Between 30 to 40 percent of women in casablanca emergencies are victims of domestic violence, study
Morocco, Culture, 4/20/2004

Between 30 to 40 percent of women admitted monthly to emergencies in the Moroccan metropolis Casablanca are victims of conjugal violence, revealed a study published last weekend.

These statistics came in a 200-page-survey, conducted from 2000 to 2003, by the Women information and observation center and the democratic league for women's rights.

Testimonies of some 3,795 women from several Moroccan rural and urban areas were taken in the alarming survey.

The majority of victims live in poor neighborhoods and 61.6 percent of cases of domestic violence are committed by illiterate husbands, reveals the survey. It further points out that the risks of domestic violence diminishes when the husband has been to school or university (2 percent of husbands with university degrees).

More than half (54.5%) of women who were physically assaulted by their husband are housewives and the percentage drops to 7.2 % for women civil servants and 2.4 % for those practising other liberal jobs. The age of the majority of these women ranges from 20 to 49 years.

According to the survey, the majority of violent husbands work in informal jobs.

The survey gave 133 recommendations to fight violence and discrimination against women and fill in some gaps in the new provisions of the Mudawana (family law). It points out, nevertheless, to positive aspects in the reform of the family law that suppressed concepts undermining women's dignity.

The family Law reforms, first announced by King Mohammed VI last October, provide for equality in rights and duties between men and women in family matters and aim to promote the status of women in the Moroccan society.

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