Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
March 15, 2008

Morocco-U.S. FTA results optimistic, minister .
Rabat, Mar.13

The Morocco-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has yielded "optimistic" results, said, here Thursday, Moroccan Minister of Foreign Trade, Abdellatif Maazouz. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the opening of the first session of the U.S.- Morocco joint committee meeting, Mr. Maazouz underlined that the FTA, which entered into force in 2006, has contributed to strengthening trade and developing bilateral economic activities in terms of investment, public markets and logistics. "Now, we can say that the results are optimistic," he said, calling for boosting bilateral exchange.

In 2006, Moroccan-US trade exchange flared up by 44%, totaling 1.396Bn. Moroccan exports to the United States netted USD 521.2Mn, while American exports to the North African country reached USD 875.5Mn (+67%). The minister has called for establishing an ad hoc committee to seize the opportunities offered, particularly in the sectors of textile, agro-business and services, which, according to him, "deserve much attention and have a valuable potential."

Echoing him, The assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East, Shaun Donnelly, expressed satisfaction at the progress achieved by the FTA, stressing that the Moroccan market is in a position to become an economic platform, following the example of Asian countries, thanks to its favorable climate. The U.S. delegation, participating in this meeting, will hold talks with Moroccan representatives of the private sector representatives to discuss ways and means to give new impetus to business relations and achieve the goals of the FTA.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box4/morocco-u.s._fta_res/view
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Moroccan women celebrate International Women's Day .
07/03/2008 By Imane Belhaj for Magharebia in Casablanca – 07/03/08

As Moroccan women's rights advocates prepare to celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th, one activist group says that the anti-terrorism issue is a women's issue as well. It has delayed releasing its annual political agenda to instead battle "the spiteful ideas" which threaten Morocco.

On the eve of International Women's Day on Saturday (March 8th), Moroccan women say that despite the appointment of seven female ministers to the current government, the road to reaching their objectives is still long. To raise awareness of their goals and hold Moroccan officials accountable for the delay in meeting many of their demands, women's rights organisations plan to mark the day with symposiums, roundtables and parties. We have already taken important steps, such as the Family Code, which is deemed a real victory for the seven women in government. This is in addition to a number of reforms in laws that put an end to injustice committed against women," said Fatima Akouri. The activist added, however, that "there are still many women who suffer from aspects of discrimination, and violence against women is still massive."

To Akouri, International Women's Day provides an opportunity to assess the overall progress of women's rights in Morocco. "It's not enough for us to receive roses at our places of work or at home. It's not enough for us to have those slogans and mottos calling for women's rights, defending them and recognising their roles in the society. Rather, we need a moment to pause and evaluate the gains and to contemplate the challenges," she told Magharebia.

But one day is not enough for the Moroccan Women's Democratic Association (MWDA), which argues that its members should be struggling all year long in order to realise equality and defend women's economic, social and political rights. They are marking International Women's Day throughout the entire month of March, during which they plan to issue a petition related to the amendment of the social charter.

Although the Democratic League for Women's Rights (LDDF) agrees on the need for social reform, it is choosing to focus on an even more pressing matter this year. Based on their conviction that countering terrorism is a women's issue as well, members will celebrate the Day under the banner "'No' to Extremism and Terrorism … 'Yes' to Equality and Citizenship".

LDDF executive board member Bouchra Abdou explained, "We've decided to postpone the publication of our annual regular report and have also delayed the demands and recommendations which we would usually make in this occasion. Instead, we opted to put an alternative programme that highlights the extent of our involvement in the anti-terrorism campaign and our confrontation of the spiteful ideas that are damaging to our society." The League urges citizens to participate in maintaining security and calls on all democratic forces, women rights' organisations and Moroccan social groups to form a broad coalition against maliciousness and hatred.

Commenting on the event, political activist and unionist Nadjia Malek also expressed her hope that a true women's movement would be formed for the benefit of women and Moroccans a whole. Still, building support from men for women's rights may take time. According to student Saida Rouchdi, International Women's Day usually turns into an object of ridicule for men. "Each time we mark the March 8th celebration, we are subjected to a flow of sarcasm, such as, 'The day will pass fast. What will you do tomorrow, March 9th?'" She added, "They consider that we now enjoy full freedom and openness, and that we have trodden upon the customs and traditions. So, what else do we want?"
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2008/03/07/feature-01
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Women strongly present in job market, not in politics, minister.
Rabat, Mar. 14

The strong presence of women in the job market and civil service contradicts their weak representation as elected officials, according to Minister of Social Development, Family and Solidarity, Nouzha Skalli. Morocco ranks 7 among Arab countries and 94th internationally concerning women political representation, the minister noted at a conference on "Political Representation of Women: Lever of Social Development" at Chouaïb Doukkali University in the Western city of Al-Jadida. According to Mrs. Skalli, the percentage of female local representatives is around 0.55% only, which hinders social development, especially targeting local female population. She underlined a quota system will be introduced during the commune elections of 2009 in order to compensate the absence of women at this level, and reiterated the commitment to train 10,000 social workers by 2012. Debate tackled issues related to causes of exclusion of women from local and regional councils, women condition in rural areas, and the Family Code.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/women_strongly_prese/view
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Morocco´s style seduces design lovers.
WATCH VIDEOSource: CCTV.com  03-05-2008

Morocco is not only one of the most exotic travel destinations in the world. Morocco has a style that seduces design enthusiasts everywhere. Today Moorish style and Moroccan home decor are among the most popular trends among designers and architects the world over. The narrow, labyrinthine streets of Marrakech's souks are lined with stalls and shops. Here one finds the finest in Moroccan craftsmanship: carpets, pottery, ceramic tiles, lanterns, and ornate woodwork. All are a part of the country's rich heritage.

While traditional Moroccan design is heavier, a popular new version of Moroccan interior design takes classic design motifs, materials and styles and gives them a fresh spin. Interior designer Meryanne Loum-Martin is a pioneer of the understated Moroccan style. She was among the first to offer personal interior design service in Marrakech.

Meryanne Loum-Martin , Interior designer, said, " I believe Moroccan style is a beautiful fusion of architecture and design incorporating Arab, Spanish, French art deco and Berber. Because of those influences, the Moroccan style allows anyone who is a little bit creative to express himself. " Her chic, simple style is a blend of traditional Moroccan techniques. But the modern twist adds plenty of outside influences - Indian, African, American and European.

Marrakech's laid back style has attracted European investors keen to renovate the city's riads, - grand traditional houses built around patios. Marcus Joyston-Bechal, a British engineer, left London a few years ago and settled here. Marcus Joyston-Bechal, a British engineer, said, "For someone like me, who is an engineer, it's like a dream which comes true because you can do whatever you want. Because the artisans here can do anything they'd like so you can create any shapes, anything you want. And riads are wonderful places to do that. That's the reason why we've bought one, because we wanted to create a wonderful Moroccan riad but still have the comfort of a contemporary feel as well. We wanted to mix it together. But ultimately it will be a Moroccan feeling."

Morocco is known for its handmade crafts. In the city's old quarter, the medina, life moves to the same rhythm that existed here in medieval times. The trades practiced here have changed little over the years. Blacksmiths still forge and pound iron into intricate shapes and carpenters craft wood into doors and furniture as they did centuries ago.
http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20080305/101956.shtml
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Talking Gitmo on a Moroccan hillside
March 5, 2008. DAVID COMMON: DIARY

It was one of those conversations that clicked. I had been on assignment in Morocco. While working on the story I found myself on a hillside a short distance from the ancient city of Fez. As sheep grazed nearby, plucking grass from between the gravestones in a local cemetery, a tired old mule lay on its side dying.

The mule was said to be 35 years old, and in country where animals are burdened carrying heavy loads of cargo, they don't tend to live more than 25. A group of men — several Moroccans and me, the sole outsider — were waiting for a veterinarian to arrive to end the mule's suffering. The farmer who owned the mule turned to me and asked if I was American. No, I explained, I am from the country just north of the United States. Then he asked what I knew of Guantánamo. I went a little rigid. Not from fear, but surprise. Here I was, on a hill with sheep, talking to a man (in his broken French) as he gazed out over the vast emptiness of stone and grass.

Not your usual conversation
The man was older, and not connected to the world by television, radio or newspaper. His view of the world is influenced and inspired by those he comes across. I didn't ask, so I can't say with certainty, but it seems likely he was illiterate. It was hardly the first time a Muslim has stopped to talk about Gitmo during my travels through various countries. But how does this man, largely cut off from the world and distanced by time from the radical emotions youth can bring, have such an intimate knowledge of Guantánamo? He did not know the facility was located in Cuba. But he was well aware that hundreds of Muslims from dozens of countries had been held there. What he really wanted to know was why it still it existed. And how could a country like the U.S., which stands for liberty, tolerate the detention and, he felt, torture of people not publicly accused of a specific crime.

An enduring stain
As prisoners have been released from the American facility in Cuba, many have told their tales. Books have been written. Stories have been told. Gitmo has entered popular culture. The most enduring stain of Guantánamo is its corrosive effect on America's standing in these parts. Morocco is no stranger to terrorism. In 2003, in the commercial capital Casablanca, 14 young men strapped explosives to their bodies, and killed more than 30 people at five locations. Four years later, an internet café owner tried to stop two young men from logging into a jihadist site. They blew themselves up — killing him and two others.

Fourteen of the 18 people initially charged for the Madrid train bombings in neighbouring Spain were Moroccans. Morocco's intelligence agencies have consequently been quite busy, including at Guantánamo where the Americans have invited them to do some questioning. (It is also widely believed the U.S. has used extraordinary rendition to fly detained men to Morocco where torture is more palatable or, at least, less illegal.)

But does this explain how the old man on the hill knows the name Guantánamo and what it stands for? The fact that urbanized people around the world know of the notorious prison — and despise it — is of little surprise. That this man, surrounded by his flock of sheep, and little else speaks passionately about it, only underscores how difficult it will be for the Americans to erase the stain from the world's memory.

(David Common is the CBC News correspondent in France. He has travelled to Afghanistan several times, often spending many weeks covering the actions of Canadian soldiers in that country. He recently returned from Riga, Latvia, where NATO leaders met to discuss their self-declared "most important mission.")
http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/common/20080305.html#
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Dental nurses gearing up to climb Morocco's Mount Toubkal.
By Megan Featherstone

TWO dental nurses are to climb North Africa's highest mountain.
Debbie Jackson and Sara Cook, both 34, will trek up Mount Toubkal in Morocco to raise money for dental charity Dentaid. The pair both work at the Laura Mitchell Dental Clinic, Great Albion Street, Halifax. They decided to attempt the 12,000-ft climb after looking at the Dentaid website.
Sara said: "We both said the trek looked like an amazing experience so we thought 'why don't we do it then'?" Debbie said: "We are both turning 35 this year and have never done anything like this before. "It will be a great experience and give us the chance do something for a good cause at the same time."

Dentaid provides basic oral health for disadvantaged communities around the world. In some places, like Rwanda and Sierra Leone, people do not have access to toothbrushes or toothpaste and there are fewer than 10 dentists across the whole country.

Debbie and Sara hope to raise nearly £2,000 each by completing the trek. They will have to walking for between six and 10 hours a day, camping in the wild and passing through a range of climates and terrain. Debbie said: "I used to be in the Girl Guides but have not camped since." The pair are training at the gym and walking in their spare time. They intend to test their muscles on the Three Peaks in May before they set off for Africa in September.

Anyone wanting to give cash or equipment should call the surgery on 01422 305547. The full article contains 269 words and appears in Evening Courier newspaper.
http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/Dental-nurses-gearing-up-to.3848158.jp
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Mounia Belafia discusses role of proverbs in perpetuating women's status in Morocco .
by Farah Kenani for Magharebia in Washington – 07/03/2008

Writer and journalist Mounia Belafia spoke with Magharebia recently about her new book, "Women in Moroccan Proverbs". Belafia suggests that everyday phrases contribute to negative attitudes towards women.

Mounia Belafia, author of "Women in Moroccan. Proverbs", says many commonly-used proverbs espouse negative opinions of women.

In the lead-up to the March 7th-8th Women's Book Fair in Fez, Magharebia spoke with Mounia Belafia about her new book "Women in Moroccan Proverbs". An expert in public perceptions and gender studies, the writer and journalist said that proverbs – even those used and created by women – reinforce popularly held negative perceptions about women and their role in society.

Magharebia: What prompted you to research the field of popular proverbs and their relation to women?
Mounia Belafia: My book was based on a conviction that the in-depth changes we desire for women's status in Morocco can't be achieved if we don't work on changing mindsets. A working woman would soon find herself no more than a housewife facing relatives that haven't necessarily witnessed the same development as the rest of society.

Based on that, I think we should work more profoundly in order to change mindsets and to achieve equality, not only on economic, political and other issues, but also in the patterns of behaviour that shape our conditions and influence our daily lives.

From this came the project of studying images of women and their relation to all types of discourse. I became interested in the topic at the media level, and I'm now preparing a study on women and theatre as part of my post-graduate studies.

The topic of popular proverbs, however, has intrigued me in a special way. I spent a lot of time studying it before I came to the conclusion that these popular proverbs, which are used by many of us in conscious or unconscious ways, embody many negative values regarding women. These negative values are passed from one generation to the next, and are reproduced in different ways. Popular proverbs and pop culture as a whole play a role in establishing and preserving traditions. This makes them act like established, deeply-rooted structures that are difficult to uproot.

Magharebia: Do you think that some women play a role in perpetuating the ideas contained in these proverbs?
Belafia: I was also concerned with the role women played in promoting offensive images of themselves. In my study, I posed the question of whether women used proverbs in their daily lives. The answer was yes. I posed another question, about whether they themselves were producing proverbs, and the answer was also yes.

Women are both consumers and producers of proverbs. Based on that, they are contributing, either consciously or unconsciously, to the dissemination of negative and offensive ideas about themselves.

In analyzing the body of these proverbs, we find ourselves faced with women who play a role in preserving traditions and passing them on accurately and honestly. A woman will replicate with her daughter-in-law what her mother-in-law did when she was young, in order to ensure that her son lives the same way his father did. The bride in turn hates the mother-in-law. Other differences within the community of women present an image of turbulence which resides in and engulfs that society.

Belafia's new book, "Women in Moroccan Proverbs", is based on the author's conviction that change in women's status in Morocco "can't be achieved if we don't work on changing mindsets."

Magharebia: What is the purpose of your study?
Belafia: My goal in this study was to attempt to transform the popular proverb from a product of its characteristics and status in society, outside the sphere of accountability and criticism, and from a product upon which society has imparted a type of sanctity, into a cultural product that is linked to social structure, justifications of behaviour patterns and existing hierarchal relations. In this way, we can approach the product in a critical way. We can read it based on a methodology of accountability that deals with it as a cultural product which perpetuates many social concepts and values and reproduces them in similar fashion to the way poems and wisdom are reproduced.

One of the conclusions of the study was that stereotypes about women are consistently repeated. These images take the typical form drawn by the type of thinking prevalent in the society. This "typical form" is dominated by negative images of women derived from a traditional culture that works to perpetuate women's inferior status in the social hierarchy. They are also derived from certain interpretations of religious thinking and from a special construction of tales and superstitions whose common divider justifies the inferior standing of women in the social hierarchy and in the predominant values surrounding them.

Even when a woman is mentioned in a positive way, we rarely find any other positive qualities except those that are related to her body and her "natural roles". Her standing is derived from her body, beauty, ability to give birth, care for her family and children, and skill in manual and domestic work.

Magharebia: As readers, what can we learn from this study? What are the points that must be dealt with?
Belafia: We can say that there are three major issues that can be presented through our study of prevailing popular proverbs about women. The first issue is that the proverbs produced by men and women alike reflect the balance of power within society. In this society, women are considered the weaker link, and they tend to be dominated by a masculine culture. Men are the stronger party, and everything revolves around them. Within this gender hierarchy of men and women there is another social hierarchy where the rich prevail over the poor, the strong over the weak, the master over the slave, the fertile over the infertile, the married over the divorced and widowed, and other steps on the ladder of prevailing social values.

The second issue is that no society can be studied based on its social and class relations alone. The prevailing culture must be taken into consideration. More importantly, my study of proverbs shows the extent of the role culture plays in preserving tradition. This brings us to a deep dilemma linked to the role of culture as a comprehensive anthropological concept in influencing social shifts.

The third issue is that pop culture often conforms to popular religious thinking in such a manner that it becomes difficult to discern between social cultural products, such as proverbs, and religious beliefs as understood by the public. As an expressive structure, the proverb is similar to wisdom. As we have shown in this study, the proverb, with its different time and place changes, is no more than a cultural product related to a certain historical situation with its own conditions and determining factors. http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2008/03/07/reportage-01
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Morocco's Berbers Reclaim Their Language and Their Indigenous Culture.
By Emma Schwartz March 13, 2008 AIT OURIR, MOROCCO

From the day Omar Boutmouzzar began teaching more than two decades ago, he could address students only in a language other than his own. A Moroccan Berber, Boutmouzzar was barred by law from using his native tongue —the one spoken by the country's sizable indigenous population —inside the classroom.

But the 46-year-old teacher doesn't have to hold his tongue any longer. Once banned in schools across Morocco, his language, Tamazight, is making a comeback as the result of an initiative by King Mohammed VI to integrate the country's widely spoken language, and its speakers, into the education system. The shift is part of a larger push toward pluralism and openness by the 44-year-old ruler who, since taking power in 1999, has moved away from some of the heavy-handed tactics of his father. He has liberalized laws affecting women (such as on divorce), forged stronger economic ties with the West, and created a commission to examine past human-rights violations.

Tamazight is another aspect of this trend. Teaching began in 2003, and by last year nearly 300,000 students —native Arabic speakers as well as Tamazight speakers —were enrolled in Tamazight courses, according to the Ministry of Education. The payoff has been broader: The official support for Tamazight has helped fuel a larger revival of Berber culture and life in the kingdom, where the country's native people have long been shunned, and sometimes imprisoned, for public expressions of their heritage. Now, summer arts festivals are common-place, Tamazight newspapers are thriving, and a long-blocked translation of the Koran into Tamazight finally made it into print. "It's a symbol of tolerance," says Ahmed Boukouss, director of the national institution for the teaching of Tamazight, known by its French acronym IRCAM.

Struggle. Of course, the transformations have been far from uniform, and there are signs that the slow pace of change is beginning to alienate Berbers from the king's initiative. Yet the story of the Tamazight project and the challenges it has faced from politicians, parents, and Berbers is in many ways symbolic of the broader struggle Morocco faces as it tries to balance the competing interests of a multicultural country of almost 34 million.

Berbers have long dominated the population in North Africa, and even today, most Moroccans trace their roots to the Berber tribes. Though most are Muslim, many Berbers still practice local festivals and follow a separate calendar. But this heritage hasn't always been recognized by the state. After Morocco won independence in 1956, King Hassan II embarked on a program of Arabization. Seeking to solidify a unified national identity and rid the country of French colonialism, he banned Tamazight in schools and public places. This forced a whole generation of children to enter school in a language they had never spoken before, contributing to a higher dropout rate among Berber children. Trouble for Tamazight-only speakers didn't stop in the education system. Many continued to face other difficulties communicating in hospitals and the court system, where Arabic and French dominate.

The king's mother. The frustration led to two major Berber revolts —one in 1973 and a second a decade later —both of which the Moroccan government suppressed. People who continued to assert their identity were jailed. For instance, Hassan Id Balkassm, a longtime Berber activist who now sits on the United Nations' Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, spent a week behind bars in 1981 for simply hanging up a sign to his law firm in Tamazight. (It was also in French and Arabic.)

But by 1994 the Berber movement was strong enough to catch the attention of Hassan II, who publicly vowed to integrate the indigenous tongue into the education system. In fact, though, there was little progress until Mohammed VI, whose mother is Berber, took over. In 2001, he announced a program to teach all schoolchildren Tamazight and bankrolled a research institute, IRCAM, to develop a curriculum and promote study of the language.

For Boutmouzzar, the initiative gave him the chance to spend three hours a week teaching first graders Tamazight at Agadir Naet Lesson school, located in a village about 20 miles outside Marrakech. Most of the school's nearly 500 students come from poor families, who often eke out a living picking olives or doing other day labor. Though classes are taught in Arabic and, in the higher grades, French, most students speak only Tamazight when they begin. "It's a catastrophe the first year," says Moulay Hamad, the school principal.

This is precisely what happened to Hind Bari, a 10-year-old third grader at the school. Hind was excited about starting classes four years ago, but the Arabic-only classes quickly curbed her interest. Her father, Hajib, a construction worker, could do little to help because he had no formal schooling, aside from a yearlong literacy course for adults. Unable to keep pace, Hind failed first grade twice.

Worried about a repeat with his second daughter, Bari enrolled Fatiha, four years younger, in a newly opened preschool near the family's home. The classes exposed Fatiha to Arabic, but she had an additional advantage beginning school: three hours of classes in Tamazight, her native tongue. Now, 6-year-old Fatiha is on track to complete first grade in time.

On a recent Friday morning, Fatiha joined 22 students during Boutmouzzar's Tamazight class, where students performed skits and sang songs during the hour-long class. "It's a bridge between the reality and the institution," Boutmouzzar says.

But Fatiha's luck may be short lived. Though the government initiative calls for adding a new level of Tamazight each year, the school in Ait Ourir has offered only the first level for the past three years.

It's a similar problem in schools across the country. Many still have no Tamazight teachers, and the Ministry of Education won't allocate money to recruit new ones —a position that many Berbers see as a sign that the Arab-dominated government hasn't fully accepted the initiative. Textbooks aren't always sent to rural areas, where Berbers are often the majority, because they don't sell as well. Other promises, such as plans to launch an all-Tamazight television station and develop university-level programs on Berbers, have not materialized, either.

As roadblock after roadblock stalls the pace of change, many Berber activists are beginning to criticize and distance themselves from the king's effort. In 2005, for instance, seven of the 30 board members of IRCAM quit because of the constant pushback from the ministry. "If the government doesn't go fast and the mentality stays as is, there won't be progress," says Abdellah Hitous, head of Tamaynut, the country's leading human-rights organization for Berbers. "In fact, I think there will be a regression."
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/world/2008/03/13/moroccos-berbers-reclaim-their-language-and-their-indigenous-culture-.html
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Local teacher to run in Morocco
Sunday, Mar 09, 2008 - By DAVID GUNTER Correspondent SANDPOINT

For third-grade teacher Peggy Gaudet, going for a little run means competing in a marathon. Given the option, she'd rather run a course that doubles or nearly quadruples that 26.2-mile distance.

Because, once you hit the halfway mark of a 50-mile race, the runner explained, “you feel so good you just have to finish.”

On March 23, Gaudet boards a plane bound for Morocco, where she will take part in one of the most arduous races ever devised - an “ultra-marathon” that takes seven days to complete, travels an unmarked course and makes its way over 160 miles of desert and sand dunes.

“I like the long distances,” Gaudet said, delivering a perfect study in understatement. “Some of the races I've run were marathons, some were 50-milers and one of them, in Kansas, was a 100-miler.”

The latest race she has been training for is called the Marathon of the Sands, an annual event that attracts 800 international participants who must first be approved based on their past performance in other long-distance competitions. Now in its 23rd year, the upcoming race will include 50 runners from the United States, with about one-third of the U.S. competitors being female.

“When they told me my name had moved off the waiting list, my first reaction was, ‘Yay! I made it!'” Gaudet said. “Then I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh - what am I doing?'”

The race falls during spring break for schools, which was a large factor in the Farmin-Stidwell Elementary School teacher's decision to compete this year. The runner said she first learned about the Marathon of the Sands in a documentary about 15 years ago and “tucked the idea away” as something she'd like to do when her strength and stamina allowed.

The race in Morocco will demand all she can muster of both. For the first three days, runners put in 20 miles in each segment - a kind of warm-up phase for competitors of this caliber. The sixth day involves a marathon-length leg that, historically, has traversed sand dunes for the entire distance. On the final day, the racers make an 8-mile sprint to the finish line.

Sandwiched in between - on days four and five - is a 50-mile leg that competitors can tackle any way they can manage. Gaudet hopes to complete that section in one, long effort, which will mean running through the dunes at night.

“I'm hoping to do that part all in one shot,” she said. “Sleeping out in the desert by myself - I'm not so sure about that.”

Apart from the enormous physical challenge the race presents - competitors who have completed Hawaii's Ironman Triathlon have called that event “a walk in the park” compared with the Marathon of the Sands - the greatest natural dangers come in the form of high winds and sand storms. In such situations, runners are advised to hunker down, cover up and wait.

The course can also present other potentially dangerous natural diversions along the way.

“This may just be a rumor, but I've heard there are giant spiders,” Gaudet reported.

“And snakes,” she added. “We also have to bring along a snake-bite kit.”

In metropolitan marathons, runners dress as lightly as possible and scoop up cups of water or “power goo” energy liquid to consume along the course. But in this desert trek, each runner carries a backpack with a sleeping bag, personal effects and enough food to last them for the week. Race officials check all bags to ensure that runners have packed a total of at least 12,000 calories for the seven days. Only water is provided, as is tent space for the night at the end of each stage.

“It's a self-sufficient race,” Gaudet said. “You have to carry everything you need.”

Running with a pack that weighs nearly 20 pounds required a whole, new way of training. In the process of preparing for the race over the past five months, Gaudet completely changed her stance, stride and gait as she put in countless miles across snow and ice this winter, combined with innumerable hours on step trainers and elliptical machines.

The regimen was directed by a personal trainer who has competed in the Moroccan race and understands the unusual demands of the course. Working with that trainer, Gaudet has made two trips to desert states to undergo intensive workouts that involved both high temperatures and running across sand-covered terrain.

“The last one was a training camp in Death Valley,” she said. “It was close to 100 degrees and, on the longest day, we ran for about five hours across huge sand dunes.”

Until now, the teacher hasn't discussed her pending adventure with the students in her class. With the race close-at-hand, however, she will work her plans into the curriculum.

“At the beginning of the year, we were reading a story about Africa and I mentioned it to them,” she said. “But we haven't really talked about it since then. Now I'm going to start doing things like tying it to math by having them go through my food bags to make sure I've packed enough calories.”

The exact location of the race is kept secret until the day of the event. Runners are transported into the desert on a 5-hour bus and military vehicle ride, at which time they are presented with a map and compass bearings. The scant list of supplies also includes a signal flare, to be used to call in a rescue helicopter if they become badly injured or hopelessly lost in the nondescript waves of sand.

Arriving a few days before the race, Gaudet plans to spend that time acclimating to the heat and shaking off jet lag from the long flight. She will continue her mental training by going through the race a day at a time in her mind, visualizing checkpoints and the all-important finish line.

More than likely, her running mantra will be a recitation of the motto she came up with during training: Constant Forward Motion.

The winner of the Marathon of the Sands for the past 10 years has been a Moroccan named Lahcen Ahansal. As a boy, his village bordered the course and he would run along - purely for fun - as the race passed by. By the time he was old enough to compete on an official basis, Ahansal already had years of experience behind him.

Last year, he finished the multi-day race with a total time of less than 18 hours, according to results posted on the event Web site. At the tail end of the pack of racers, trailing the last runner, a lone camel and its rider lope across the sands during each day of the ultra-marathon, Gaudet explained.

“I don't really have a finish time in mind,” the long-distance runner said. “My goal is to complete the race and not get injured. And I don't want to be by the camel.”

To track the progress of participants after the race starts on March 27, visit: www.darbaroud.com
http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/articles/2008/03/09/news/news01.txt
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Moroccan National Library, Museum of Jewish Heritage sign co-operation accord.
13/03/2008

Morocco's National Library and the New York-based Museum of Jewish Heritage signed a co-operation memorandum of understating on Tuesday (March 11th) in Rabat. National Library director Driss Khrouz said the accord aimed to boost inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue. He added that the digitalisation and exchange of historical documents, magazines and papers would be one of the joint projects carried out under the agreement.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2008/03/13/newsbrief-03
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Where is Morocco?
Large numbers of British tourists flock to Morocco but it's a corner of the world that is largely ignored by the media
Sharif Nashashibi. March 12, 2008 7:00 AM | Printable version
Morocco enjoys good relations with the UK and is a popular destination for British tourists, so it's rather surprising how little attention the country gets from the British media.

Arab Media Watch monitored coverage of Morocco in the national daily press over a 20-month period from June 2006 to February this year (excluding weekends and bank holidays). The survey included editorials, columns, commentaries, analyses and feature articles but straight news items were mostly omitted because of the amount of extraneous material (for example, stories about the search for Madeleine McCann which mentioned Morocco in passing but were not actually about Morocco).

One of the more curious findings of the study (pdf) was that three of the five tabloids - the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Daily Star - contained no relevant items. These papers have the the third, fifth and sixth highest circulation figures among the 10 newspapers monitored.

Furthermore, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent and the Sun had just one relevant item each, and even then, Morocco was only mentioned in passing. This is noteworthy as the Sun is by far the highest circulation newspaper in Britain, and the Telegraph is the highest circulation broadsheet and fourth highest among the 10 newspapers.

The Guardian and Financial Times together accounted for the vast majority of items (11 in the former), followed by the Daily Mail with five items, then the Times with four. As such, any significant amount of commentary was localised to just four of the 10 national daily newspapers, three of which (the Times, the Guardian and the FT) have relatively low circulation figures.

There is a consensus among the analysts I spoke to - a senior broadsheet journalist; a Moroccan diplomat; Abdulghali Aouifia, the London bureau chief of the Maghreb Arab Press news agency; and Ali Bahaijoub, the Moroccan editor of North South magazine - about why this is the case.

They all agree that due to colonial history, Morocco and other North African states are perceived as part of France's sphere of influence and interest, whereas the British media focuses more on Arab countries over which the UK had colonial power. Indeed, the French media gives more attention to states such as Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia than does the British media.

Bahaijoub laments this, pointing out that Morocco is geographically the closest Arab country to Britain, yet there is "very little" about the country in the British press, and "quite a lot on Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other places." He puts this down to there being "no big British business in Morocco," which is viewed simply as "an exotic place to go to whenever we need a break from the awful weather".

"Middle East coverage tends to focus on just a few countries - basically those where there is violence or some perceived threat to the West. This, of course, gives a rather distorted image of what the region as a whole is really like," says the broadsheet journalist. "There might also be an argument that Morocco does not actually need more coverage. Are there things the media ought to be covering that they ignore?"

Another reason put forward by Bahaijoub, as well as the Moroccan diplomat, is the lack of Morocco-based correspondents, meaning that coverage is sporadic and event-based, rather than systematic and consistent.

"They have stringers that they call when something flares up there," says Bahaijoub. "The stringers are all based in Madrid. There is no correspondent or permanent stringer based in Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia. Newspapers have cut down on foreign correspondents," and this has affected North Africa as a whole.

The diplomat adds that British media coverage tends, in this case, to be regional rather than country-specific. And Aouifia says one cannot expect as much coverage of Morocco as countries with which Britain has stronger relations, such as the US and France.

But there was an even more surprising element to the report. Morocco is a reliable ally of the west, and not exactly one of the Arab countries constantly prone to instability and violence, or surrounded by controversy in media and political circles.

Despite this, terrorism received by far the most comment, with all its negative connotations - specifically, Morocco as a target and incubator of al-Qaida/Islamist/jihadi terrorism, the country's role in the "war on terror" (as victim and torturer), and the effects of the Iraq war (encouraging Moroccans to fight there, and returning home or to Europe with their increased militancy). The FT and the Guardian devoted the most commentary to this issue.

The next largest field of commentary was on Morocco's political system. This was covered only by the FT and the Guardian - mostly during the September 2007 elections - in a generally (but not exclusively) negative fashion. The basic portrayal of the country in this regard was of elections being simply the veneer of an essentially autocratic state.

Next were the areas of tourism - where Morocco received good press, but not as much as one would expect given its traditional attraction to tourists - and the economy. Paul Torrisi in the Daily Mail said it "shows promise" with healthy GDP growth and inflation rates, but Guardian Middle East editor Ian Black pointed to its "dark side" - mainly unemployment.

Relations with Europe were a point of commentary, mainly in a negative way. For example, Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash recommended that the European Union focus on "the rule of law and women's rights in Morocco".

The largest commentary on this theme was in the Times by Robert MacPhail, who wrote about the country's relations with Spain, strained by immigration and land disputes over the Ceuta and Melilla enclaves, and an island known to Spain as Perejil and to Morocco as Leila.

MacPhail stated as fact that the island is "Spanish territory". Its sovereignty is disputed but the island lies within Morocco's territorial waters and Morocco's claim to it is supported by a significant portion of the international community.

Even Spain's El Pais newspaper published on July 19, 2002 a long treatise on the history of Spain's North African territories, and concluded that Perejil/Leila belongs to Morocco. AMW's factsheet on the territory is available here.

Morocco received generally good coverage for its property market, though Torrisi in the Mail advised some caution and favoured Turkey in this regard.

The dispute over Western Sahara - which has domestic, Arab, regional, European and even international implications - received few comments, which did not portray Morocco flatteringly.

Other minor topics of commentary were illiteracy, mentioned in the Guardian and the Sun, and a complimentary obituary in the Guardian about Moroccan-born Israeli social campaigner Sa'adia Marciano.

Though Aouifia recommends focusing on the positive aspects of the AMW report, it may make for gloomy reading - particularly for Moroccan authorities - not just for the scarcity of press commentary, but for the large parts that are negative.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sharif_nashashibi/2008/03/where_is_morocco.html
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Morocco: Between Survival and Self-assertion.
B ıa news centre. 13-03-2008 Kenza SEFRIOUI

2008: 4 years have passed since the reform of the Family Code. Casablanca, a population of 3.5 million (officially), economic capital and melting pot of ancient resident and rural populations who have come to seek employment, of middle classes … Amal, Leyla, Ikram, Ghanya, Amina and Kawtar live their twenties here. Their priority: to work.

Ghanya: Work means survival
Ghanya, aged 27, came to work in Casablanca. This young lively but modest woman comes from Chichawa, a small town near Marrakech. The youngest of 8 children she only attended a year of school: “My parents registered me but I wanted to leave. I don’t regret it”. Though she can’t write or read, she currently works in a café and runs from office to office to serve the clients. “This is what I found. I earn 250DH per week. It’s enough for me and to help my parents out. Work is important”. It’s a question of survival.

Kawtar: Bored of daily routines
As for Kawtar, 27, a native of a working-class neighbourhood of Casablanca, a job would change her life. She married when she was 21 and has two young children used to seeing her permanently at their service. She doesn’t have a moment for herself and she gets bored with “doing the same things every day”. Her husband, a civil servant much older than her, struggles to make them live honourably: this leads to nervousness, frustration and marital problems.

Amina: Wants her daughters to be better-off
Amina, 29 is divorced and lives with her parents and her two daughters. She loves her job as an aesthetician, though she regrets the looks of despise that people give her. She endures long days of underpaid work in order to be independent economically and suffers that she’s can’t completely manage on her own at her age. Maternity is her greatest source of satisfaction, though she fights for her daughters because she wants them to have “a better situation than mine”. She can’t stop working but her dream of a “stable situation” could only come true with a husband.

Ikram: Women can't work late
Ikram, 22, believes that “work represents self-fulfilment. I plan to stop only if I marry a rich husband, to take care of my children during their growth”. A master student, she works as researcher for a shadow cabinet. She likes challenges, and reveals a very hard-nosed and proactive attitude in her professional carrier: “negative points help to form my personality”. She regrets that “in Morocco, women can’t stay late at work: it creates problems to the family because of what people could say”.

Amal: Can stand up for her ideas
“I don’t just accept things for the sake of appearances; I take on my own responsibilities”, retorts Amal, 28, a young modern woman with a subdued elegance. A TV journalist, she chose this job because she wanted “more freedom. Journalism allows you to be a free electron. I don’t live the monotony of office life. I can stand up for my own ideas. This wasn’t conceivable in my family before”.

Leyla: Her life appears rich from the outside
Leyla, the first of 3 children, belongs to a middle class family of Fez, therefore traditional and conservative. Aged 28, she is responsible for the institutional communication of a multinational firm. This branch is still to be “legitimised” but she appreciates the fact of “having a budget and really being able to achieve something”. Lively and curious, but heavily marked by her education, she questions herself often on her desires and choices: “I live a rich life outwards but a poor one inwards”, she explains, admiring her cousin who is a happy mother with a family of her own.

A Difficult Emancipation
Whereas work represents a boost for the richer women, marriage represents a mandatory stage for all of them. “That’s life”, replies Ghanya who believes that “a woman should live in her house with her children” and that only the hardships of life force women to work. “I live day by day. I eat, I drink, Hamdoullah (Thanks God). I don’t dream of the future”. Her only hope is to meet “someone of my own class and be happy with him”. It’s difficult to leave home before you’re married. A woman’s freedom depends on that. At what price, remembers Amina bitterly. Women seldom live on their own without being married. All of them are aware that the high cost of life won’t allow them to have more than two children.

Love, liaisons, abortions
Where does love stand in all of this? “I’m not interested”, replies Ghanya shrugging her shoulders. Ikram, a strict Muslim follower, veiled and dressed accordingly, believes that “true love comes after marriage” and deprives herself of any sentimental relationship.The independence she shows for her professional career leaves the way on this field to ideological considerations. Ideal love? “It’s the love of the Prophet for Aysha”. She doesn’t trust men.

Amina regrets the traditional stability that her parents lived, in respect and tenderness” “Today, men want to depend on women. They’ve given up. Women work five times as much than men and don’t get any recognition for it”.

Liaisons? Only for the more emancipated ones. To remain a virgin until the wedding? “Because men care for it even if they pretend the contrary”, adds Kawtar realistically. To declare your love to a man? Few women allow themselves to do so, but many use indirect stratagems.

Contraception? They all know about it, though it wasn’t their mothers who informed them: Hchouma (Shame on you). Abortion? Only the most modern ones want a legislation to authorise it. For most of them it’s Haram (It’s a sin). “It’s not a solution”, believes Kawtar, who recalls her abortion “in painful and dangerous conditions”. In very extreme cases, “Only God can forgive us…”whispers Amina.

Intergenerational relations
Many believe that their life is very different from their mothers, because they work, though Leyla specifies:” we’re conditioned in the same way. I suffer the same constraints (studies, marriage, children, way of life) but a little later”.

Some would hope for more dialogue with their parents. When asked what they think of themselves, they laugh surprised. They live, that’s all, without really asking themselves what they are as individuals. Yet, what they prize most are the moral qualities: to follow a moral conduct for the simplest of them, to have strength of character and independence for the more emancipated ones.

So, are they happy? Their yes is often shy, though they more often reply with a modest Hamdoullah…(KS/AG)
http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/105553/morocco-between-survival-and-self-assertion
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Shelters for Morocco's street children are a drop in an ocean.
By Imane Belhaj for Magharebia. 14/03/2008

Morocco's street children live a difficult life, often filled with narcotics and crime. Efforts to reintegrate them into families and schools are small and somewhat successful but experts say the problem is large and its root lies in poverty and difficult social circumstances.

Othmane left his home and school at the age of 14 to live on the street. He no longer wanted to see his mother fight the daily battle to get bread for his five little siblings, struggle to lease a shantytown house and pay for his school expenses. "The street is not more merciful," Othmane says "This is a lie; but at least she will not have to think about my daily living. In the meantime, I may be able to help her." Othmane carries bags of vegetables and other purchases for customers at a nearby market. In this way, he earns a few dirhams a day, enough to bring a little money back home when he visits once a week and still be able to buy the cheap narcotics which help him endure his suffering.

Othmane is part of the growing number of street children in Morocco. These are the homeless and marginalized youths without identity or family. The sidewalks are their shelters and the bakeries' doorsteps are their pillows.

In Casablanca, these children's main "residences" are alleys in the old city, the port, the train station and the fruits and vegetables wholesale market. The port provides them with an opportunity to emigrate illegally. The wholesale market gives them the chance to work as porters and make money to buy drugs. At the train station, they can earn a bit from helping passengers or by begging for handouts from tourists.

According to the most recent statistics from Morocco's Secretariat of State for Family, Solidarity and Social Action, 7,000 street children live in Casablanca wilaya alone. 8,800 more live in other major cities such as Marrakech, Fez, and Meknes.

The figures are dated and unreliable, however, because homeless children do not stay in one place. They move between neighborhoods and cities in search of another temporary refuge. They are often fleeing dire poverty where six or 10 family members are crammed into a single room.

Moroccan civil society has adopted a strategy of building centres to shelter some of these street children and attempt to reintegrate them into schools and families, but the challenge is enormous. The number of children usually exceeds the centres' financial capabilities and many are turned away.

"We try to provide some assistance to these children. We don't claim that we will solve the problem once and for all," says Al Tahir Skali of the Casbah Association for Children in Difficult Situations.

His group is now building a homeless shelter for children in Mohammedia, as part of the National Initiative for Human Development. The shelter will provide accommodation, schooling, food and, eventually, socio-professional integration. But while there are thousands of these children in the city of Mohammedia alone, the centre will host no more than 100 of them. Even if the experiment succeeds, it will be just a tiny drop in the sea.

Skali acknowledges the difficulty of intervening in the fight against homelessness. "Drug addiction make a lot of people not respond to our initiatives," he says. "They usually flee to embrace the street again. This makes us feel that we have failed, except in very rare cases. However, we haven't lost hope, and we have adopted a policy of prevention. Today, we look for potential street children from very poor families. We call on these families to care about their children, shelter them in that centre and help them go back to school or continue their vocational training."

Hamid Tachfin, a social worker at the Bayti association, agrees that poverty has contributed to the epidemic of street children. Difficult social circumstances can push children onto the street and often, into the world of drugs and crime.

"We have reached a conclusion that great sufferings are behind many of the cases," Tachfin says. "Family poverty, school failure, fear of family, parental divorce [and] marital disputes are the main causes that make them go out to the street and embrace a fate unknown."

Convincing street children to put their trust in the centres and associations designed to assist them is still difficult. The homeless youths have lost all confidence in society's ability to help them. They have lost confidence even in themselves. They often have no other desire than to run freely and live without adult control.

One success story, however, may be that of 12-year-old Noureddine. Other street children beat him harshly and regularly for the sake of amusement, but Bayti rescued him from the street.

"I have found a new haven and new friends here," he says. "The most important thing is that I returned to school, and I will never quit it, provided that Bayti support me all the way up to the end. This is an opportunity not available to everyone," the boy added.

Efforts by Morocco's few centres and associations dedicated to helping street children seem to be working, Bayti president Najat M'jid says. "When we look at the number of children whom we are able to reintegrate annually, whether with families or schools, we find out that we are progressing year after year."

M'jit adds, however, that in terms of addressing this phenomenon as a whole, much remains to be done. "We haven't yet drawn up a specific plan to address the real problems that breed street children: poverty, rural immigration, schooling and its quality, the rising rate of unemployment and youth's loss of hope in building their future in their country," she says.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2008/03/14/reportage-01
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Wedding prank backfires in Morocco.
March 13 2008 By Tom Pfeiffer and Zakia Abdennebi Ksar El Kebir, Morocco

When rumours of a "gay wedding" spread through the northern Moroccan town of Ksar el Kebir, the only evidence produced was a video on YouTube of a man dancing suggestively in women's clothes. Three months later, four people are in prison accused of homosexual acts, Islamists are decrying a decline in public morals and liberals are warning that the north African kingdom risks sleep-walking into extremism.

A reputation as a tolerant, nascent democracy has earned Morocco privileged ties with the European Union and helped draw millions of tourists to its cities, mountains and beaches. But rights campaigners say the events in Ksar el Kebir are the latest sign that personal freedoms are in danger as the secular government seeks to placate powerful Islamists. "Morocco has become a society where debate is much freer than before but many people are not happy with that freedom," said Issandr el Amrani, north Africa specialist at International Crisis Group. "There is a real risk of people with conservative agendas influencing politics."

The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has become a major political force by drawing on popular anger at poverty and corruption and calling for more morality in public life. Despite lingering suspicions that the PJD wants to turn Morocco into a purist Islamist state, the secular establishment sees the party as part of a moderate religious bulwark against increasingly active and well-organised radical Islamist groups. But some say this attitude has resulted in more restrictions on personal freedoms to comply with Islamist beliefs.

Organisers of an open-air pop concert held in May 2007 to encourage young people to vote in legislative elections were surprised by what was written about their event in the conservative newspaper Attajdid. "It said people had stripped naked, climbed on the minaret of a mosque and stopped Muslims praying - it was simply untrue," said Reda Allali, singer in rock band Hoba Hoba Spirit. "When someone holds a concert, these populists always trot out their favourite themes: Zionists, Satanists, drugs, homosexuality and George Bush," said Allali.

In universities, tensions have grown between left-wing students and Morocco's largest Islamist opposition movement Justice and Charity, which now dominates the main student union. Justice and Charity, which is banned from mainstream politics because of its open hostility to the monarchy, has set up informal morality tribunals in some universities, said Driss Mansouri, philosophy professor at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez.

"If they decide a couple of unmarried students are in a close relationship, they punish them. Some students have even been beaten - it's a rural mentality," said Mansouri.

Human Rights Watch has called for the release of the four men jailed in Ksar el Kebir. The men say the "gay wedding" only ever existed in the minds of suspicious neighbours. The rumours began after wine merchant and former circus artist Fouad Frettet held a party for friends and neighbours. Local people said Moroccan Sufi mysticism featured prominently. A black bull was paraded through the streets and sacrificed to appease a demon thought to be lurking under a local bath-house. The bull was cooked and eaten while Gnawa musicians - who are known for their poverty and their pleasure-seeking lifestyle - provided the entertainment.

When word of the party spread, partly through the Internet video, thousands of angry men marched on Ksar's central mosque. "The police feared the crowd. If they'd intervened it would have been terrible," said rights campaigner Abdellah el Baad. The mob attacked the car of a jeweller accused of funding the party, ransacked Frettet's wine store and pelted his house with stones and bottles as his family hid within, Baad said. Frettet emerged from hiding a few days later and appealed to the police for protection. He was arrested and tried along with two jobless men, two labourers, a barber and a waiter.

He said he had been a homosexual in his youth but pointed out that he was now married with children. He was jailed for 10 months for homosexual acts and the illegal sale of alcohol. Five others were jailed for between four and six months, sentences that were shortened on appeal. Frettet's unemployed brother Redouane said that no wedding had taken place. "Allowing this mob to attack our family was an act of terrorism," he said, dragging nervously on a cigarette outside the family home, its walls still bearing the marks of the attack. "Fouad was injured and our mother's house was destroyed - now he's in prison and he's in a bad state."

Political leaders denied they exploited the situation to burnish their conservative credentials. "The crowd reacted on its own. It didn't need any encouragement," said Ksar el Kebir council leader Said Khairoun from the Islamist PJD party.

Commentators are divided over whether what happened in Ksar el Kebir was proof of the rising power of Islamists. For analyst Mohamed Darif, the issue was homosexuality, which has always been tolerated in Moroccan society - if no one finds out about it. "We are dealing with a conservative society," Darif said. "(Governing party) Istiqlal is not a religious party but you won't find any Istiqlal leader who'll defend homosexuality." Others interpreted the incident more broadly, seeing it as one more example of a society becoming more restrictive. "Must we wait until violence breaks out in full daylight to sound the alarm?" asked current affairs magazine TelQuel in January.
(Additional reporting by Zakia Abdennebi; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile)
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/?search=Morocco&searchheadlines=1
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