A thesis presented on the challenges of the feminist movements in Morocco, after changes made to the Muddawannah, or New Family Code, in 2004. Although Morocco has amended the Muddawannah and its...Show moreA thesis presented on the challenges of the feminist movements in Morocco, after changes made to the Muddawannah, or New Family Code, in 2004. Although Morocco has amended the Muddawannah and its Constitution, and gender equality in legal terms has improved on paper, the implementation of the new laws remains flawed and inadequate. Illiteracy, traditional values, Islamism, patriarchal world-view and unwillingness of the judges are the main obstacles which prevent women (and men) from full access to their legal rights.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united the protest voices as never before and with heightened scrutiny Article 475 of the Moroccan Penal Code was repealed.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
Anti-colonial studies of Moroccan nationalism in general, and Istiqlal (Independence) Party in particular, have privileged a macro-level of analysis, discarding the socio-political processes of...Show moreAnti-colonial studies of Moroccan nationalism in general, and Istiqlal (Independence) Party in particular, have privileged a macro-level of analysis, discarding the socio-political processes of local actors. This bachelor’s thesis approaches the emergence of Moroccan nationalism, namely under the Istiqlal Party, by emphasising its impact on the socio-political identity of Berbers and their fusion into a larger national context between 1930 and 1970. By doing extensive literature study and examining primary sources–such as the 1962 and 1970 Moroccan Constitutions, and ethnographic works on the Berbers–this thesis allows for a better understanding of the relationship between Istiqlal’s Moroccan nationalism and Berbers.Show less
Morocco and the European Union (EU) have a longstanding relationship. Since its independence, Morocco has signed several treaties and agreements with the EU. When the European neighbourhood policy ...Show moreMorocco and the European Union (EU) have a longstanding relationship. Since its independence, Morocco has signed several treaties and agreements with the EU. When the European neighbourhood policy (ENP) came into force in 2004, the Kingdom gradually became a privileged partner of the EU in various fields. Within the policy, Morocco is nowadays known to be the largest recipient of European Union funds. Thereby, the ENP is often portrayed as an EU tool of democracy and human rights promotion. Yet, major events during the last couple of years in the EU’s neighborhood -the Arab spring and Ukraine crisis- have made the European Union to re-evaluate the policy. Herein, Morocco, a country often displayed by the EU as a successful example of ENP, proves to be an interesting case. The aim of this thesis is to analyse how the EU, through the ENP, has contributed to the development of Morocco’s human rights situation since 2004-present-on.Show less
This thesis argues that within the medium of photography during Protectorate Morocco, four agents of power (French protectorate policy, French social science, commercial tourism, and the...Show moreThis thesis argues that within the medium of photography during Protectorate Morocco, four agents of power (French protectorate policy, French social science, commercial tourism, and the photographer himself) are connected and collaborate in constructing and using photography for their own interests. By analysing part of the photo collection of the French photographer Jacques Belin, who worked in Morocco between 1939 and 1961, I argue in what way these four domains were of influence in the production, construction, and use of Belin’s work. I state that these four collaborated and reinforced each other and resulted in the construction of Belin’s work. At times, France’s mission civilisatrice was the bigger picture holding the whole project together; at other times the aesthetic value or ethnographic interests were more dominant than those of the colonial mission. It is thus a much-needed contextualization of an individual photographer and the specific conditions to his work, to understand the workings of power within a larger context of photography and that of twentieth-century French colonialism.Show less
This research argues the collaboration between French colonial scholars and policy-makers in the shaping and reshaping of specific notions of collective Berber identity through exploring the...Show moreThis research argues the collaboration between French colonial scholars and policy-makers in the shaping and reshaping of specific notions of collective Berber identity through exploring the theoretical incentives and practical implications of French Berber Policy in Protectorate Morocco (1912-1956). It is furthermore an effort to include and analyse recent reinterpretations from four Moroccan intellectuals (Mohamed Boudhan, Muḥamed Mūnīb, Hassan Aourid, and Maâti Monjib) who discuss this specific chapter in Moroccan history. By analysing and contextualizing their works I conclude that although these works have their academic value in contributing interesting viewpoints supported by first-hand information and academic knowledge, the accounts are often passionate and personal attacks on Moroccan nationalists and their post-colonial construction of an inaccurate historical narrative about the shaping of Berber identity and French Berber policy in support of their nation-building project. These Moroccan intellectuals are thus more intertwined with political interests than they often admit, resulting in an interesting parallel with colonial and post-colonial academic traditions in Morocco that take on the subject of Berber identity formation and are also subject to both academic and political loyalties.Show less
Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
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In 2011 an unprecedented wave of protests erupted from Tunisia and soon spread throughout the Arab World. While the initial euphoria was backed by the revolutions in Tunis and Cairo, the course of...Show moreIn 2011 an unprecedented wave of protests erupted from Tunisia and soon spread throughout the Arab World. While the initial euphoria was backed by the revolutions in Tunis and Cairo, the course of events in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and ultimately Syria began to highlight that a romantic view of revolutions seems out of place. The two kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco have also witnessed significant protests in 2011 especially. However, these did not lead to a revolution – in fact, this was not their goal. The vast majority of those rallying in the streets demanded reforms of Jordan's and Morocco's political institutions, including the parliament, the electoral law and the constitution. This development, combined with the resilience of the Gulf monarchies (with Bahrain as a critical case), has once again brought the monarchy debate back into the limelight. The major underlying question here is does monarchy matter? Facing protests, both Abdullah II and Muhammad VI responded by reforming institutions. In Jordan, the constitution was amended and elections were held. In Morocco, the people could decide on a new constitution by means of a referendum and early elections were held. While ostensibly giving in to the demands of the protesters, these changes did not challenge the status quo but left Abdullah II and Muhammad VI with their almost omnipotent power. From a theoretical perspective this seems particularly interesting. Different approaches, stressing the impact of rentierism, foreign support or family participation, have attempted to explain the survival of monarchies in the Arab World over the past decades. The euphoria of the 'third wave of democratization' (Huntington) and the 'end of history' (Fukuyama) then transcended into scholarly publications during the 1990s, fostering the idea of institutions, once in place, contributing to a gradual process of democratization. During the second half of the 2000s scholars then began to realize that such effects failed to materialize in many cases. In fact, incumbents seemed to have employed democratic rhetoric and (re-)installed parliaments as well as elections while at the same time limiting their power and impact. In Jordan and Morocco these institutions also included another crucial function to Abdullah II and Muhammad VI respectively: they provided an intermediary level between king and people that can be criticized. In order to underpin this analysis, several primary sources for selected key dates since 2011 were taken into account besides the secondary literature. For Jordan, speeches of Abdullah II were considered as well as the text of the constitution, seeing that the latter was subject to change in 2011. Moreover, the coverage of the pro-monarchy newspaper Al-Dustour, the independent Ammon News and the country's main political opposition, the Islamic Action Front IAF, was analyzed. In a similar fashion, the statements of Muhammad VI and the kingdom's constitution were looked at for Morocco. Furthermore, the pro-monarchy newspaper Al-Sabah and the independent Al-Masa' were part of the analysis as well as Morocco's Islamist political opposition party, the Parti de la Justice et du Développement PJD, and the 20 February Movement, a youth group that was founded in early 2011. As the analysis suggests, the discourse about changes in the political system that erupted again in 2011 was almost entirely directed at reforming political institutions. Across the board official statements, pro-monarchy newspapers, but also independent and oppositional groups, made use of a technical language that focused on reforming the parliament, the electoral law or the constitution. These actors also approved the changes made respectively, seeing a solution and a step forward in them. Here, only little demands for a continued reform were raised. All these actors seemed to operate within the boundaries defined by the palace. The example of the 20 February Movement in Morocco stressed how deviating from this public reform discourse can result in selective repression and crackdown. The monarchies Jordan and Morocco have dodged the Arab Spring by allowing and engaging in institutional reforms. Although constitutions were amended or changed and elections were held the power balance has not changed. Accordingly, these institutions have helped Abdullah II and Muhammad VI to maintain their hold onto power rather than lowering it. Such an understanding of political institutions challenges the idea of them ultimately bringing about democratic change. Moreover, with regards to the monarchy debate the findings suggest that such a political setup, in which institutions serve as intermediary between king and people, allows the kings to remain seemingly distant from daily politics. It appears more difficult for presidents or prime minister, as heads of states in republics, to act in a similar fashion as they are by definition presiding the government.Show less
