In case you didn't know, there are a lot of misperceptions in the West about Islam and the Arab world. The main reason I'm studying in Morocco is that I want to understand the people and religion and language better so that I can have and share a more complete, educated, and accurate picture of Arab culture. I'm not going to pretend to know a lot about either Islam or Arab culture, but I've recently learned a lot of interesting things about women and Moroccan laws.
I have found that some people think that if Islam is the major religion of a country, then the country is run with Islamic, or Shar'ia laws. Not true. In Morocco, most of the laws are inherited from the European colonialists (so no, thieves don't get their hands cut off). All the laws are secular except one, the Family Law, or Moudawana, which is a based on religious precepts (how much of the law is actually truly Quranic is up for debate). This law includes issues such as marriage, divorce, child custody and guardianship, parentage, inheritance, and marital property. This law has major implications for women's rights, and before it's reform in 2004, was harshly discriminatory towards women (and still is).
The 2004 reforms were focused in three main areas: marriage laws, divorce laws, and marital property laws. The marriage law reform raised the legal age of marriage for girls to 18 (it had previously been 15 for girls and 18 for guys), the Wali ("male marital tutor" who must sign the marriage contract for the girl because she can't legally sign it as a woman) was made optional (not banned, but at least it's not required anymore), and polygamy laws were reformed. Polygamy is legal in Morocco; a man is allowed up to four wives here. But since the reform, women can put a monogamy clause in their marriage contract, and if there is no monogamy clause, a man has to get judicial authorization to take another wife and must prove that he can provide for both wives, provide an exceptional reason for needing another wife, and both of the women must be notified. Other marriage law changes: a man is no longer legally the only person who can be head of a household, and women no longer have a legal duty to obey their husbands.
While all these reforms are positive theoretically, many women are unaware of their new rights, and there is a major lack of judicial enforcement. For instance, 80% of polygamist petitions are approved, even though this is supposed to be allowed only due to an exceptional reason. And a lot of girls still get married younger than 18, either by choice or because they are pressured by their family.
The divorce law reforms upheld old laws that are discriminatory towards women, but added two new types of divorce: mutual consent and irreconcilable differences. Repudiations by the husband are still legal, and the only reform that was made to it is that the woman must be present. The husband must pay compensation in order to repudiate his wife. A woman cannot repudiate her husband. She must have one of six specific reasons for divorcing. Another type of divorce is called Khula, where a woman pays her husband to repudiate her. This is actually one of the most common types of divorce since, if it's the women who wants a divorce, this is the easiest way to do it.
Premarital sex, adultery, and same sex relations are all illegal in Morocco (although, as you can imagine, these laws are rarely enforced).
One of the hardest things for me to learn about was how single (unwed) mothers and their children are treated. Since premarital sex is illegal, unwed mothers are the ones who must face the legal consequences of an unplanned pregnancy - before the laws were reformed, there was no legal way for a woman to require a paternity test from the father. Since the reforms, women have to prove that they were "engaged" to be married before they got pregnant to avoid legal consequences, and I believe they can require paternity testing. I'm not really sure about many of the details, but I do know that though the laws are less draconian now than they were before the reforms, single mothers still face societal marginalization and difficulties supporting themselves and their child. Sometimes single pregnant women give birth outside a hospital because if they go to a hospital, they might be subject to discrimination, and they might even go to jail if the police are called.
The way single mothers are treated is horrible, but perhaps even worse is the way their children were treated before the reform. Without a father, children basically did not exist. They could not have birth records because those are done on the father's side of the family. Their last name was X. They wouldn't be able to get any legal papers, including a passport, without birth records. They are referred to sometimes in records as "bastard". Some of these things changed with the reform, since now the father can be involved if the mother and father prove they were engaged before the pregnancy, but I'm not sure about when the father is not involved.
Sad stuff, right? Well, the good news is that this Wednesday I went to Casablanca on a field trip for my Women's Studies class called Gender, Islam, and Society (love the class). We went to an NGO called Association Solidarité Féminine, which helps single mothers in Casa by providing free child care, job training, and capital. ASF and the women they help run a hamam (a public bath, these are very popular here), a salon, and a bunch of kiosks around the city. The women are encouraged to save the money they earn to start their own businesses. ASF has been around since 1985, and the same woman who founded it still heads it. We were able to listen to her talk and ask her questions for about an hour. Aicha Ech Channa is an incredible woman. Watch this video if you want to learn more about ASF.
Well, I don't know if all of my faithful readers are as into human rights as I am, but I hope this was informative. In other news, it's been getting fairly chilly at night lately, but it's still quite warm during the day. I took a train with some friends to the most beautiful beach today and splurged on an EXTRA BIG egg cheeseburger for lunch and some moroccan donuts from the donut guy you will always find at any beach here (along with the coffee and tea guy and the ice cream guy, who's usually the most annoying, yelling GLACE, GLACE, ICE CREAM, ICE CREAM, GLACE, GLACE, while you're trying to relax on the sand). The big lunch was quite nice. I haven't felt really full in a while because whenever I eat good, tasty food with my host family, there are four of us and there's barely enough to go around. The rest of the time we eat food that's just kind of so-so (my host mom is not the greatest cook in the world). I also was able to utilise some Arabic phrases: "ana mukhtoba" (I'm engaged) for a friend who faced unwanted attention, and "seer fhalek" (go away) to the annoying, persistent guy who sells water out of gross goat skins. Katherine (aka the best roommate in the world) is exploring the Atlas mountains this weekend, along with my three other friends in Agdal, so I've been watching a lot of movies and chilling at the cafe by myself at night. I'm in the middle of trying to figure out how to manage going to London and either Switzerland and/or Italy for fall break in like two weeks. Hmmm, what a dilemma!
Roll tide! Beat Vandy!
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