The government of the Netherlands had an immediate interest in the political developments on the Arabian peninsula during the 1918-1930 period. Large numbers of its Dutch East Indies Muslim...Show moreThe government of the Netherlands had an immediate interest in the political developments on the Arabian peninsula during the 1918-1930 period. Large numbers of its Dutch East Indies Muslim colonial subjects made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina every year. The Indies colonial authorities were bent on controlling and regulating this journey in an effort to control the pilgrims themselves. Especially because Mecca was suspected of being the centre of an anti-colonial conspiracy in the eyes of some officials like the Delft professor and journalist Salomon Keyzer and the Dutch consul at Jeddah J.A. Kruijt . A good working relationship with the authorities of Mecca and Medina and by extent the whole of the Hijaz would certainly help to achieve this. By 1927 this relationship was apparently very good. How did this come to be? The main question of this master thesis will be: how did the different Dutch consuls and Dutch East Indies civil servants perceive the political developments on the Arabian peninsula in the period 1918-1930? I will argue that the observations and conclusions of these two groups, the Jeddah consuls and the Dutch East Indies civil servants, were to a very large extent determined by two different and contrary streams in Dutch colonial philosophy: the ‘ethical school’ and a conservative reaction to this ‘school’.Show less
The pursuit to acquire women’s rights in Morocco has been a decades long quest. Activists and advocates for broader civil rights have been very visible in the news, in different movements and wide...Show moreThe pursuit to acquire women’s rights in Morocco has been a decades long quest. Activists and advocates for broader civil rights have been very visible in the news, in different movements and wide spread protests. These efforts have taken place long before the death of a sixteen year-old girl, Amina Filali, who committed suicide after being forced to marry her rapist in March 2012. The desire for reform happened before the change in 2004 in the moudawana, the family legal code. Additional pressures for reform were exerted after this change in 2004. This activism has continued to take place between the implementation of the moudawana in 2004 and the death of Amina Filali, However, the suicide of Amina Filali was a singular and pivotal moment that brought the various activists groups together serving as an unrelenting catalyst for change. Amina Filali’s suicide united the protest voices as never before and with heightened scrutiny Article 475 of the Moroccan Penal Code was repealed. Amina Filali became the ‘poster child’ for the repeal of Article 475 after her suicide. It was circulated that Amina consumed rat poison in order to commit suicide. After her suicide, a narrative developed and became the widespread assumption that she had committed suicide because she had been forced to marry the man that raped her. Amina Filali was an individual with her own story, but in that moment in time her story was utilized by the coalition of women’s rights advocates. The story of Amina was proclaimed at protests and visible in the news, both within Morocco and internationally. Her tragedy was used to help push the groups’ certain agenda. The agenda was to repeal Article 475. The narrative of Amina’s death was a remarkable tool in gaining attention and unity for various voices including NGOs, human rights activists and political parties. The timeline between her death and the actual repeal demonstrates that she served as the instrument of change.Show less
