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Morocco
Ezzedine Errousi, a Moroccan Prisoner of Conscience, Released: 134 Days on Hunger Strike
![[An image of Ezzedine Errousi on the day of his release. Image by Mamfakinch.]](/content_images/3/sm_tumblr_m3fa23mg1p1r52vpc.jpg "[An image of Ezzedine Errousi on the day of his release. Image by Mamfakinch.]")
On 1 December 2011, Ezzedine Errousi, a Moroccan student from the city of Taza, was taking part in a student union protest on the Taza University campus. The students staged a peaceful protest against the deplorable state of the university. The university sent the local authorities to disperse the protest. Authorities then came on campus, arrested Errousi, stripped, and dragged him through the local souk to prison. He was charged with assaulting a police officer and sentenced to five months in prison, in addition to a fine. During his time in prison, his family reported that Errousi was subject to abuse and torture. His hands were broken and went untreated for ...
Keep Reading »قراءة في الرحلة الرشدية بين شح الأمطار وشح الأفكار
إن المتتبع للخطاب السياسي للإسلاميين سيلاحظ ربطاً غريباً بين شح المطر وبخل السماء بمائها وبين انتشار السفور ونزع الحجاب وسياقة المرأة للسيارة، ولكأن ممارسة الحرية الفردية جريمة تستجلب قسوة السماء السحاء بحبس مائها وتجويع الناس والبهائم على حد سواء. ما كل هذه القوة الخارقة لقرار النساء التمتع بحرياتهم الفردية في ظل مجتمعات ترنو إلى الحداثة والعدالة والتقدم؟ فتخلي المرأة، حسب زعم هؤلاء، عن لباس يعتقدونه شرعياً أو استفادة الناس من مظاهر الحياة العصرية هي سبب شح الأمطار وكل الأذى الذي يلحق بمجتمعاتهم. لو صدقنا هذا الخطاب، فنتيجته ستكون وجوب تجريم كل أشكال الحرية ومحاولات الانخراط في الحداثة، رغم كل النقائص التي تعاني منها المجتمعات العربية، لعل السماء ترضى وتجود بمائها ...
Keep Reading »Young Women Demanding Justice and Dignity: By All Means Necessary
Amina Filali was a young Moroccan girl who was raped at the age of 15 then forced to marry her rapist. She was battered, bruised, and starved until she committed suicide in March 2012. She was 16 years old. Contributing to Amina’s suicide are her rapist turned husband, article 475 of the Moroccan penal code that absolves an aggressor of his crime once he consents to marrying his rape victim, the judge who called for a mediation instead of a prosecution against the offender, the police, and the religious clerics who have given their blessings to the rapist. Amina’s suicide exposes, once again, an entirely flawed legal system and deeply distorted patriarchal honor code ...
Keep Reading »الذاكرة الجماعية العربية بين الانتقام والعدالة والمصالحة
يمر العالم العربي بمرحلة مفصلية في تاريخه هذه الأيام. مرحلة اختلط فيها الصالح بالطالح، واختلطت فيها الانتهازية بالثورة، وكثر فيها تغيير الولاءات وصار نوعاً من التقليد أن نرى الجلادين يصيرون ثواراً وينغسلون من كل أدران الماضي الذي شاركوا في تشكيله بكل مساوئه لمجرد أنهم غيروا الولاء بين ليلة وضحاها وأرسلوا بياناً مسجلاً أو نقل عنهم أنهم تابوا وأصلحوا وانحازوا إلى جانب الشعب. هذه السنة الخطيرة تحمل في طياتها الكثير من المخاطر على مستقبل الثورة في العالم العربي لأن الديكتاتور لا يمكن أن يستحيل ديمقراطياً. الجلاد جلاد، ومن خدم الديكتاتورية سيسعى حتماً إلى تأسيس أخرى، لأن الطبع يغلب التطبع. هذا الكلام ضروري قبل مناقشة قضية الذاكرة العربية المشتركة وطبيعة إدارة المرحلة اللاحقة ...
Keep Reading »A Year After: The February 20 Protest Movement in Morocco
![[Image of a February 20 Movement protest in Marrakech, Morocco. Image by author.]](/content_images/3/sm_IMG_0952.JPG "[Image of a February 20 Movement protest in Marrakech, Morocco. Image by author.]")
On the one-year anniversary of the February 20 protest movement in Morocco, (henceforth referred to as Feb. 20), the kingdom boasts relatively meager political progress. Despite the much-vaunted reforms and constitutional changes, Morocco has reinvigorated its state edifice, managed to outmaneuver an inexperienced Feb. 20 protest movement, and engaged in a crackdown on freedom of the press and speech. In the last couple of weeks, the regime has arrested three Moroccans for crimes against his majesty’s person and “defaming Morocco’s sacred values.” In a country where the monarch is inviolable, the use of cartoons depicting the king is considered an outrage to a symbol of ...
Keep Reading »February Flowers
Spring is not here yet. It was a cold and bloody week. Reach out and pluck all the flowers you see—real and imagined—and make a wreath for those who died! And for those who will...for words, and what they stand for. * Rheim Alkadhi's "Pictures from a Camera." * Diyala Najjar translates an excerpt from Ibtisam Azem's The Sleep Thief: Gharib Hifawi. * Gaelle Raphael translates poems from Suzanne Alaywan's The Gazelle's Throw. * Part II of Firas Massouh's translation of Al-Zahawi's "Revolt in Hell." All previous culture posts can be accessed here. Read and forward our Call for Posts. Tell us what you ...
Keep Reading »الإخفاقات الأولى للحكومة الملتحية
كنا قد حللنا في مقال سابق الظروف التي فاز فيها حزب العدالة والتنمية بالانتخابات في المغرب بموازاة تحليلنا التاريخي لنشأة الأحزاب المشكلة للتحالف الحكومي الحالي، إذ بحثنا في الظروف التاريخية لولادتها وعرجنا على مشاربها الفكرية والإيديولوجية—إذا كان فعلا ممكنا الحديث عن إيديولوجية حزبية لدى هذه الأحزاب—في ظل نظام سياسي مؤسس الطاعة والولاء في إطار البيعة "التي تطوق أعناق المغاربة"، فتوصلنا في نهاية التحليل إلى أن المخزن المغربي لن يسمح ببروز قوة سياسية تنافسه في شرعيته السلطوية، كما أن شرعيته الدينية في مأمن لأن إمارة المؤمنين تقف سدا منيعا دون أي تغيير في هذا الإطار. بفضل إمارة المؤمنين تستطيع الملكية القضاء على كل من شق عصا الطاعة بالاستناد إلى ...
Keep Reading »Morocco's Next Government: New Actors, Same Script
![[Fouad Ali El Himma seen riding with King Mohammad VI. Image from www.lesoir-echos.com]](/content_images/3/sm_ROI-HIMMA-TETOUAN-2007-Aic-.jpg "[Fouad Ali El Himma seen riding with King Mohammad VI. Image from www.lesoir-echos.com]")
Several weeks have passed since Morocco’s most recent parliamentary elections. These yielded a victory for the Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD), whose leader, Abdelilah Benkirane, has been appointed as prime minister (or, as the recent constitution dictates, “Chief of Government”). Benkirane’s first task is to form a new government in conjunction with the Istiqlal Party, the Popular Movement, and the Party of Progress and Socialism, who together comprise a ruling coalition. Once this coalition drafts a list of potential ministers, it will be approved by King Mohammad VI, and then made public. However, the formation of the new Moroccan government will not ...
Keep Reading »New Texts Out Now: Zakia Salime, Between Feminism and Islam: Human Rights and Sharia Law in Morocco
Zakia Salime, Between Feminism and Islam: Human Rights and Sharia Law in Morocco. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011. Jadaliyya: What made you write this book? Zakia Salime: In this critical time of sweeping revolts and political changes in the Middle East, it is very useful to revisit the spaces of contentions that have been opened by women’s rights groups. My book shows how two decades of struggles over broadening the spheres of expression and rights have led to dramatic changes in both Moroccan feminism and Moroccan Islamism. My interest in documenting these shifts began with my own involvement in the feminist movement during the 1990s. I wanted to ...
Keep Reading »November Culture Bouquet
![[Pre-Islamic Arabian Rock Art, display in National Museum, Riyadh, image from Elliott Colla]](/content_images/3/sm_bigrock.jpg "[Pre-Islamic Arabian Rock Art, display in National Museum, Riyadh, image from Elliott Colla]")
Flowers in November? Yes! After a long, hot summer’s break Jadaliyya Culture returns with another bouquet, as bright as any we have given you before, but this time a bit heavier. Maybe as heavy as a pagan rock sitting on display in the national museum of a theocratic state. Highlights include: — Hamdy El-Gazzar's "Love", translated by Nancy Linthicum. — Anne-Marie McManus introduces Mustafa Khalifa's prison novel, al-Qawqa`a. — Mansoura Ez-Eldin's essay, "The Callous Father who Refuses to Die," translated by Emily Drumsta. — Four poems by Mohamed Khair-Eddin, translated by Gaelle Raphael. — An excerpt ...
Keep Reading »El Haqed: Examining Morocco's Judicial Reform in 2012
On 9 September 2011, Mouad Belghouat, a 24 year old Moroccan rap musician, was passing out fliers to advertize for a demonstration in his impoverished neighborhood outside the cosmopolitan city of Casablanca. On the evening he and his friends were handing out fliers for the upcoming march, Belghouat was approached by another young man, Mohamed Dali, later reported to be a member of the “Alliance of Young Royalists,” who verbally targeted Belghouat, calling him a traitor. Belghouat himself is ...
Keep Reading »A Monarchical Affair: From Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula
When protests in North Africa ousted dictators and began spreading elsewhere in the region, decades-old alliances between the Arab monarchies were strengthened with the common interest of staying in power at all costs. While Morocco’s political and economic ties have historically been predominantly directed toward European markets, Morocco has recently oriented its outlook toward the East, finding common ground with the monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula. Morocco’s relationship with the monarchies in ...
Keep Reading »Notes from Western Sahara: An Interview with Fatma El-Mehdi
As the Arab Spring spread across several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, American philosopher Noam Chomsky argued that it did not originate in Tunisia, as is commonly understood. “In fact, the current wave of protests actually began last November in Western Sahara, which is under Moroccan rule, after a brutal invasion and occupation,” Chomsky stated. “The Moroccan forces came in, carried out - destroyed tent cities, a lot of killed and wounded and so on. And then it spread.” The ...
Keep Reading »Morocco: A 'Democratic Moment'?
During the last years of his reign, King Hassan II initiated a modest and controlled reform process intended to ease the transition of power by attempting to hand the reigns over safely to the crown prince at the time, nowadays King Mohamed VI. To buttress his legitimacy and distance himself from the authoritarian style of his late father, King Mohamed VI ushered in an era of diffident political reforms that—under popular pressure from within and the progression of Arab revolts from without—culminated in ...
Keep Reading »"Violating Sacred Values" in Morocco: Free Speech with an Exception
A simple caricature by a cartoonist and a four-minute video featuring an activist expressing his dissent are arguably some of today’s most common mediums for political expression. In post-constitutional reform and post–parliamentary-election Morocco, sharing a political cartoon and criticizing the monarchy in a video is a crime, met with jail time. While reforms have been implemented for months, vague language has allowed Mohammed VI’s regime to selectively interpret and enforce its reforms whenever the ...
Keep Reading »Pictures from a Camera
Here in this region, amid the initial, proven, lasting fervor that sends our bodies into perpetual (welcome) disturbance; from these variously perplexing, disappointing, exhilarating, terrible, or inspired moments—from these moments on, we see ourselves on display, and we shed our museums of obsolescence, and in the truest effort to stand up, we are uniquely reshaped. How to compensate for so many lost hours, years, decades of looking at our lives through the lens of wretchedness? And ...
Keep Reading »Having a Conversation on Other Terms: Gender and the Politics of Representation in the New Moroccan Government
The recent parliamentary elections in Morocco have led to the creation of the first ever elected Islamist government in Morocco’s history. After winning more than forty percent of the votes in the November 25th elections, the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) led by Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane formed a coalition government with the socialist Parti du Progrès et du Socialisme (PPS), the nationalist Istiqlal party and the royalist Mouvement Populaire (MP). Benkirane’s first task as Prime ...
Keep Reading »آفاق «الحكومة الملتحية» وإكراهات مشهد سياسي مغربي مبلقن
الآن وقد مر بعض الوقت على الانتخابات البرلمانية السابقة لأوانها التي جرت في المغرب في الخامس والعشرين من شهر نوفمبر/تشرين ثاني والتي، كما يعرف الجميع، فاز الإسلاميون خلالها ب 25 بالمئة من المقاعد 395 المشكلة للبرلمان المغربي. فوز اعتبره الكثير من المتتبعين للشأن المغربي والمغاربي والعربي تاريخيا على اعتبار الظروف العامة التي جرت فيها الانتخابات التي وصفت بالشفافية، والحياد شبه المطلق "لأم الوزارات"—الاسم الذي يطلقه المغاربة على وزارة الداخلية نظرا لتشعبها وتداخلها مع كثير من القطاعات الحيوية ...
Keep Reading »Remember, Remember, the 25th of November: Morocco's Elections and Reforms
On 1 July 2011, Moroccans took part in a constitutional referendum, resulting in what is now Morocco's sixth constitution since 1962. Similar to previous constitutions, direction was taken solely from the pinnacle of Moroccan society, leaving the majority voiceless. Members of the February 20th Movement, inspired by pro-democracy movements in neighboring countries, immediately announced their decision to boycott the referendum, citing the undemocratic nature of the process through which the constitution ...
Keep Reading »Four Poems by Mohammed Khair-Eddin
Mohammed Khair-Eddine (1941-1995) is considered one of the most compelling Moroccan writers of the twentieth century. Born and raised in the southern Berber Moroccan town of Tafraout, Khair-Eddine moved to France in 1965. In 1979 he returned to Morocco where he lived until his death in Rabat in 1995. Mohammed Khair-Eddine, along with Abdellatif Laabi and other Moroccan poets, founded the review Souffles in which they articulated “a new Maghrebian aesthetics that would include both a philosophy of action ...
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