A Moroccan 2004

[LalaMimi]

Society:

Family Code: the top reform

The Moroccan Family Code is considered the top reform of 2004, and a model in the Arab and Islamic world. The House of Advisors unanimously adopted the new Family Code on January 23, 2004, after it had been adopted by the House of Representatives


The family law reforms, in harmony with the teachings of Islam, were seen as “revolutionary” and were largely welcomed in Morocco and worldwide.


These reforms appeared in most national and international newspapers and news websites with headlines such as: “Morocco reform plan welcomed”, “Moroccan King plans women’s rights reform”, “Family law change to end polygamy in Morocco”, “A King’s Appeal”, “Moroccan women win more rights”, “Morocco’s Family Code reform to mark a revolution”, and “Morocco could become women’s rights model among Muslim countries”
Specialized jurisdictions have been set up in Moroccan courts to implement the new Code.


Justice Minister, Mohamed Bouzoubaa, said that “the government is keen to meet all the necessary conditions for a successful implementation of the Family Code, and make sure the law meets the aspirations of all Moroccans.”
He added that “the implementation of the reforms depends on the creation of fair, modern and efficient jurisdictions for the family and the training of qualified people.”

Decent housing

Over the last few years, and especially since the May 16 attacks, the Moroccan government has been working at improving housing conditions for the poorest sections of the population.


In addition to improving already existing areas by adding equipment to respect international hygienic norms, the government also re-housed families.


However, the gap between house building and the growing needs is still far from closed: according to Abdelaziz Filali, head of the National Agency for the Fight Against Unhygienic Housing (ANHI), 125,000 dwellings are needed every year, while only 90,000 are being built.


Because of this situation, 40,000 people are reduced to living in dwellings that do not follow national norms. Over four million Moroccans are living in unhygienic conditions.

A new labour law

After years of discussion, the new labour bill was finally voted in 2004.
The new law contains clauses concerning labour contracts and lay-offs. It reinforces workers’ rights to negotiation and raised the minimal working age from 12 years to 15.


The minimal wage was raised by 10%, the protection of women in the work environment was reinforced, and working time was reduced from 48 hours a week to 44.

Children's begging
Fighting against the exploitation of children

The Minister of Social Development, Family and Solidarity, Abderrahim Harrouchi, announced in November 2004 his department allocated MAD 20 million to the fight against the exploitation of children for begging.


The project, which is to be applied on a national level, was tested in Casablanca in December 2004


It is based mainly on the integration of children both within families and in schools and the implication of local NGOs in increasing awareness of the dangers of this phenomenon.


The Ministry also announced it would launch 1,816 “proximity projects” in 2005, for a total cost of MAD 320 million. These actions will be aimed at setting up infrastructures, social services, income producing activities as well as helping the social integration of people in difficulty.

Holidays for everyone

150, 000 children were expected to benefit from the 2004 version of “Holidays for Everyone”, a programme launched by Secretary of State to the Prime Minister in Charge of Youth, Mohamed El Gahs


The programme, which cost MAD 55,587,000, gradually extended the number of infrastructures available for children, made it possible to increase the number of beneficiaries from 49,000 in 2002 to 100,000 last year.


“These holiday camps have a strong civic impact, they teach children how to live within a community. In a holiday camp, young people understand that they belong to a nation, that there are common values, that they have a common destiny, culture, history and future. I think this is a fundamental apprenticeship of what makes up a nation, in other words, the respect of the elementary common rules for living together”, he said in an interview to the Moroccan weekly « La vie Eco ».


In addition to repairing 80% of disaffected places reserved to youth, the Secretary adopted strategies aimed at encouraging other educative, artistic and cultural activities such as the creation of theatre clubs, the national theatre festival, reading activities, etc.


Moroccan community well integrated in Belgium

2004 provided the Moroccan community in Belgium with an opportunity to present its culture, both because this year was the 40th anniversary of the arrival of the first Moroccan generation of immigrants in Belgium, but also because one of their members made it into the government.


In Feb. 17, 1964, Morocco and Belgium signed an agreement for the recruitment of Moroccan workers. To commemorate that day, several conferences, concerts, theatre and cinema spectacles were organized during this year. While these activities focused on the cultural background of Belgium’s four generations of Moroccan immigrants, they did not shy away from the everyday problems faced by their community, such as discrimination in schools or at work.

However, despite these problems, the very fact that Belgium’s French community Minister of Culture, Audiovisual and Youth is a woman of Moroccan origins shows how much her community managed to integrate in its new environment.


Mind you, 37-year-old Fadila Laanan is only the tip of the iceberg: regional elections in June this year led 82 people with Moroccan origins to be elected.

Van Gogh, or the chronicle of a crisis fortold

In Holland, the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh by 26 year-old Dutch-Moroccan Mohammed Bouyeri triggered violent anti-Muslim reactions, with over 20 acts committed against Muslim buildings, among them schools and mosques.


Just before his death, Theo Van Gogh produced a film dealing with domestic violence, with the collaboration of MP Ayaan Hirsi, a Somalian who fled her country when her father tried to force her into an arranged marriage.
The film provoked an outcry among the Muslim community by suggesting that the Qur’an encouraged domestic violence against women. Muslims in the Netherlands also protested against some pictures in the film showing Qur’anic verses written on a woman’s body.


Van Gogh’s murder triggered a crisis of confidence in the whole country, leading authorities to consider more severe treatment of Muslim immigrants. In the meantime, the local Muslim community complained about the government’s lack of help to them…

More than 40 attacks aimed at North Africans in Corsica

More than 40 attacks and attempts were made this year against North Africans on the Island of Beauty, 90% of whom are Moroccans.


While such acts of violence generally rarely led to human deaths, they were enough to force dozens of families into leaving Corsica for the mainland – over the last few years, 300 left for the Gard region said the French newspaper Le Parisien.


This phenomenon, which has existed for about five years, strongly intensified in 2004.


Some consider that this violence is due to the fact that certain Corsicans do not accept that the Moroccan community in Corsica is climbing up the social ladder: “It was fine as long as our parents had to do hard jobs such as working in the fields and buildings. The second generation, which can claim less menial jobs, has only one option: look for a job on the mainland”, said a Corsica-born Moroccan to the newspaper.


Others, however, argue that anti-North African violence is linked to Mafia activities, since shops owned by Moroccans in Corsica are strategically important.


Whatever the reason of this violence, the French authorities have proved incapable of reducing it, despite numerous declarations

Dozens of Moroccans flee Ivory Coast

Three military planes, sent by HM Mohammed VI on Nov. 11, brought some 210 people back to Morocco. This decision followed the deterioration of the political situation in Ivory Coast.


Hundreds of Ivory Coast Moroccans fled their homes, fearing for their security following anti-white movements. Their situation had been worsening since the Ivorité ideology was launched by President Gbagbo.


The tiny Moroccan community of a few thousand in the 4-million-strong Ivory Coast had been there since the 1950s.

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Arts and Entertainment

Morocco lost the great painter Chaibia



The Moroccan prominent painter Chaibia Talal died of a heart attack on April 2nd. Chaibia was among the famous international painters. Her works are exhibited widely in Europe and the Arab world and are found in private and public collections worldwide. Last year, she was awarded the gold medal of the French Academic Society for Education and Encouragement in recognition of her talent.
Talal was born in a suburb of Casablanca. A self-taught painter, she was discovered by a Moroccan artist, Ahmed Cherkadh, and Pierre Gaudibert, director of the Musée d’Art Moderne in Grenoble, France. One of her paintings was selected as the poster for the 1984 Contemporary Women’s International Art Exhibition in Vitry-sur-Seine in France. Talal died but her works will stay forever in the minds and eyes of Moroccans.



Mohammed El Haloui: “The last classical poet”



Prominent Moroccan poet Mohammed El Haloui died Dec 24. Some say he was only a “court” poet; for others, he was “someone who knew how to show his internal light;” Portrait of a man whose verses have been in national school programmes since the 1960’s.

Born in Fez in 1923, El Haloui’s involvement in political and nationalist activities led to his arrest by the French occupation forces in 1944, as the Second World War was raging in their own country.

After leaving prison, he studied at the Al Karawyine University in Fez, became “Alem” in 1947, and started working as a secondary school teacher.

He only revealed his talent at 42, with his first anthology: “Ahgham wa Asdae” (Songs and echoes). Then he nearly disappeared for more than 20 years, until he published another collection, “Anoual,” in which he described poetic scenery. He then wrote “Choumou’” (Candles) in 1986. His last poetic work, “Aourak alkharif” (Autumn leaves) was published in 1996.



Fatima Mernissi co-winner of 2004 Erasmus prize



The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation in Amsterdam selected the sociologist Fatima Mernissi from Morocco, the religious critic Sadik Jalal Al-Azm from Syria, and the Islamic reformist thinker Abdulkarim Soroush from Iran for their contributions in helping reconcile processes of modernization and cultures that are shaped by religion.

Thanks to numerous translations, their works are available in Europe. Of the three laureates, Fatima Mernissi (born in 1940 in Fez) is probably the best known. In the 1970s and 1980s, her books “The Political Harem” and “Beyond the Veil” went a long way towards destroying the western cliché of the veiled, oppressed Muslim woman.

Mernissi was a model for many women in the Islamic world: she called on Muslim women to stop letting themselves be controlled by men and to at last start interpreting Islam themselves.

In the early 1990s, Mernissi put feminism aside and began focusing on two main activities: writing novels and strengthening Moroccan civil society. Mernissi considered writing to be the motor of public spirit. She ran numerous free "writers' workshops" for committed men and women.

She has served as a member in many national, pan-Arabic and international forums on women and development in the Islamic world. She is currently Lecturer of Sociology at the Mohammed V University of Rabat, and Research Scholar at the University Institute of Scientific Research. In May 2003 she received the Príncipe de Asturias Award for Letters.




Sofia Essaidi won 2004 Khmissa Trophy



Star Academy semi-finalist Sofia Essaidi won the 2004 Khmissa Trophy, which honours five Moroccan women every year.
Sofia has recently recorded a duet with Toto Cotugno. The song, a remake of “Et si tu n'existais pas” by Joe Dassin, was sold as a single in November.
The 20 year old, who was born in Casablanca, published her first single last March. She is planning to have her first album ready next January.

Sofia Essaidi's talent was discovered in 2003 when she participated in Star Academy on the French channel TF1.

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Sport



Hicham El Guerrouj : The man who grabbed the gold



2004 was Hicham El Guerrouj’s year. It was long believed that he might never win the Olympic gold, as he had twice come up short. But in the Athens Games, El Guerrouj was the great champ. While he had to wait a decade for his first Olympic gold medal, it took him only four days to snatch the second.


Africa dances in green and red


Moments before the kickoff of the CAN 2004, Morocco was listed among the absolute underdogs. Given the team’s recurrent disappointing performances, no one would have bet a penny that they would make it to the final, or even to the last four. But for Zaki and his young enthusiastic players, there was one, clear idea in mind: actions speak louder than words.

Atlas Lions beaten at Navarra

Navarra scored a 2-1 win over Morocco on Wednesday evening, in a friendly match played at Osasuna’s El Dalar Stadium in Pamplona, Northern Spain.


Moroccans celebrate Valentine’s Day by expressing their undying love for football

February 14 of each year is a special day in the world. It is the World Love Day, widely known as St Valentine. It is the day when men and women receive cards and gifts as a sign of passion and love.

In Morocco, St Valentine is different. It is the first time ever Moroccans inside and outside the country gather in huge crowds to express their love and admiration, a love of a different kind. It is their passion for football.

Hasna Benhassi wins Olympic silver

26-year-old Hasna Benhassi joined the group of Moroccan women athletes who waved the national flag high at the Olympics.


Raja claimed Moroccan champions

No one could imagine last year’s GNF 1 scenario. Rabat’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR) had taken command of the national league since the very outset. All they needed was a win in the final matchday against Kawkab Marrakech at Moulay Abdallah Stadium. But their hopes to lift the title were shattered when the visitors’ keeper emerged from nowhere to help score an injury-time equalizer.

Zerouali dies in car crash

2004 was also marked by the tragic death of Moroccan international and Royal Armed Forces striker Hicham Zerouali who was killed in a car crash near the Témara Zoo in the outskirts of Rabat.

MAP opinion poll elects El Guerrouj and Benhassi best athletes of 2004

RABAT, Dec.27 - An opinion poll conducted by MAP sports department, the national radio and the first TV channel (TVM) elected Hicham El Guerrouj and young champ Hasna Benhassi best male and female athletes of 2004.

GNF 1 : Status quo maintained

Two first-half goals earned Wydad Casablanca a comfortable home win over struggling Hassania Agadir in a quiet match before 4,000 spectators at Mohammed V Stadium.