28,000 violent cases against women in Morocco

A Moroccan official statistic said 28000 violent cases against Moroccan women were registered during 1994 - 1999, the statistic related this big percentage due to the prevalence of illiteracy in the rural areas.

The need for raising marriage age of girls from 15 to 18, dividing properties when divorce takes place, besides having a man responsible ( father, brother) for the girl during signing the marriage contract as optional rather than obligatory, as well as increasing the political representation of the Moroccan woman in the parties and the different parliamentary councils are some measures that will help remedy the problem the data shows.

The state minister in charge of social protection and family and childhood affairs Saeed Saadi said that the reasons behind drawing this plan lie in the fact that illiteracy covers two thirds of women in Morocco, and this rate reaches 87% in the rural areas, besides the cases of violence reported against women reached 28,000 between the years 1944 - 1998; the weakness in political representation for women as only 83 women were candidate in 1997 for 24,000 voting women in the regional and municipal elections. He made it clear that with these figures Morocco will never be able to merge in the international community where information science is predominant.