Women's integration plan: Moroccan official calls for a serene, mature debate
Morocco, Politics, 1/26/2000

The Moroccan secretary of state for social protection, family and childhood, Said Saadi, has called for a "serene and mature" debate on the plan on women's integration in the development process.

The official who held a public meeting on Monday to explain proposals contained in the government plan stressed the need to use jurisprudence, insisting that Islam advocates gender equality.

Dialogue will be carried on in a bid to draft proposals and legal texts meant to end the injustice Moroccan women are suffering from at all levels, and to secure equality of rights to all citizens, male or female, as implied by the rule of the law, he said.

The plan that was published in March 1999 provides for large scale literacy campaigns, incentives for a greater integration of women in public life and the reform of some laws deemed detrimental to women. The plan which seeks to change some provisions of the Moroccan personal statute prompted a strong response on the part of some movements which deem the text as contrary to the sharia (Islamic law).

Saadi called all concerned sides to back their arguments with proof and to refer to the Koran and to the Sunna (prophet's tradition) and said those opposing the plan chapters related to the personal statute should make alternative proposals.

He recalled that the plan had been drafted in cooperation with all the components of the society --ministerial departments, associations, NGOs... and that some political parties invited to make proposals on the matter have not responded.

A commission of theologians, physicians, sociologists, magistrates and attorneys will debate and enrich the plan before it is submitted to the king, he said.

Saadi also surveyed the situation of women which is not up to the aspirations of the Moroccan society. He said that 28,000 cases of violence against women were recorded between 1994 and 1998, that two-thirds of women are illiterate, a percentage that jumps to 87% in the rural world, that a woman dies every six hours because of delivery problems, not to mention the absence of women in decision-making positions and elected bodies.

The situation that he described as "abnormal" will not help the country take up the challenges thrown at it, he said.

He added that the plan provides for measures to struggle against illiteracy, guarantee girls' access to education, improve mother and child health, promote the woman's economic role, amend the legal texts ruling the work market and combat poverty through women's access to micro-loans.

Saadi's address was followed by a heated debate between the backers and the opponents of the plan.

The Moroccan press have lavishly commented on the plan and many papers have denounced the opponents of the plan who disturb all events and meetings held by political parties, women's associations, the civil society or the government on the plan.

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