Morocco moves to fight violence against women

Morocco launched on Tuesday a nation-wide campaign to fight violence against women with the assistance of the U.N. fund for women promotion.

Some 29,000 cases of violence against women were recorded in Morocco since 1995, secretary of state in charge of social protection, family and women, Said Saadi, said.

Some 11,890 cases of violence were counted inside the family, in addition to another 8,707 cases of aggression in the cities and the country-side, he said.

Saaidi said other forms of violence such as rape and sexual harassment should be added to these cases.

"The statistics are the visible part of the iceberg," he said, "because there exist many cases of violence that the victims do not dare talk about publicly due to some socio-cultural reasons."

The campaign, the first of its kind, seeks to foster the public opinion's awareness to the dangers of violence against women.

Women organizations claim a genuine reform of the personal statute code and the updating of other laws to protect women against various forms of injustice.