called them “garbage” soon after the shootings. When he was initially detained at Fort Jackson in 2009, Specialist Lyaacoubi said an interrogator told him: “We are at war with Islam. And you are Muslim.”

Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group representing the two soldiers, said his group had seen a steady increase in Muslim clients who claimed they had been discriminated against since Fort Hood. He called the Army’s Fort Jackson investigation “draconian and clearly unconstitutional.”

In recent days, the Army has begun acknowledging problems with the way it handled the soldiers at Fort Jackson. An internal review that has not been made public found that they were treated in an “overly restrictive” way because they were not allowed to contact anyone for weeks. But the review did not find evidence of racism or harassment, Maj. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza, the Army’s chief spokesman, said in a letter.

General Lanza defended the Army investigation, even though it came up empty. “To not do so — had these alleged threats turned out to be credible, and in light of the Fort Hood shooting incident that took place mere weeks before these allegations — would have been an unconscionable dereliction of duty and leadership on our part,” he wrote.

But the Army has been unable to explain why the F.B.I. continues to investigate the men. The F.B.I. declined to comment because the case is continuing.

pecialists Lyaacoubi and Bahammou say the F.B.I. got in touch with them after they started going public with their stories recently. Both say that an agent said their cases could be closed if they passed polygraph tests.

“I will take 10, 20 or 30, if it will help,” said Specialist Lyaacoubi, who has taken the test.

Both men remain part of a National Guard unit in Washington, D.C. But they have not been allowed to train with their company since the investigation began.

In what they consider another sign of government harassment, both men say they have been searched repeatedly after routine traffic stops. Specialist Bahammou, 27, said he was handcuffed by the Washington police for more than 30 minutes while they searched his car recently. “I never had a ticket before,” he said.

The other three Moroccan immigrants investigated at Fort Jackson were also cleared by the Army, records show. One has returned to Morocco, Specialist Lyaacoubi said, while the other two have declined to speak publicly about the case.

Though graduates of the 09 Lima program are eligible for expedited citizenship, Specialists Lyaacoubi and Bahammou say that is not the reason they enlisted. Both won green cards in lotteries in Morocco, allowing them to live and work legally in the United States and which must be renewed after 10 years.

Specialist Lyaacoubi immigrated in 2004; Specialist Bahammou, who comes from Casablanca, arrived in 2007.

The men say they enlisted mainly for economic reasons. Specialist Lyaacoubi, from Rabat, the Moroccan capital, had been laid off from a hotel job when a recruiter told him about the 09 Lima program. He in turn persuaded Specialist Bahammou, who hoped military experience would help him get work in law enforcement.

Since returning to their homes in the Washington area last year, the men say they have had trouble finding permanent jobs. Specialist Bahammou said he had applied for work as a security guard but could not get a concealed-weapon permit because of the F.B.I. investigation. Specialist Lyaacoubi said a good job offer was recently rescinded when the employer, a government contractor, learned he was not a citizen. His naturalization, which he said had been approved, is halted for now because of the investigation.

Both men said they would deploy to Iraq if given the opportunity.

“I lived in my country for 27 years and I did great,” Specialist Lyaacoubi said. “But why should I leave America? I want to live here, I want to get married here. I want to die here.”

Ghosts of the Sahara: Photo Exhibition in NYC on the Exiled People of the Western Sahara

2011-05-10T21:17:00.004-05:00

Here is an piece from The New Yorker on a exhibition of photos by Andrew McConnell showing Sahrawi refugees and discussing their forgotten (or ignored) plight. It is currently showing in New York City. Click on either of the links highlighted above to see the photos.
________________________________________
May 10, 2011
Living Ghosts: In Exile with the Sahrawi Bedouins
Posted by Caroline Hirsch

On a recent visit to the Half King gallery, I discovered Andrew McConnell’s thoughtful and poignant project on the Sahrawi Bedouins—now into their thirty-fifth year of exile from their native Western Sahara.

McConnell says: “In pursuing the Sahrawis’ story, what struck me more than anything else was how forgotten these people are. How is it possible, in the twenty-first century, for tens of thousands of men, women, and children to languish in refugee camps for three and a half decades—unknown? How can continuous U.N. resolutions and international laws be ignored and abused without censure? And how can human-rights abuses proceed unchallenged?”

McConnell decided to stage his portraits in the darkness: “I wanted to give a sense that this is one long night for the Sahrawis—lasting thirty-five years. My showing very little of the land emphasizes that the Sahrawis are landless. By lighting them simply and in darkness, I am trying to say, ‘Look! These people are here!’ Their statements are a grim rebuttal to international efforts in Western Sahara; the majority want a return to war. Finally, I wanted the viewer to see what I had seen: a people utterly forgotten, abandoned, hidden from the world’s consciousness—a people living as ghosts.”

Alarming Hike in Unmarried Mothers in Morocco

2011-05-07T20:06:00.006-05:00

Here is an article from CNN about the 27,200 unmarried Moroccan women who became mothers in 2009. There are a lot of steps that should be taken before mere "acceptance" of unwed mothers such as improving youth employment and financially assisting youth to get married.Increasing education opportunities for females. Also, basic sex education and improved access to birth control. Holding Moroccan males responsible for their inappropriate sexual behavior is a great idea too - these women didn't get pregnant all by themselves.
____________________
Study reveals alarming hike in unmarried mothers in Morocco
By Martin Jay, for CNN
May 3, 2011 -- Updated 1945 GMT (0345 HKT)

* A recent study says number of unwed mothers in Morocco rose dramatically from 2008
to 2009
* Study shows 60% of unwed mothers are younger than 26 and a third younger than 20
* Strong prejudice still remains against unwed mothers from most groups of society

A recent study published by a Casablanca support group for single mothers says the number of Morocco's unmarried mothers in 2009 is at least double those in 2008 -- 27,200 compared with 11,016 the year before, according to the Institution Nationale de Solidarite Avec Les Femmes en Distresse.

As in most Muslim countries, it is considered an intolerable shame on a family in Morocco if a daughter falls pregnant outside marriage. In many cases, families totally reject a daughter who becomes pregnant before marriage.

Morocco's unmarried mothers are mostly young, said Houda El Bourahi, the institute's director. The study shows 60% are younger than 26 and a third younger than 20, she said.

According to the 350-page report, the mothers are often in "vulnerable" professions, such as house servants, and the majority have a low level of schooling. Often, the women believe that their sexual partners will marry them, and so agree to their demands, according to the study.

Despite Morocco being modern in so many respects, strong prejudice still remains against unwed mothers from most groups of society.

"It's time to put an end to prejudices held against these women though who are considered by (Moroccan) society as prostitutes," El Bourahi said. "These women are rejected by their families and by society and are not protected by the law."

Since the end of last year, 7,000 women in Casablanca alone had been assisted at the organization's Center of Listening on the outskirts of the city, the commercial capital of Morocco with a population of almost 4 million. Furthermore, 2,000 children have been accepted legally by the civil state and 540 have been recognized by their fathers.

The women's rights agenda has accelerated dramatically in recent years in Morocco largely following an initiative by King Mohammed VI to give women more equality, both at home and in the workplace. A new law adopted in 2004 gave women more rights as wives, for example.

Still, few men accept unmarried mothers and their offspring despite less of a stigma these days toward women who take up jobs and consider virginity to be an outdated virtue. While many men consider single mothers to be prostitutes, sex workers reportedly represent a tiny percentage of Morocco's unmarried mothers.

Stealing Morocco's Cherished Cedar Wood

2011-05-03T12:36:00.005-05:00

Here is an article from the AFP about illegal cutting of cedar trees in Morocco's Middle Atlas region.
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'Cedar mafia' threatens Morocco's cherished wood

By Omar Brousky (AFP) – 4 days ago

AJDIR , Morocco — Revered as the "king of the forest" in Morocco, the native cedar tree is under increasing threat from illegal logging -- a crime which also threatens the country's main water reserve.

In the Ajdir forest, in the heart of the Middle Atlas mountain range, these imposing trees once covered every slope. Now their numbers are in rapid decline, to the bitter dismay of the local Berber-speaking population.

"Each year thousands of trees - some of them several centuries old - are illegally felled as many forest wardens turn a blind eye," human rights activist, Aziz Akkaoui, told AFP.

A favourite of cabinetmakers, cedar is a symbol of power and opulence in Morocco's stately homes and its natural oils have been known to act as an insect repellent.

Now the conifer, which covers about 134,000 hectares (330,000 acres) of the North African country, is at risk of disappearing.

Just a few metres from a forest warden's hut, by a tree-lined lake, lies the stump of a freshly-felled cedar.

"This tree was felled with a saw whose noise the forest wardens could not help but hear," said Akkaoui, from the Moroccan Association for Human Rights. "There are the poachers who cut the cedar illegally; the carpenters who buy the wood; there are some corrupt Water and Forestry agents and some corrupt justice ministry officials," he said.

"So you can talk about a cedar mafia, an organised mafia."

Within the forest, some inhabitants admit that they themselves have cut down cedars illegally in order to survive in this poor mountainous area.

A villager named Ahmed said: "We don't have much choice. There's nothing here."

"But to cut down a tree you have to give bribes to the warden -- between 2,000 and 3,000 dirhams (190-280 euros/270-400 dollars). It depends."

"Each time a group of locals want to go cut down a tree they give a forest warden a fee," he added.

Each cedar, which take up to 30 years to reach maturity, can earn illegal loggers up to 800 euros. If lawfully traded, villagers can benefit from a sum three times that.

Every year communities hold wood auctions which bring in around one million euros. Furious locals say they no longer profit from the trade, however.

"Look around you, there's nothing," said Ahmed. "Here we are dirt poor. Why don't we benefit from the revenues of our village after the legal sales of the cedars?"

"There's no work, no schools, no hospitals. We want jobs, facilities, projects to help us and improve our lives.

Those responsible for managing the area's water and forest programmes deny the villagers' claims.

"When someone is caught, he's obviously going to accuse a forest warden. But there's no proof to say that he gave a warden money," said Mohamed Chedid, from the Centre for Development and Protection of Forest Resources.

Observers have warned for many years about the effect of the illegal trade in cedars, which hold water and reduce erosion in an area regarded as Morocco's main water reserve.

"Uncontrolled logging leads to erosion and desertification, which threatens the ecological balance of the region," said academic Abdeslam Ouhejjou.

"The Middle Atlas forests are Morocco's main water reserve and any disruption there has repercussions for the rest of the country," he warned.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

Thousands Protest for a New Morocco

2011-04-25T23:31:00.004-05:00

Here is an article from Reuters Africa on the recent protests that took place across Morocco.
_________________________________

Thousands of protesters demand 'A New Morocco'
Sun Apr 24, 2011 5:04pm GMT
By Souhail Karam

CASABLANCA, Morocco, April 24 (Reuters) - Thousands took to the streets of Morocco on Sunday in peaceful demonstrations to demand sweeping reforms and an end to political detention, the third day of mass protests since they began in February.

Desperate to avoid the turmoil that toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, authorities have already announced some changes to placate demands that King Mohammed cede more powers and limit the monarchy's extensive business influence.

Some 10,000 people joined the protest in Casablanca, the largest city in one of the West's staunchest Arab allies. Marchers in the capital Rabat also denounced corruption and torture as well as unemployment, very high among youths.

Policing has been low-key for protests by the February 20 Movement, named after the date of its first march, particularly compared to the turmoil elsewhere in North Africa.

"This is more about the young ones than it is about us," said Redouane Mellouk, who had brought his 8 year-old son Mohamed Amine, carrying a placard demanding "A New Morocco".

"Our parents could not talk to us about political issues. They were too afraid. This must change," said Mellouk.

Although levels of popular anger have risen, ratings agencies assess Morocco as the country in the region least likely to become embroiled in the type of unrest that toppled Tunisian and Egyptian regimes and led to the conflict in Libya.

In Rabat, several thousand people marched through poor districts with high levels of unemployment and away from the centre, where the previous monthly demonstrations have been held. There was no sign of trouble.

DISAFFECTED YOUTH

A 74 year-old man in Casablanca who gave his name only as Ahmed said Morocco's youths were right to protest.

"Look at them. They are educated and like most young educated Moroccans, they are idle," he said. "Everything in this country is done through privileges. You need an uncle or a relative somewhere to get somewhere."

Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament, but the constitution empowers the king to dissolve the legislature, impose a state of emergency and have a decisive say in government appointments.

King Mohammed last month announced constitutional reforms to give up some of his powers and make the judiciary independent, but protesters want more.

There is also resentment at the royal family's business interests through its holding company SNI.

One of the banners waved by the Casablanca marchers depicted the King's holdings as an octopus with tentacles stretching out to subsidiary companies. "Either money or power," it said.

Islamists also joined in the protests, demanding the release of all political prisoners. Authorities freed 92 political prisoners, most of whom were members of the Islamist Salafist Jihad group, earlier this month.

In Rabat, the wife of Islamist Bouchta Charef, who has said he was tortured in prison while accused of terrorism, called for all Islamists to be freed.

"They have made my children homeless," Zehour Dabdoubu told Reuters. "Every month I move from one house to another. I'm persecuted because people think I am the wife of a terrorist."

The banned Islamist opposition group Al Adl Wal Ihsane has maintained a low profile at the February 20 demonstrations, but said it supports them.

"It's excellent what's happening in Morocco. It's a quiet revolution," Nadia Yassine, daughter of the movement's founder, told Reuters by telephone. "We're moving slowly but surely."

(Additional reporting by Zakia Abdennebi and Barbara Lewis in Rabat; Writing by Barbara Lewis; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved

Morocco's Monarchy : Reform or Fall

2011-04-23T16:17:00.004-05:00

Here is an interesting editorial on the Moroccan Monarchy from the Economist magazine. ________________

Morocco's monarchy Reform or fall
Has the king’s promise of reform come in the nick of time—or not?

Apr 20th 2011 | CAIRO | from the print edition

WHEN a protest movement sprang up in Morocco on February 20th King Muhammad VI chose to ignore it. The next day he spoke of speeding up reforms, but ignored calls for radical change. This infuriated pro-democracy campaigners, who promised to protest again. But then, on March 9th, he suddenly changed tack, calling for a drastic overhaul of the constitution, echoing the protesters’ main demand. Parliament and the courts, he said, would become more independent. Power would be devolved to regional councils. The prime minister would have more clout. And the Berbers, known as Amazigh, would have more rights too.

Overnight, Morocco’s generally malleable political leaders and newspaper editors, who had at first rubbished the demand for a new constitution as subversive, became the keenest of reformers. They hailed the appointment of a committee headed by a leading lawyer to produce a draft by June, for endorsement in a referendum in September, as a sign that Morocco would undergo a “peaceful revolution”.

The king’s allies abroad rushed to congratulate him. Alain Juppé, France’s foreign minister, called his speech “courageous and visionary”. Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of state, praised his proposals, saying that Morocco was “on the road to achieving democratic change.” A recent tour of the country by Britain’s Prince Charles “confirmed that Morocco is stable”, according to the prime minister, Abbas el-Fassi. The promise of constitutional reform has been widely welcomed by Moroccans and may, for a while, avert the turmoil that has engulfed much of the region. But protesters have continued to take to the streets in big numbers every weekend since March 20th. Many say that a constitutional commission appointed by the king is bound to reaffirm his executive power. A Spanish- or British-style monarchy is not yet, they sigh, in the offing.

Though most of the protesters express respect for the person of the king, criticism of the manner in which his monarchy operates has grown. Too much power is said to be concentrated in his palace circle. Complaints are growing that the royal family owns too much of the country. The National Investment Company, known by its French initials, SNI, is said to control Morocco’s biggest bank, insurance company, dairy and cooking-oil firms, as well as a large acreage of real estate—and is now often castigated for its anti-competitive practices. The denigrators even carp at the king’s cultural policies and call for the Mawazine festival, an annual musical extravaganza held in the capital, Rabat, to be cancelled on the grounds of excessive cost.

Such outright criticism of the monarchy, which has become widespread, itself marks a small revolution. The protesters have also taken on the main political parties, whose leaders have previously tended slavishly to echo whatever the king says. This in turn has forced some of those leaders to become more critical. Journalists who had been exiled or kept out of print by the government in recent years have resurfaced online, with websites sympathetic to the protesters. In one dramatic case online journalists have aired a litany of corruption allegations against Moncef Belkhayat, the minister of youth and sports, challenging him to answer questions about the dispensing of government contracts. He has denied the charges, but such scrutiny is unprecedented.

Citizens’ initiatives are sprouting, with local councils and firms accused of corruption and overcharging for municipal services. The king’s constitutional initiative may lead to the institutional breakthrough many hoped for at the start of his reign in 1999. But if it stalls, a wave of even angrier protest may well erupt in September. So the next few months will be critical to the king’s survival.

Fez Hosts Annual Sufi Festival فاس تستضيف مهرجان الصوفية الخامس

2011-04-20T21:32:00.004-05:00

Here is an article from Margharabia.com about an Islamic spirituality festival going on now in Fez. An Arabic version of the article can be found here. Here is a link to the festival page if you are blessed to be "in town."
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Fez hosts fifth Sufi festival
An annual Sufi celebration enables visitors to explore Morocco's spiritual riches.

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 20/04/11

The Fez Festival of Sufi Culture has entered its fifth year. The eight-day event, which runs through April 23rd, offers lovers of this culture a great variety of exhibitions, performances, round-tables and Sufi evenings.

"This is an opportunity for experts to lead the thinking on what this heritage has to offer at the very heart of modern society," event chairman Faouzi Skalli explained.

According to organisers, the festival aims to help Moroccans rediscover the artistic, intellectual and spiritual riches of their own culture and send out a positive image of Islam internationally, with the universal language of openness and peace which is a central aspect of Sufism.

The event also aims to reinforce Morocco's place in intercultural dialogue, building a bridge between the East and the West.

This year's festival centres on female figures in Sufism. It was inaugurated by Moroccan diva Karima Skalli, whose performance held the audience spellbound, and featured Spanish group Al Kawtar.

According to Faouzi Skalli, this year's choice of theme was no accident; he said that Sufism's spiritual romanticism, whether expressed by men or women, has given women an essential symbolic significance. This role is the precursor of the natural recognition of the importance of their place and their role at the heart of society.

Women, he added, have a calling to participate in spreading the message of peace and tolerance.

Over the past four years, the festival has enjoyed obvious success because there are many followers of the culture in Morocco, both men and women, expert on Sufism Karim Jamali said. Sufism enables man to rediscover his spiritual dimension in a modern materialistic world and to move towards real fulfilment, he added.

"Sufi chant immerses us in our distant past and soothes our spirits," said student Hakima Srariri, who is a fan of Sufi culture. "The festival has become a must event for those who follow Sufi culture and who meet every year in the spiritual capital."

She emphasised that "this culture must be promoted, because it preaches a number of noble values such as tolerance and the acceptance of differences".

"It's my parents who imbued me with the spirit of Sufism, which has helped me a great deal through life," added Srariri, who studied every detail of the programme, particularly the samaa evenings, together with her parents.

Jamila Chamoumi, a Moroccan woman living in Italy, has been coming back to her home country annually for three years to attend the festival. She spoke to Magharebia about the benefits of Sufism in the world which has experienced a global crisis of values.

"I sincerely feel that Sufism is a real educational science. It guides us towards the profound outcomes of its ethical rules," Chamoumi said. "I'm keen to instil the spirit of Sufism into my children, so that they will be tolerant and open to others."

"This is all about transforming oneself, leading to improved relations with society," she added. "The festival is an opportunity for me to recharge my intellectual and spiritual batteries."

Moroccans Register Their Traditional Marriages

2011-04-17T18:54:00.006-05:00

Here is an article from Al-Arabiya News about government officials going to rural areas to officially recognize marriages that took place outside the domains of Moroccan bureaucratic hoop-jumping.
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Moroccans to register traditional marriages

Friday, 15 April 2011

By NADIA IDRISS MAYEN
Al Arabiya with Agencies

Moroccans will be required to register traditional marriages from 2014 when the planned legislation will take effect, in a report issued by the government.

The Ministry of Justice wants to document official statistics on marriage contracts under the new Family Code. The code will be applicable to all Moroccans. There is little information available on how many Moroccans living in remote areas are married due to the cumbersome registration process and bureaucratic delays.

The government unveiled an action plan based on bringing judicial services to remote areas in a bid to provide legal services, especially for the uneducated.

In 2010, in the outskirts of the city of Marrakech, a court proceeding took place in a tent in the village of Tighdoine in the suburbs of El Haouz. Couples were invited to register their marriages. The mobile tent traveled between remote villages to allow couples in far-flung places to get registered.

On the first day of the proceedings, more than 20 couples came to document and certify their marriages for the first time in their lives. In one case, a judge interrogated a woman in her eighties who wanted her marriage with her deceased husband recognized despite his death years ago.

One woman, Nasima, talked to Al Arabiya about the advantages of documenting a legal contract of marriage. “I am here to legalize my marriage for [the sake of] myself and my children,” she said.

This registration drive saw the number of documented marriages reach more than 13,900. Authorities hope they will see similar results elsewhere.

Mohammed Minyani, a judge who conducts the registration in villages, said: “A marriage has to be in the presence of a group of witnesses as it enables them to certify their contracts, which will provide relief from any administrative difficulties they might face.”

Observers in Morocco criticize the slow pace of the judicial system but the ministry of justice hopes the mobile courts will redress their complaints.

Political Prisoners Freed By Moroccan Government

2011-04-14T22:07:00.005-05:00

Alhamdulilah. Free at last. Great news from Maghreb , the release of the prisoners is attributed to the street protests. Keep up the good work Ya Shabab! Here is the article from Reuters Africa.
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Morocco frees 92 political prisoners after protests
Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:20pm GMT

* Pardon comes after biggest street protests in decades

* Preacher sentenced over Casablanca attack among the freed

By Souhail Karam

RABAT, April 14 (Reuters) - Morocco freed 92 political prisoners on Thursday, including a prominent anti-corruption activist and a controversial preacher, under a pardon issued by the king following street protests demanding democratic reform.

The pardon also commuted to limited prison terms death penalties for five others and life imprisonments for 37 others, officials from the National Council for Human Rights said.

Prison terms for 53 others were also reduced.

The majority of those freed or whose sentences were reduced were members of the Islamist Salafist Jihad group.

Mohamed Sebbar, appointed secretary general of the Council by King Mohammed in March, said the pardon was a prelude to a thorough review of the cases of political prisoners in Morocco.

Those freed included preacher Mohammed Fizazi, who was sentenced in 2003 to 30 years in jail after he was convicted of inspiring 12 suicide bombers to kill 33 people in Casablanca earlier that year, in Morocco's deadliest bomb attack.

Local human right groups have said hundreds, including Salafist Jihad sympathisers, were jailed after the attack in politically motivated trials, often without solid evidence.

Last month, King Mohammed announced constitutional reform to give up some of his sweeping powers and make the judiciary independent in Morocco, a staunch ally of the West.

It came after a youth-led movement called February 20 spearheaded some of the biggest anti-establishment protests in decades in the North African country, with demands that included the release of political prisoners.

"This pardon indicates that the king has once again picked up the streets' message," political analyst Ahmed el-Bouz said.

"SHAM CASE"

Five people who were jailed in 2009 after a court convicted them of plotting terrorist attacks in the country and who were among those freed were present at Thursday's news conference, including prominent figures of two moderate Islamist parties.

"I would like to thank the youth of February 20 Movement," Mustapha Mouatassim, one of them, said.

Abdelhafid Sriti, a correspondent of Hizbollah's al-Manar television channel in Morocco, was another released prisoner.

Mostly-veiled female relatives broke into tears and chanted "God is Greatest" when the group was brought to the Council venue in black cars.

One woman, Houria Amer, wept in disappointment when she realised that her husband Luqman Mokhtar, who was also jailed in 2009, was not among them.

"They have all been jailed unfairly under the same sham case. How can they free some and leave others in prison?" she told Reuters.

Corruption whistleblower and human right activist Chakib El-Khiari, jailed for three years in 2009 after accusing high-ranking officials of involvement in drug trafficking, was among those pardoned and freed.

Human rights group Amnesty International has said Khiari was a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for his anti-corruption statements and human rights activities.

According to U.S. diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks in December, corruption is prevalent at all levels of society and has become "much more institutionalised with King Mohammed".

The government earlier this month promised to protect corruption whistleblowers. (Additional reporting by Zakia Abdennebi, Editing by Gareth Jones)

© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved

Stolen: A Film about Modern-Day Slavery in the Western Sahara

2011-04-10T20:19:00.006-05:00

Here is a piece from popmatters.com about the newly released documentary film "Stolen," that talks about the uncomfortable reality of modern day slavery in the Western Sahara and other places in North Africa.
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'Stolen': Seeing More Possibilities
By Cynthia Fuchs 5 April 2011
PopMatters Film and TV Editor

You can’t change these ideas until you get out and see other possibilities.
—Tizlam

“Is it true my white grandmother beat you as a child?” asks 15-year-old Leil, Her mother, Fetim, looks at her hard, still chewing her lunch. They sit at a table, a TV behind them, as well as a doorway, open onto a bright white daylight. Leil continues, “Violeta already knows,” as the camera cuts to filmmaker Violeta Ayala, seated across from them. Her face turns cloudy as she listens: “You’ll be in trouble, by saying that we were beaten,” cautions Fetim. Again, the camera shows her instructing her daughter, “It’s always been that slaves are beaten from a young age.”

The scene breaks here, as Leil gets up to welcome a younger sibling inside, through that bright-lit doorway. And the film, Stolen, has changed. Before this moment, as Ayala has narrated, the documentary was observing preparations for a family reunion. Fetim had come to a refugee camp in the Algerian desert as a child some 30 years ago, leaving behind her Moroccan mother Embarka and her siblings. At first, Ayala says, she and Dan Fallshaw meant to film Spanish-speaking refugees in the Western Sahara, and felt lucky to have access to a family about to reunite, thanks to a program initiated in 2004 by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees that brings Moroccan family members to the camp for five-day visits. With some 27,000 on the waiting list, the fact that Fetim and Embarka have been selected seems miraculous.

And yet: this story is now reframed, as Ayala and Fallshaw learn that their subjects are not only refugees, but also slaves. The filmmakers can’t begin to guess at the complications that follow from this discovery.

Stolen—screening 5 April at Stranger Than Fiction, a co-presentation with the African Film Festival, and followed by a Q&A with Ayala and Fallshaw—charts their efforts to understand what they find. Their questions elicit astonishing and also cryptic stories, as Fetim and Leil, as well as Fetim’s cousin Matala, sort through what is safe to tell “the foreigners.” The storytelling process, as it unfolds on camera, is at once fascinating and alarming, as it becomes clear that saying “too much” is more costly for Fetim than her Australian visitors anticipate.

At the same time, the filmmakers’ parts in the process are also complex, as they are increasingly responsible for what they’re filming—whether by paying for part of the celebration for Embarka’s visit or by documenting stories told by Fetim and her family, descriptions of the system of slavery still in place in the camps and elsewhere. As the film reports, the Polisario Liberation Front, a nationalist organization backed by Algeria, have been fighting with Morocco over the Western Sahara for the last 34 years. Neither the Moroccan government nor the Polisario wants such stories documented. And yet, with at least 2 million black people living in slavery in North Africa, Stolen insists, telling such stories is only a first step.

Indeed, Fetim’s initial revelation that she has a “white mother,” Deido, surprises Ayala, who wonders how they ended “up together, with so much racism in the past?” Deido explains, sort of. “Saharan people are not all the same,” she says, her interview shot as she sits before a striking red tent wall. “Some of them buy black people and own them, others free them, but keep them as their family. We don’t talk about this anymore.”

Still, Ayala and Fallshaw find that some black Africans do talk about this, but only when they are alone together, and for a brief time, in front of the “foreigners.” The film pieces together bits of conversations, a fragmented structure that results from the filmmaking process per se, as the Polisario and then the Moroccans try to confiscate and at last steal their tapes. The effect of the fragments is to the point, however, as the stories are shared and whispered, then covered over or repressed, as experiences are acknowledged and then denied, as autonomy is named—in the form of “liberation,” as Deido says she has granted to Fetim—and then rescinded, when papers are withheld and daily life continues as such.

As Ayala and Fallshaw tell it—their own voiceovers working in tandem, finishing each other’s sentences—they’re struck by Fetim’s submission to Deido, her performance of chores and her lack of independence. Further, though no one will “speak about this,” they also discover that Embarka belonged to Deido’s father, and that she bore him several children. “Deido’s father fucked her,” says Fetim’s friend Jueda after Fetim becomes so unnerved by the conversation that she leaves the room. “That’s how the white girl Fatma was born,” Fatma being Fetim’s sister, still living with Embarka in Morocco.

A friend of Leil, Tizlam, is also outspoken concerning what it means to be a slave. “You’re just scratching the surface,” she says, her face at once poised and fierce in dim shadows. “They come and take the children and the parents can’t say anything, they have no rights.” Her grandmother concurs, and they seem willing to speak, though they don’t seem to expect a change. “There is no law for us,” Tizlam says, “What we want is for this not to exist. It should be erased, it should be from the past, not the present or the future.” Ayala and Fallshaw describe their growing concern, not only for their own safety but also for “all the people who trusted us with their stories.”

Their worries are well founded, as they are detained by the Polisario. The filmmakers bury their tapes in the desert—an apt and awful metaphor for the experiences they’ve heard about—and then escape to Paris, where they pursue the story, hoping to recover their material and make public what they’ve witnessed. A phone call with Leil reveals, however, that their own ambitions and hopes don’t matter much: Leil cries, “Trying to do good, you did bad. Now the police are all over us.” As Ayala ponders this notion in voiceover, that “without intending to, we got Leila and Fetim in a lot of trouble,” the film structure makes clear the problem: she’s in a hotel room, at a distance. None of us can know what Leil and Fetim are experiencing—off camera.

The film traces how Ayala and Fallshaw come to know the ongoing complexities of slavery. As it is denied by most North African regimes (in Mauritania, Mali, and Senegal, as well as Algeria and Morocco) and described here by Ursula Aboubacar, the Deputy Director of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, as “a cultural issue that is existing.” That is, as Aboubacar puts it, the UN can only “combat” the practice by bringing it to the attention of local police forces, the Polisario included. Ayala is horrified by the lack of power wielded by the UN, or anyone else, it seems. Indeed, as Tizlam has said, “There is no law for us.”

The documentary makes this case forcefully. In addition to assembling interviews that officials and others have tried to keep quiet, it includes footage of a screening and audience responses in Sydney. The ethical questions here impossibly tangled: even after Fetim, Leil, and Deido withdraw their consent to appear in the film, Alaya and Fallshaw include not only their interviews, but also footage of Fetim at the film’s premiere (the Polisario, a note explains, “flew Fetim to Sydney to protest at the film’s premiere,” along with her husband). Her objections have led to other repressions, as the Swedish public broadcaster SVT-UR has pulled the movie from its schedule. While the truth remains elusive off-camera, Stolen insists that still more needs to be exposed, that documentation is indeed only a first step.

To Kiss or Not to Kiss King M6's Hand?

2011-04-05T23:46:00.005-05:00

Here is an short piece from the Arab News Digest of the UAE newspaper The National about calls to abolish the practice of kissing the King's hand. This should be the least of people's concerns regarding what needs to change about the Moroccan government, but it is a nice distraction. ___________________________________

Royal Moroccan protocol under review

"Media sources said that the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, might introduce fundamental changes to the royal protocol. An essential part is the habit of kissing the monarch's hand by citizens. The royal court, it is said, will issue a communiqué to finally and officially abolish this practice," reported Mahmoud Maarfouf in the London-based newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi.

Earlier, officials had called for a simpler and more practical royal protocol at a time when the role of the monarchy is under discussion within a constitutional reform framework, as Mohammed VI highlighted last month.

The Moroccan newspaper Al Osboa said that official sources from the royal palace confirmed that some customs were outdated. It is expected to release a statement on the matter shortly.

The minister of state and deputy prime minister Mohammed el Yazghi agreed, adding that there is no reason not to propose a new set of protocols that are acceptable to both king and country.

Kissing the king's hand was the subject of a special dossier published on Saturday by the Al Ittihad al Ishtiraki newspaper, an affiliate to the Socialist Union Party, where it called for new protocols that cancel outdated practices. They should keep up with the evolution of society, but without disrespecting Moroccans' esteem for the person of the king, said Moulay Ismail Alaoui, a senior official at the Party of Progress and Socialism.

Moroccan Journalists Demand More Freedom from Government Authorities

2011-04-02T10:39:00.003-05:00

Here is an article from Magharebia.com concerning recent protests by journalists working for state run media in Morocco. They believe that being able to do honest reporting needs to be apart of the reforms that everyone is speaking about.
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Moroccan state media urges greater freedom

State press workers hope that the Moroccan king's promises of reforms will translate into enhanced media liberties.

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 01/04/11

As part of the reform process initiated by King Mohammed VI, Moroccan state television channels started broadcasting political debates, allowing greater openness to scrutinise the king's initiatives.

"People are watching political programmes more often, whereas before, most weren't interested in them because of what was said on them," teacher Zohra Belaid said. "We hope that this trend towards freedom of speech and expression will continue to develop on all levels."

Some experts and members of the public, however, doubt that the change is noticeable and call for altering the editorial policy of state channels.

Journalists staged sit-ins across the kingdom to demand freedom of expression and greater independence from the authorities. For them, political change must also involve reform of the state media, changes in editorial policy and the departure of those currently in charge.

It is impossible to imagine democracy in Morocco without far-reaching media reform, according to National Moroccan Press Syndicate (SNPM) chief Younes Moujahid. He said that the national debate about constitutional reform must be managed by credible and free media institutions.

The state audio-visual sector has long been stagnant and it's time to do something about this state of affairs, according to Mohamed Wafi, head of the union of TV channel 2M workers.

"Given the competition posed by satellite channels, and in order to restore viewers' confidence, the national channels must be reformed to address current expectations and needs," said Wafi, whose union staged a sit-in in Casablanca on March 18th.

Moroccans want to watch uncensored, high-quality shows with programming tailored to their needs, said Mohamed Abbassi, Secretary-General of the Democratic Audio-Visual Media Union. According to him, the aim is to earn viewers' loyalty through a new approach based on freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said at a March 24th press briefing that the way in which the media is run is among the major areas of reform initiated in Morocco. He underlined that the issues raised within the state media would be dealt with as part of the agenda for the reforms under way, some of which relate to management, governance and organisational and legal aspects.

"The managing bodies of media institutions are listening to the demands that have been made, which they are considering in a positive light with a view to implementing the necessary solutions to them," he said.

Political analyst Samir Machouli argued that state media had a major problem in terms of credibility and must use ethical standards and present a diversity of viewpoints.

"The state media is discredited because of the censorship practised with regard to several topics, especially politics," he said.

"The winds of change are blowing, provided that the transformation continues, as this new era needs very strong media that reflects what is going on in society," Machouli concluded.

Moroccans Protest King's 2 Billion Dollar Investment Fund

2011-03-30T23:21:00.003-05:00

Here is an article from Bloomberg Businessweek about King M6's 2 Billion Dollar Investment Fund and his controlling shares in Moroccan markets. Such dominating economic power could be seen as a conflict of interests for the ruler of a country.
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Moroccans Protest Monarch’s $2 Billion Fund as Democracy Barrier
March 24, 2011, 12:44 AM EDT

By Gregory Viscusi and Aida Alami

March 24 (Bloomberg) -- When tens of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets nationwide on March 20, their chanted demands echoed those of citizens across the Arab world: freer elections, greater civil liberties and less corruption.

Except they were also protesting an investment fund.

SNI, with assets worth at least $2 billion, is controlled by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and managed by Mohamed Mounir Al Majidi, the king’s private secretary, who has business interests of his own. The 47-year-old monarch holds stakes in banking, insurance, dairy, sugar and cooking-oil companies; his advisers are involved in ventures from consulting to advertising.

For protesters, SNI’s web of interests highlights the flaw in the king’s March 9 promise pledge to put Morocco on the path to becoming the Arab world’s first constitutional monarchy. Unless the influence wielded by Mohammed VI and his advisers is weakened, his promises will ring hollow, they say.

“You can’t have fair competition when the people with power descend into the souk,” said Abdelilah Benkirane, leader of the Justice and Development Party, an Islamist party modeled on Turkey’s AKP. “That has to end.”

“SNI Out” and “Majidi Go Away,” read banners held by demonstrators in many of the 53 cities that saw protests.

The popular movements that ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have spread to Morocco, though with a difference. The crowds have been smaller and peaceful. Police have kept their distance. Moroccan protesters are demanding greater democracy and an end to corruption, not a change in regime.

Moroccan Difference

The best way to reduce the king’s hold over the economy is to pressure him to go through with the constitutional changes he’s promised, Benkirane said. The ruling family has reigned since the 17th century, and Mohammed VI’s grandfather led the liberation struggle that ended the French protectorate in 1956.

“A political person can’t also be an economic actor,” said Chakir Aboubakir, a 28-year-old freelance salesman and business student involved with February 20, a Facebook-based movement that organized protests on that day and again on March 20. “He has to choose.”

Mohammed VI has already loosened freedom of speech since becoming king in 1999, even setting up an Equity and Reconciliation Commission in 2004. It investigated thousands of victims of disappearances and arbitrary detentions under Mohammed VI’s father, King Hassan II.

The constitutional changes, to be drawn by a commission by June, will be put to a referendum in this country of 32 million.

Strikes, Demands

During three days last week, unemployed university graduates gathered outside the parliament in Rabat to demand jobs, teachers camped outside the Education Ministry protesting low wages, retired bus drivers in Casablanca demanded back pension payments outside the city courthouse and members of February 20 met at the headquarters of an opposition party to debate strategy. Police were barely in sight.

Among the 17 Arab countries, only Kuwait and Lebanon were freer than Morocco, according to last year’s annual rankings by Washington-based Freedom House.

“The monarchy is not contested,” said Omar Radi, a 25- year old economist and also a member of the February 20 group. “Other countries haven’t had the opening we’ve had since 2000. He’s let some pressure off.”

Share Buyback

SNI, which has no website and operates from an unmarked Casablanca office building, was listed on the Casablanca stock market until August 2010, when it merged with its subsidiary Omnium Nord Africain and bought back its outstanding shares in a $3.9-billion offer.

In 2009, its last full year as a quoted company, SNI reported revenue of 3.4 billion dirhams ($430 million) and stock market holdings valued at 17.4 billion. ONA and SNI accounted for 11.7 percent of the Casablanca market’s 509 billion dirham market capitalization at end of 2009, according to figures in the bourse’s annual report.

According to the website of Bourse de Casablanca, the country’s main stock market, SNI combined owns 48.3 percent of Attijariwafa Bank, the country’s largest publicly traded bank; 79 percent of Wafa Assurance, the largest traded insurer; 63.4 percent of Centrale Laitiere, its largest dairy; 75.8 percent of Lesieur Cristal, its largest maker of cooking oils; and 63.5 percent of Cosumar, the largest sugar refiner.

Steel and Sugar

It controls 65 percent of steelmaker Sonasid through a joint venture with ArcelorMittal set up in 2006. Lafarge Maroc, the country’s largest producer of building materials, is in a 50-50 venture with Paris-based Lafarge SA.

At the time of the merger, SNI said it would sell its stakes in Cosumar, Lesieur Cristal and Centrale Laitiere, which is has yet to do. Shares of Cosumar and Centrale Laitier are both up 10 percent since the beginning of the year, making them the ninth- and 10th-best performers on Casablanca’s benchmark Madex index.

The index is unchanged since the start of the year, while the Dow Jones Arabia Titans 50 Index is down 9 percent. Its 10th-best performer: Attijariwafa Bank, up 0.4 percent.

SNI didn’t respond to phone and e-mail requests for comment. A receptionist at the unmarked SNI office space in an Attijariwafa office building in Casablanca’s business district said no documentation was available. Communications Minister Khalid Naciri didn’t return phone and e-mail messages.

‘Beneficial Rights’

“Institutions such as the royal family’s holding company, Omnium Nord Africaine (ONA), which now clears most large (property) development projects, regularly coerce developers into granting beneficial rights to ONA,” said a U.S. diplomatic cable written in December 2009 by Casablanca consul general Elisabeth Millard and released by Wikileaks.

The king’s advisers are involved in the economy as well. Fouad El Himma, the former deputy minister of interior who now heads the Party of Authenticity and Modernity, owns Cabinet Mena Media Consulting, said Rachid Filali Meknassi, secretary-general of Transparency Maroc, a Rabat-based organization linked to Transparency International. Majidi, the private secretary, owns FC Communication, the country’s largest outdoor advertising company, Filali said.

“Once there is a real parliament and government in place, then the real battle against the Makhzen can begin,” said Azzedine Layachi, a political science professor at St. John’s University in New York. He was using a Moroccan term that means the “warehouse” and refers to the royal advisers, business leaders and top bureaucrats who hold power behind the scenes.

Prime Minister

In his 11-minute speech on March 9, seated between his seven-year old son and his 40-year old brother, the king said he would strengthen the powers of the prime minister, who will come from an elected political party, and promote free and fair elections. Regional councils also are to be elected.

The king didn’t mention abolishing the constitution’s Article 19, which has been interpreted to give him full powers, and he’ll choose the members of the commission himself -- ignoring two demands of the February 20 movement.

Karim Tazi, the former head of the Moroccan Textile Industry Federation, the country’s largest industrial employer, said the state-run media’s derision of the February 20 movement and the king’s power over the economy are worrying signs.

“There’s clearly pride on the side of the king, that he wants to do it at his own rhythm and not be rushed by the street,” Tazi said. “The risk is that by not listening, the palace will radicalize the movement.”

--Editors: Anne Swardson, John Fraher

Souk Zaouaj : Moroccan Online Marriage Site Makes News

2011-03-27T20:55:00.005-05:00

Here is an article from the AFP about a new website Moroccans are using to find spouses.
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Morocco: website gives new twist to 'arranged' marriages

By Omar Brouksy (AFP)

CASABLANCA, Morocco — Marriage in Morocco has an increasingly changing face these days as young men and women in search of lifetime partners head for the souk, in this case a "cyber" marriage souk.

In a country where many marriages are still arranged, a click of a computer mouse will take the Internaut to Soukzouaj, a free site where thousands of lonely hearted young Moroccans look for their soul mates

"This marriage site was created in June 2010," Yasser Nejjar, founder of soukzouaj.ma, told AFP.

"So it's recent but but it has a real success because it's free and it's near."

Every day almost 2,600 prospective partners visit the site, two thirds of them women. Its shows a map of Morocco divided into 16 sections, and the user can click on the part of the country they choose to start their search.

"Today, for example, there are 1,670 posts from women as against 870 from men. To my mind that means women are more daring than men," Nejjar observed.

"Most of the posts show there is a great desire for commitment and 'seriousness', in what they call 'halal', that is to say legal, which is in line with religious norms. In short, marriage."

Observers of Moroccan society regard matrimonial sites as a new phenomenon, linked to new forms of communication, even if there are many family-arranged marriages in a country where Islam is the state religion.

"Today girls make demands," said sociologist Soumaya Naamane Guessous.

"They want husbands who love them, who respect them, men not smothered by their mother, who allow them to live far from their in-laws."

She says that the success of soukzouaj, quite apart from the fact that it is free, in a country where arranged marriages are common, is due to the fact "that young girls no longer accept the first suitor who knocks at their family's door, or whom the family suggests."

Latest official figures show more than 13 million surf the net in this North African kingdom of about 32 million residents.

The Internet has also played a role in recent demonstrations for pro-democracy reform in Morocco, following a trend across the Arab world that started in Tunisia where sweeping protests led to the ouster of president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in January.

The first rallies in several Moroccan cities on February 20 were in answer to a call by young people via Facebook.

On Soukzouaj, most of the posts by women, in the Moroccan dialect, darija, and French, emphasise the need for "respect" for them and a requirement that the prospective spouse be a "practising Muslim".

"Young Moroccan woman, teacher, seeks Muslim with a good heart, good man, who respects women and is generous from every point of view," reads one post.

The men, for their part, highlight their social standing and "seriousness".

"I am Simo, 28, from Rabat, computer engineer in a ministry, practising, nice and very serious, looking for serious girl from same city for serious relationship which, God willing, will result in a bright and holy marriage," said one man in search of the wife of his dreams.

The arrival of marriage sites demonstrates the upheavals and changes resulting from the modernisation of part of Moroccan society, observers say.

"We see, too, that there is a lot of loneliness, disappointment among both men and women," said Nâamane Guessous.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

Demographic Change in Morocco: Living Longer, Marrying Later, and Having Fewer Children المغرب يشهد تحولا ديمغرافيا

2011-03-24T22:25:00.007-05:00

Here is an article from Magharebia on documented changes to the Moroccan lifestyle. The Arabic version can be found here.
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Morocco Faces Demographic Change

Moroccans are living longer, marrying later and reducing their fertility rate, according to a recent state report.
By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 18/03/11

Moroccan society is witnessing massive demographic and social shifts, a recently released National Demographic Survey concluded.

While the average Moroccan born in the 1960s had a life expectancy of 47 years, it has now risen to 74.8 years, the findings conducted in 2009-2010 revealed.

"There has been an increase of 28 years, resulting from the drop in mortality rates in the various age groups. The speed at which these rates have changed is, as we know, strongly related to the extent of improvements made in sanitary and living conditions," explained High Commissioner for Planning Ahmed Lahlimi at a Rabat press briefing on Monday (March 14th).

The Morocco infant mortality rate, though still high, has fallen considerably. In the early 1960s, almost one child in every seven died before their first birthday, compared with one in 33 today.

Recent years have seen a sizeable reduction in fertility, according to Lahlimi. In 2004, the fertility rate was 2.46 children per woman. But in six years, it has dropped approximately 2% per year. "This is quite a remarkable phenomenon when the fertility is already low," he said.

According to the official, these transformations in reproductive behaviour suggest underlying changes in marital practices. The marriage age has increased considerably in the past fifty years. In 2010, women married at an average age of 26.6 and men at 31.4, which is 9.3 and 7.5 years later, respectively, than in 1960.

The indicator is higher in urban areas than in the countryside, with rural men marrying on average 2.5 years earlier than those living in towns and rural women tying the knot 1.8 years earlier than city dwellers. Today, nine out of ten women aged 15 to 19 years are still unmarried.

Endogamy, which has traditionally been encouraged as a way of maintaining family cohesion or safeguarding family assets, fell from 33% in 1987 to 29.3% in 1995, reaching 21% in 2010. The current divorce rate is 10.5% compared with 31% in the 1960s.

Far-reaching changes had occurred in value systems and social behaviour, against a backdrop of considerable cross-fertilisation of Moroccan populations under the effect of immigration, Lahlimi said.

The falling demographic rate can also be seen in the reduced population under 15, which made it possible to increase inputs into education and improve the quality of those entering the labour market, he explained.

Economist Saâd Beddari told Magharebia that the importance of such a study lies in the identification of new needs, so that changes can be made to match the society transformations.

The working population, essentially made up of young people, is without doubt a considerable asset, he said, but that requires the state to step up its rate of investment in leading sectors. This, Beddari argued, can partly be done by adjusting the education and training system to match the new requirements.

Detailed analysis is needed to bring practical solutions to the emerging problems, according to sociologist Samir Kassimi.

"We have seen, for example, more and more single people – both men and women – because of socioeconomic problems," she said. "We see more and more older women who do not work and are not married. They are looked after through family solidarity. The state needs to take new these changes into account in order to plan suitable support mechanisms."

Bringing Si Abd El-Krim, the Rifi Warrior Home to Morocco

2011-03-21T23:05:00.004-05:00

Here is a piece from Public Radio International' show the World on the valant man from the Rif who fought Spanish and French colonizers in Morocco, and attempts by his relatives to get his remains repatriated to Morocco from Egypt. If you clink on the link, you can access the audio.
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Abd El-Krim: A Moroccan Hero who Never Was
By The World ⋅ March 17, 2011

By Gerry Hadden

As North African and Arab citizens cast about for leaders to fill the political vacuums in their countries, a quick remembrance of one such leader from days gone by. Abd El-Krim made his name liberating northern Morocco from Spanish colonial rule, in 1921. He was a scholar, a warrior and, for a brief time, even an emir. But Abd El-Krim was also a Rif, an ethnic group within the region’s larger Berber community. And that’s kept him sidelined in Morocco’s official history.

It began with the decisive battle against the Spanish, in 1921, at Annual, in the
mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco. The fight pitted Abd El-Krim and his rag-tag Rif militias against thousands of Spanish troops. One former Rif fighter, an elderly man named Chaaib Si-Mohand N’aali ,spoke of their victory in a Spanish documentary three years ago.

“Abd El-krim was our leader,” the old man recalled. “We surrounded the Spanish. They resisted. But they were afraid and exhausted. We wiped them out.

The Rif are ethnic Berbers … the indigenous people who’ve lived in North Africa for more than two millennia. The story of how their leader, Abd El-Krim, liberated them from colonial exploitation has become a legend for them. Journalist Merieme Addou’s grandfather fought alongside Abd El-Krim. Addou said Abd El- Krim was far outnumbered by the Spanish and knew he couldn’t fight an ordinary war.

“You need to have a tactic to win,” she said. “The Rif is a region of mountains. As foreigners, if you come here you don’t know this place. You don’t know where you are. So it was kind of using this very hard, difficult land, using it as a way to defeat the Spanish; using guerilla fighting.
Declaring independence

After victory, Abd El-Krim established the Rif Republic, a state independent not only from Spain and Morocco’s other colonizer, France, but from Morocco itself. The Republic’s new emir sent letters to every European head of state to announce it.

But his declaration fell on deaf ears. Five years of fighting later, the combined Spanish, French and Moroccan armies drove Abd El-Krim into exile, in Egypt. He died there in 1962 without ever setting foot back in Morocco. Not even after it gained full independence from France in 1956.

The Rif rose up once more, in 1958, and were brutally put down by then King Mohammed V. The repression continued under the next king, Hassan II according to Samed Assid, a Berber activist.

“Hassan II had a policy of vengeance,” Assid said. “He punished the Rif. Like Ghaddafi is doing now to his own people, in Libya. Hassan massacred the Rif population. And we have never forgotten. And we have not integrated. Today we are still a separate population.”

As for Abd El-Krim, Assid said the Moroccan government has simply fabricated his role in history.

“His story has been falsified in our schoolbooks,” he said. “Open a Moroccan textbook today. It says that Abd El-Krim fought against the French and Spanish …for the Moroccan throne. The books don’t mention his project to set up an independent Rif
republic. That is taboo.”

Assid said the taboo started in 1921, the moment Abd El-Krim declared his Rif Republic. The Moroccan state, dominated by Arabs, never wanted to mention the subject again.
Disappearing taboos

But 90 years later, some taboos surrounding the Berber have disappeared.
Assid, who is now president of the Morocco’s Royal Institute of Berber – or Amazigh – Culture, demonstrated on a recent day, sitting in his office. He sang a traditional Berber poem. In his hands he held a book with the lyrics, written in the Berber alphabet.

“Our current King, Mohammed VI, created this Institute,” he said. The king has also allowed our language back in public schools. And he’s allowed it to be written down, in its own alphabet. Before 2001 this was forbidden. If someone wrote in Berber letters on a sign or hotel awning, for example, he would be jailed.”

But one Berber wish remains unfulfilled; Abd El-Krim remains buried in Egypt. And there’s no indication that the government will let his relatives bring his remains home. But the pressure is mounting, said journalist Merieme Addou. She said that during Morocco’s largest pro-democracy march this February, some Rif carried Abd El-krim’s photo, and signs asking for his repatriation.

“I think there is no real reconciliation with the Rif people until his body is back and buried in his home town,” she said.

Moroccan Berbers are also talking about forming their own political party. If they do, and democratic elections are held, the Rif may just be able to vote their legendary hero home.

Moroccan Craftsmen Build Maghrebi Courtyard at NYC's Metropolitan Museum of Art

2011-03-18T19:23:00.007-05:00

Here is an article from the New York Times about Moroccan craftsmen from Fes who are in New York to build a traditional Moroccan- Andalusian courtyard inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its Islamic Art gallery.
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History's Hands
By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: March 17, 2011

WHEN the Metropolitan Museum of Art makes a big curatorial decision, it tends to do so with the kind of grave deliberation that goes into a papal bull. Gut feeling is not a prized consideration. But in the spring of 2009, in a dust-covered basement workshop in Fez, Morocco, a young curator in the museum’s Islamic department sat among a group of artisans — workers in traditional North African tile, plaster and wood ornament whose roots stretched back seven generations in the trade — and asked the company’s chief executive yet again why the museum should enlist them for an unusual mission.

The executive, a boyish-looking man named Adil Naji, reached over and took hold of the wrist of one of his younger brothers, Hisham. He hoisted the brother’s rough, callused fingers in front of the curator, Navina Haidar, and, with a climactic intensity that wouldn’t have been out of place in “Lawrence of Arabia,” exclaimed, “Look, this is my brother’s hand!”

As Ms. Haidar recalled recently, back in the much less cinematic confines of a museum construction site: “It was a very powerful moment. It made up our minds because we could see how close he was to the tradition. And we wanted to see that hand on our walls.”

She and her colleagues had gone to Morocco in search of help for a kind of project that the Metropolitan, which generally concerns itself with the work of dead artists, has rarely undertaken in its 140 years: to install a group of living artists inside the museum for the purposes of creating a permanent new part of its collection.

The last time such a thing happened was in 1980, when Brooke Astor underwrote the re-creation of a Ming dynasty garden courtyard, made by more than two dozen master builders from Suzhou, China, who spent four months on the job within the museum’s Chinese painting galleries, working with hand tools unchanged for generations.

Almost 30 years later the museum was embarking on the most ambitious rethinking and rebuilding of its Islamic art galleries in its history, a $50 million endeavor. At the heart of those galleries, which will open in the fall after being closed six years, it dreamed of showcasing the defining feature of Moroccan and southern Spanish Islamic architecture: a medieval Maghrebi-Andalusian-style courtyard, which would function in much the same way such courtyards still do in the traditional houses and mosques of Marrakesh or Casablanca, as their physical and spiritual center.

The problem was that, while the museum owns entire blocks’ worth of historic architecture, it did not happen to have a medieval Islamic courtyard sitting around in storage anywhere. And so after months of debate about whether it could pull off such a feat in a way that would meet the Met’s standards, it essentially decided to order a courtyard up.

Which is how a group of highly regarded Moroccan craftsmen, many of whom had never set foot in New York, came essentially to take up residence at the Met beginning last December, working some days in their jabador tunics and crimson fezzes (known as tarbooshes in Morocco), to build a 14th-century Islamic fantasia in seclusion high above the Greek and Roman galleries as unknowing museum goers passed below.

With world attention focused on the Middle East, the courtyard has taken on an unforeseen importance for the museum; for the Kingdom of Morocco itself, which has followed the project closely; and for a constituency of Muslim scholars and supporters of the Met. They hope it will function not only as a placid chronological way station for people moving through more than a millennium of Islamic history, but also as a symbol, amid potent anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States and Europe, that aesthetic and intellectual commerce remains alive between Islam and the West.

“Every one of these guys here knows what this means, what’s riding on this,” said Mr. Naji, 35, the president and chief executive of Arabesque, a company of craftsmen founded in Fez in 1928 by his great-grandfather, now run by Mr. Naji and three of his brothers.

It was late December, and he was gesturing across a cluttered, unadorned room that didn’t look like much of a symbol, much less a reimagined medieval courtyard, except for high metal armatures suggesting the forms of arches. Mr. Naji’s brother Hisham, 33, of the callused and persuasive hand, stood atop a scaffold covered in plaster dust. Below him, covering a swath of the floor, lay tens of thousands of pieces of clay tile, many not much bigger than grains of rice, fitted together face down in a big rectangle that looked like a shallow sandbox scored with impossibly intricate lines. The tiles had been shipped from Fez, where large pieces had been fired in ovens fueled with olive pits and sawdust and then hand cut into individual shapes by 35 workers over a period of four months.

Inside the Met that morning an Arabesque specialist in this kind of painstaking mosaic work, known as zellij, sat cross-legged, placing some of the final pieces into the arrangement with tweezers as another scattered dry grout between the tiles. Handfuls of water were then sprinkled like ablutions over these areas to begin to cement the pieces in place. And when it was all dried, the dado panel was hoisted up into its place along one of the courtyard walls, filling the room for the first time with the kind of kaleidoscopic color and tessellated patterning meant to transport visitors from Fifth Avenue to Fez. (The tiles’ traditional function is to soften the solidity of the walls. “The surface is seemingly dissolved,” Jonas Lehrman, an architectural scholar, wrote in “Earthly Paradise: Garden and Courtyard in Islam,” a 1980 study. “Yet throughout the entire organization, even the smallest units are related by the overriding discipline of the geometry.”)

Over the course of two months a reporter and photographer were invited to watch as the space began to transform slowly from a 21-by-23-foot drywall box — illuminated by an LED panel in the ceiling cleverly mimicking daylight — to a courtyard with tile patterns based on those in the Alhambra palace in Granada, above which rise walls of fantastically filigreed plaster, leading to a carved cedar molding based on the renowned woodwork in the 14th-century Attarin madrasa, or Islamic school, in Fez.

The men from Morocco, 14 in all, came in waves, and despite suffering through their first New York winter, they settled comfortably into two large condominiums in Jackson Heights, Queens, accommodations that Adil Naji persuaded the owner, a Lebanese man, to lease to them, even though it was a nonrental building, by describing their mission at the Met. The men hired a local Moroccan woman to cook for them, and every morning they carry their kebabs and couscous in lunch boxes to the Met.

Occasionally New York still throws a curve ball or two. After a recent breakfast in Queens with the company’s lawyer, the men made their way to the No. 7 train, and the oldest Naji brother, Mohammed, 40 — the family’s most revered craftsman, a maalem, or master carver — was almost arrested after his monthly Metrocard failed to swipe properly, and he simply walked through an open emergency gate. On the subway later, wearing his customary street clothes — pointy-toed cowboy boots, baseball cap, a baby-blue fur-lined jacket — he seemed unperturbed, smiling broadly.

Adil Naji, who went to college in Washington and speaks perfect English, asked his brother how he could be so calm, and then translated the answer: “He said: ‘I had a lawyer, a reporter and a photographer with me. What was going to happen?’ ”

Sheila R. Canby, who was recruited two years ago from the British Museum to lead the Met’s Islamic department and oversee the renovation of the galleries, said that the back and forth between the craftsmen and the curators had sometimes been tumultuous. The Moroccans, who are known for their restoration work on important mosques and other landmarks in the Middle East, are in essence living historians who have carried on patterns and designs preserved in practice for generations. But they have never attempted a job requiring this level of historical attention or artistry, one whose goal is to look as authentic to Moroccan eyes as to those of scholars.

“We have been very difficult clients, sending drawings back over and over again,” Ms. Canby said recently, watching the men work. “We didn’t want any intrusions of modern interpretation.”

Ms. Haidar added, “They’d say to us, ‘But our great grandfathers did it this way,’ and we would tell them, ‘We’re taking you even further back into your history.’ ”

Adil Naji, listening in, shrugged his shoulders diplomatically. “It was fun to go back and forth,” he said.

Ms. Canby laughed out loud: “You say that now.”

Perhaps almost as remarkable as the presence of the craftsmen inside the Met is that the team of scholars and planners who recruited them and have collaborated closely with them is composed mostly of women, one of them Israeli. Besides Ms. Canby and Ms. Haidar, the group includes Nadia Erzini, an art historian and curator at the Museum of Islamic Life in Tétouan, Morocco; Mahan Khajenoori, from the museum’s construction department; and Achva Benzinberg Stein, an expert on Moroccan courts and gardens and a professor of landscape architecture at City College.

On a recent visit to the museum Ms. Stein became emotional surveying the work under way, describing how she had fallen in love with books about Moroccan architecture as a young woman in Tel Aviv but had been unable to travel there until the mid-1970s because she was Israeli. “This is like the culmination of a life’s work for me,” she said, wiping away tears. “To me it means the possibility of so many things, of peace.”

By late February inside the courtyard the wall tile work had been completed, and the woodwork, as redolent as a cedar closet, had been mostly installed. Still to come before the opening in the fall would be a specially designed self-circulating fountain and benches designed by Ms. Stein.

Mohammed Naji and seven other plaster carvers had just set to work on the most painstaking part of the job, incising interlaced patterns into the still-soft wall, arabesques and other forms so tiny and complex that each man can sometimes complete only a four-inch square over the course of a day.

“This kind of work is really not done anymore in Morocco — it’s too time consuming, too cost prohibitive,” Adil Naji said, watching his eldest brother sitting on a stool, peering over a pair of reading glasses, carving with a thin wood-handled knife and pausing metronomically every few seconds to lean forward and blow the dust from the crevices.

Mr. Naji beamed, but he conceded, as he watched the company’s greatest work taking shape, that one thing worried him.

“Two of my guys told me that they wanted to retire after this, because they couldn’t see a way to top it,” he said. “I wake up at night with this fear that when we’re done, they’re all going to stand back and look at it and hang up their tools for good.”