Morocco: is Bassima Elhakawi preparing to suspend the Agenda of Equality between men and women?

Morocco World News/Maghreb Intelligence

Rabat, May 1, 2012

According to some parliamentary sources, Bassima Elhakawi, the Islamist minister of solidarity, women, family and social development, is about to give a fatal blow to the Agenda of Equality between men and women, adopted under the government of Abbas El Fassi.

The aim of this Agenda was to strengthen the conditions and capacities of women’s participation on an equal footing with men in the political governance and the management of public affairs.

If the minister were to put a brake on this program, Morocco could lose 35 million euros, granted by the European Union last August to fund it. Moroccan social reforms have been benefiting from the financial support for years now. Moroccan feminist associations were quick to ring alarm bells as to the policies adopted by the Islamist government of Benkiran.

Arriving to power after the constitutional reforms of July 2011, the first Islamist-led government started with a wrong step on the issue of Amina Filali. The young lady committed suicide after being obliged to marry her raper. The declarations made by some PJD ministers in the wake of this tragic event have agitated the feminist associations who fear that a “religious and moralistic drift,” is setting back the achievements of the kingdom, especially as regards women’s rights.