Contextualising street sexual harassment in Morocco: a discriminatory sociocultural representation of women

ABSTRACT

This article aims to contextualise gender-based violence through the phenomenon of sexual harassment in public space in Morocco. This will be achieved by exploring the discriminatory social, cultural and political representation of Moroccan women, and discussing their status, image and treatment in a patriarchal social order. The study seeks to reveal the relationship between the stereotypical images of Moroccan girls and women and the violence that is likely committed against them. It suggests that women’s location in the power structures of the family, school, media and the law, as well as their access to the economic and political spheres, all contribute to the construction and negotiation of gender roles, relationships and inequalities, and consequently participate in fostering violent attitudes and practices against women in the public arena. The evolution of the status of women will be primarily guaranteed by changes in their freedom-of-movement, security and emancipation. However, regularising gender inequalities and naturalising women’s oppression remain obstacles that will encourage further harassment against women. Future research should address women’s discourse and experiences of street harassment as well as its social meaning, prevalence, severity and impact in order to better define the phenomenon and thus contribute to improving the image of women in the Moroccan context.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender-based violence
• street sexual harassment
• public space
• Moroccan women
• gender inequality
• Morocco

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. Many thanks to Professor George Joffé for his advice and proofreading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 ‘Etude sur la violence à l’égard des femmes’ Haut Commissariat au Plan (HCP), 2011, P. 60. Accessed April 10, 2016, www.hcp.ma.

2 The Global Gender Gap Report 2015 – Morocco. Accessed April 3, 2016, http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/economies/#economy=MAR.

3 United Nations: Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. Accessed April 3, 2016, http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/48/a48r104.htm.

4 The term ‘honour killings’, when placed inside quotation marks, is meant to reflect the abusive use of the term ‘honour’ to describe what is, in effect, straightforward murder.

5 ‘Female students’ sexual harassment worrying Tangier’s families.’ Accessed September 24, 2016, http://www.hespress.com/regions/321819.html.

6 On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, November 24, 2016, the Moroccan TV channel 2M broadcasted a programme that gave advice to women on how to hide bruises provoked by violence via the use of cosmetics, a programme which conveyed the channel’s implicit support for violence and incited indignation in social media.

7 The Ministry of Justice and Liberties affirmed that the rate of married minors has increased from 18,341 in 2004 to 35,152 cases in 2013. Accessed May 29, 2017,  https://www.yabiladi.com/articles/details/26304/mariagesmineurs-maroc-enregitres-2013.html.

8 The problem is that the legal system has produced laws that are more modern and advanced than Moroccan mentalities, beliefs, attitudes and practices.

9 A term in Moroccan Arabic (darija) that means ‘shame’.

10 Haut Commissariat au Plan. Accessed November 12, 2016, http://rgphentableaux.hcp.ma/.

11 Haut Commissariat au Plan. Accessed November 12, 2016, http://rgphentableaux.hcp.ma/.

12 Moroccan women hold 11% of parliament seats. United Nations Human Development Reports. Accessed December 5, 2016, http://hdr.undp.org/en/indicators/31706.