Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
February 6, 2010

US Senior Banking Advisor hails Morocco's efforts for women's empowerment.
Rabat

Inter-American Development Bank Senior Advisor and former US treasurer Mme Anna Escobedo Cabral commended on Monday the efforts made by the Kingdom for the consolidation of women's rights. In a statement to MAP on the occasion of a conference organized by the Interior Ministry in partnership with the International Republican Institute (IRI), Escobedo Cabral said she is "impressed" by the actions initiated by Morocco to enable women have access to the sphere of decision-making.

Morocco is faced today with a challenge in the field of rural girls' schooling, the former US treasurer said, affirming that school dropouts deprive young girls of a lot of opportunities, a phenomenon that has an overall negative impact on society.

The conference, in which Anna Escobedo took part, mustered over 150 senior officials from the Home Department and civil society to look into the progress and major achievements made by Moroccan women. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/us_senior_banking_ad/view
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Cold snap: over 2,600 Moroccan families get 25 tonnes of food.
Azilal

Some 2,620 families affected by the cold snap and snowfall in remote rural areas of Zaouiat Ahansal and Anergui in the Azilal region (central Morocco) benefited, on Saturday, from 25 tonnes of food. The authorities in the province of Azilal mobilized two helicopters of the Gendarmerie to carry out the operation and assist people in many small villages of the region.

President of the Zaouiat Ahansal municipality Ouboulaâouane Yousef expressed the gratitude of the region's population to HM King Mohammed VI for supporting this solidarity initiative. To address the population dispersal in this area, threatened by the cold snap and snow accumulation which reached 2 to 3 metres, the Gendarmerie provided snow scooters to its elements to provide help to the local populations.

As part of assistance efforts benefiting the affected population, a multidisciplinary medical caravan examined over 7,000 people and injected about 8,000 people with anti-A/H1N1 flu vaccine. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/cold_snap__over_2607959/view
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Over €500,000 EU donation to help Moroccan job-seekers.
Meknes

A project to integrate young Moroccan graduates into the labour market was launched, Tuesday in the city of Meknes, thanks to an EU contribution of €596,905. The project is aimed at setting an interactive database of Moroccan university graduates, developing a multipurpose tool designed to monitor graduates' insertion, improving their employability and facilitating their access to the labour market, by putting their CVs at the disposal of companies.

The project also aims to train the managing staff, the technicians and the users of the database.
It will first benefit the university of Meknes then extended to the universities of Oujda (east) and Marrakech (centre) to promote the effectiveness of the higher education system. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/over_500000_eu_don/view
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Morocco, IDB sign over $50-mn drinking water supply agreements.
Rabat

Morocco's national water utility (ONEP) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) signed, on Sunday in Rabat, agreements worth 50.3 million dollars to finance projects to supply the northern city of Fez and the rural areas of the eastern province of Taza with drinking water.

The agreements were signed on the sidelines of the 256th session of the Bank's council of executive directors.
They were signed by Morocco's Economy and Finance Minister, Salaheddine Mezouar, the managing director of ONEP, Ali Fassi Fihri, and the president of IDB group, Ahmed Mohamed Ali. Mezouar lauded the interest attached by the Bank to supporting Morocco's economic and social development by funding various development projects.

Ahmed Mohamed Ali hailed the excellence of relations between Morocco and IDB, stressing the continuous interest of the Bank to financing Morocco's economic and social development projects. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/morocco_idb_sign_ov/view
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World Bank approves $200-mln loan to Morocco.
Washington

The World Bank approved a $200-million Development Policy Loan (DPL) to improve access to financial services in Morocco. "Through financial and technical support, this DPL aims to accompany the Government’s efforts to enlarge further the access of households and small and medium enterprises to finance, while ensuring the stability of the financial system," a statement of the World Bank said.

Special attention will be given to the financial regulations and supervision, and to effective risk management, the statement said, adding that the project is in line with the new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS 2010-2013) and will particularly contribute to enhancing the growth and competitiveness of the Moroccan Economy.

“Morocco has undertaken several conclusive and sound political, economic and social reforms, that have enabled the country to achieve greater growth, poverty reduction, regional and international integration,” said World Bank Country Director for Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Malta, Mats Karlson.

He said the financial sector in Morocco, one of the best performing in the Middle East and North Africa Region, has proved resilient to external shocks. “Through this DPL, new reforms will be launched and will expand access to financial services by people and firms and reinforce the sector’s performance,” Karlsson added.

The CPS is a flexible partnership framework that defines the support that the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation provide to Morocco.

The new strategy proposes three thematic pillars aligned with the development priorities of the country, namely enhance growth, competitiveness and employment, improve service delivery to citizens, and ensure environmental sustainability in the context of a changing climate. It also proposes two cross-cutting “beams” - governance and territoriality.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/world_bank_approves/view
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Morocco, UNFPA sign agreement on internal migration data collection.
Rabat

Morocco and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) signed on Thursday an additional agreement to co-fund the project of observation and data collection system generalization (SOCDM). The agreement was signed by Secretary of State for Territorial Development, Abdeslam El Mesbahi, and UNFPA Representative, Sew Lun Geneviève Ah-Sue.

This system, which is being generalized in the Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer region within a partnership between the Wilaya, the Regional Council, the High Planning Commission and the UNFPA, aims to better capture the phenomena of migration and provide data on migratory fluxes, said a statement of the Secretariat of State for Territorial Development.

The internal migration database will contribute to the improvement of local governance and make efficient social and economic planning by endowing national, local and institutional actors with a system that would guide territorial development strategies.

The database will also serve as a source of orientation and guidance for the large-scale anti-poverty National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) and will help accompany local administration in its effort of e-governance through the digitizing of data and procedures.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/morocco_unfpa_sign/view
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Sex and sexuality in Morocco: a fatal taboo (social study).  
By Rachid-Chelouah on Feb 01, 2010

Despite the social transition that Morocco witnessed in late 90s due to the increasing development of mass media, television, Internet and digital evolution; for some Moroccans sexual world is still uncertain as they are governed by sex consumption culture. Not surprisingly sex in Morocco is a problematic area, it is about the most desirable but unspoken instinct. As we live or lived in a mannish society, men are its pioneers and are completely prepared to show the scopes of their masculinity to their surrounding.

Whenever you come across a manly conversation you will hear men making anything and from nothing about sex, absurd jokes, talking about their experiences of satisfying their carnal desire, and especially showing their masculinity through the stories of adventure and even counting how many women the one had, and if you do not have any girl friend or not seeing anyone , you might risk to be marked by the label of gay or onanist (which means manual stimulation of the genital organs of yourself or another for sexual pleasure).

In short men’s brain is in what Bint Majzoub told Wad Rayyes in Tayeb Saleh’s masterpiece Season of Migration to the North: “Your whole brain is in the head of your penis and the head of your penis is as small as your brain”.

Moroccans have great difficulty speaking about their sexuality to their nuclear family because sex remains a taboo subject, which makes of sex education nonexistent although problems related to sex education are more religious than cultural.

Sex and sexuality are not on the Moroccan education curriculum .The Education does not enrich the knowledge of the seriousness of sexual relationships, sexuality , contraception , diseases and so on and so forth apart from some occasional mobilizations during the World Aids Day celebrated on the first of December of each year and which does not bring anything new expect regurgitating new figures on the statistics list, above all the addresses of these events are likely to be adults who have already engaged in sexual behaviour rather than teenagers who are the future vulnerable subjects to be added to the findings of the World Health Organization (WHO) of Aids and HIV.

Generally speaking, young Muslims learn about sex manners, etiquette, vice and taboo not from educative institutions but from society itself. Segregation and pressure within the social texture makes teenagers free to experiment their sexuality to whatever is useful to kill the libido. Some may attempt to have sex with animals, some try to have same sex or even sex with his own sister and there are many stories making headlines on Moroccan newspapers, periodicals and magazines. Moreover, the evolution of information technology (IT) and easy access to internet facilitate surfing on pornographic websites far from the parents’ surveillance and away from the authority of the social or religious norms. So, the hygienic , moral and spiritual dimension of sex education is neither in line with religious belief nor in line with scientific awareness of the sexual behaviour, in fact the teenagers or even some adults sexuality knowledge is based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice .

Sex education is a framework that canonizes the libido since it defines the limits of adventure and social and governmental agencies in Morocco should review their inadequate perception vis-à-vis this issue without any fear from conservatives who are there waiting for similar opportunities to use in their political campaigns because Islam neither denies nor suppresses people from the enjoyment of physical desires, meanwhile , Islam does not give them the unlimited freedom to go beyond the scientific and ethical description of the libido ; however it frames the borderlines to follow through disciplinary channels .

Therefore, if the family, as the basic building block of society, is unable to be open to address the question of sex and sexuality with the children, we must be sure that stigmatizing stories of a father raping his daughter, a brother having sex with his sister, a brother impregnates his sister, a teenager girl is pregnant at the age of xyz , babies found in rubbish /garbage bins ,a man raped a boy in front of his brother …ext ,will continue to be on the first page of Moroccan newspapers and will continue to be a hot topic on everyone’s mouth.

For instance sex education in the Netherlands is a part of the pedagogic curriculum and if you tell someone that you disagree with sex education in schools, they will take it as you disagree with teaching religion or math or any other topic, and if we juxtapose Holland and Morocco, the one can notice that deviant sexual behaviours coming from Morocco are much more than in Holland where children are self conscious to any adult sexual attack.
Alternatively, in order to fix the borders of the sexual good and evil, a new emphasis should be established on introducing sex education without any reservation in Moroccan schools to signal the dangers of deviant behaviour. http://www.moroccopost.net/politics/4508-sex-and-sexuality-in-morocco-a-fatal-taboo-social-study/
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Sexual harassment … A major concern for Moroccan girls on the street and workplace.
Morish on Jan 24, 2010

Despite the positive developments in Morocco at various levels, starting with Human Rights, women’s rights and participation in various areas, the phenomenon of sexual harassment still widely spread in Morocco’s streets.
Many girls suffer molestation on the streets of Morocco which often turns into sexual harassment. And in most cases it becomes difficult for these girls to respond or even to report these violations to the authorities, because the relevant law in this aspect has not been ratified yet. Due to a complex of customs and traditions, this behavior is protected by the Moroccan society, famous of being controlled by men’s rule.

A Daily struggle
Sana, a young Moroccan journalist, told us that she is not excluded from this kind of harassment, and any response from her side could cost a lot, “Youth use bad language, and if a girl defends herself, she may be driven into a series of insults and altercations that may not end.” Sana was victim of much harassment that affects her dignity and threatened her freedom. Therefore she considers the phenomenon a violation of freedom and others rights to live in peace, “my freedom ends where the freedom of the other starts, this fact is ignored by young people who think that their freedom is endless.”

Camelia, a dentist, has been subjected to numerous harassments which affected her mentally, she remembers the time she was in her house’s balcony “a young men was flirting with me he called me BLIND because I had glasses, he remained hovering around my house, hoping to make me talk to him.” Iman, a telecommunications engineer said “It has become a hobby for some youths; I personally lost my mind many times. One time I almost beat a guy”

Harassment in the eyes of men
Speaking about harassment, Ali Shabani, a specialist in social researches, said that the phenomenon is due to a lack of reverence for the common life and relations between individuals, also the lack of respect among others. “The lack of security in our society encourages the spread of harassment,” said Shabani.
Adil, a Moroccan employee, affirmed that harassment is caused by men and women, “in some cases girls provoke men and encourage the temptation to harassment, personally I did it many times” Adel, stressed that “such things are associated with adolescence only” and added that this is due to the way how young male is educated since childhood, “Once they are used it’s hard for them to stop this habit unless they become mature and sometimes never.

For his part, Azedine, a university student, finds that the seriousness of the issue of harassment become more dangerous when old men start harassing young girls, pointing out that these phenomena indicates a serious moral decay. “Harassment, in some cases, goes beyond verbal to physical, and the use of indecent nasty words shows a lack of responsibility towards society.” Izz al-Din says also that the young man allows himself harassing girls, but he refuses to see his sister or his wife or one of his relatives exposed to same acts, because that affects their manhood” adding that “Women should pay attention to their way of dressing in some cases, and should respect the traditions and religious recommendations,”

The problem of harassment at workplace
Harassment in some cases affects not only the street but also the workplace, where women are often the victim due to the unequal job opportunity. Adib Abdel-Salam, a founding member of the Network against Sexual Harassment Cases in Morocco, believes that: harassment is blatant in the street but still allow some women the right to stand against it since the harasser on the street has no authority over her. “As a jurist I am more interested in forms of harassment at workplace because of the authoritarian relationship between the workers and employees on one hand and their boss on the other hand.” The Network against Sexual Harassment Cases in Morocco was founded in 2006 to receive complaints from women who are subject to harassment, extortion, blackmail and harassment in their workplaces, “We receive many complains, but most women prefer not to appear in the media because it may expose them to the loss of their jobs and they are afraid of the scandal and the reaction of their husbands”

The fight against sexual harassment through education
Adib Abdel-Salam called for creation of a toll-free number to help women reporting their cases of harassment, whether in workplaces or on the street, he also sees that there is a need for an easier courts process which might make it easier for girls to resort to law. Ali Shabani insists on the importance of a balance social education, “harassment is an unhealthy behavior, and can be eliminated or rectified by teaching moral and legal principles and promoting awareness, knowledge and respect among people, ” It is worth mentioning that the Moroccan parliament has already discussed in 2008 a draft law to criminalize sexual harassment by imprisonment and fines but the law was not ratified yet.
http://www.moroccopost.net/politics/466-sexual-harassment-a-major-concern-for-moroccan-girls-in-the-street-and-workplace/
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Moroccan native brings culinary influences to Mt. Lebanon café.
By Pam Starr, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, January 31, 2010

Abdel Khila, the owner of Kous Kous Cafe in Mt. Lebanon, says Moroccan food is culled from "generations of creativity." "We have a lot of influences from all over," says Khila, 34, who lives in Beechview with his wife, Lida, and their two children. "Moroccan food uses a lot of spices, but not a lot of hot flavor. It's extremely unique."

The same can be said about Khila, who was born in Marrakesh, Morocco, and received a degree in hotel and restaurant management before coming to America. His mother, Habiba Echargi, taught him how to cook at an early age even though cooking is considered a woman's domain in Moroccan culture. "Most guys in Morocco are not interested in cooking because women do it," he says. "One of the prized qualities in a woman in Morocco is knowing how to cook."

Khila, who stands an imposing 6 foot, 8 inches, worked for Disney in Florida before moving to Pittsburgh 13 years ago. He was the head chef at Cafe Zinho and worked at La Foret and Bon Vivant. "In 2005, I had enough of working for others," Khila says. "I taught French and Arabic at Upper St. Clair High School, but once you have the passion for cooking, it doesn't go away easily. I took a one-year leave of absence last year to open Kous Kous.

"I love teaching, but this was always the plan -- to open my own business." The lack of authentic Moroccan cuisine in Pittsburgh gave Khila the push to create Kous Kous Cafe, which opened in November. Large, colorful squares of mosaic tiles hang on the mustard-yellow walls, and the 28 tables are jammed together in a narrow space.

"Moroccan cuisine in general is not very common," Khila says. "I was disappointed in the Moroccan restaurants I ate at in Atlanta and Florida. It really was not authentic Moroccan food, and it gave a bad name to Moroccan culture. I wanted to share my cultural background. I try to duplicate the food back home with dishes that I grew up with."

His menu, which his mom helped formulate, is a little intimidating for those diners who have no knowledge of Moroccan cuisine. Khila serves Harira, the national soup of Morocco, which is made with lamb, chickpeas, lentils and noodles. His appetizers include roasted vegetable hummus, eggplant ratatouille and roasted pepper Tak-Tooka. He has a few sandwiches, but focuses on entrees such as several kinds of couscouses, braised beef with whole plums, lemony salmon in a sharmoula marinade and grilled fresh sardines. Many of his dishes are cooked in tagines and served right from the tagines at the tables.

"I use only local, grass-fed lamb and beef, and free-range chicken from an Amish farmer," Khila says. "All of our spices are imported from Morocco and ground here. We get our seafood from Restaurant Depot. Everything is prepared fresh when it's ordered."

His wife, Lida, who hails from the Czech Republic and is 6 feet tall, says she never tried Moroccan cuisine until she met her husband in Orlando, Fla. They've been married for 10 years. "I love it," she says. Lida helps Khila in the restaurant as much as she can, while taking care of Maria, 2, and Adam, who is 9 months."Our weekends are very busy," she says. "We turn the tables two or three times." Khila is the only chef at Kous Kous Cafe, which suits him just fine. His mother is visiting from Morocco for two months and loves helping her son in the kitchen.

"Moroccan food is one of the best cuisines in the world," he says. "Cooking is not very complicated. If you have good ingredients, it'll be fine."

Red Snapper with Moroccan Sharmoula Marinade
Abdel Khila, the owner of Kous Kous Cafe in Mt. Lebanon, chose to share his popular Red Snapper with Moroccan Sharmoula Marinade with Cooking Class.

It's a summer dish, he says, but can be used any time. Layering the ingredients blends all the flavors as they cook, making for a delicious casserole-type of meal. Freshly brewed mint tea would be ideal to serve with this dish.

For the sharmoula marinade:
• 4 cloves garlic
• Pinch of salt
• Small bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 pinch hot pepper
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
For the fish and vegetables:
• Medium-size red snapper, gutted whole (substitute swordfish or salmon, if desired)
• 1 tomato, sliced
• 1 carrot, blanched and sliced
• 1 potato, sliced
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 1 lemon, sliced
• Chopped parsley, for grnish
• Chopped cilantro, for garnish
To prepare the marinade: In a mortar, food processor or blender, grind the garlic, salt and chopped cilantro.
Place the mixture in a bowl and add the rest of the spices, lemon juice, oil and tomato paste.
Mix well, using a whisk or wooden spoon.
To prepare the fish and vegetables: Cut the fish into 4 pieces. Marinate the fish and vegetables in the sharmoula marinade for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Layer the tomato slices in a tagine or baking pan and add, layering in order, the carrots, the snapper, the potato slices, the peppers and the sliced lemon.

Cook on a burner on medium heat, or in a 400-degree oven, until the vegetables and fish are cooked through, for 20 to 25 minutes.

Top with chopped parsley and cilantro and serve with Moroccan flatbread.
Makes 2 servings.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/lifestyles/fooddrink/s_664557.html
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