By Houda El Mouatassim Billah
By Houda El Mouatassim Billah
Morocco World News
Marrakesh, Nov 7, 2012
Earlier this month, a report was conducted by an Arabic channel dealing with witchcraft in the United Arab of Emirates. The report showed how four Arab women were caught red handed using witchcraft to seduce and lure Emirati youngsters and how recent statistics indicate that between 80% and 90% of conjugal problems within the UAE are caused by women from the same nationality as the four women mentioned above. The channel apparently abstained from revealing the nationality of these suspects in fear of causing conflicts with the country in question.
However, when describing the circumstances that surround this matter to his interviewer, the head of the department of investigations responsible for this case kept referring to the suspects as a nationality rather than individuals. He dared to accuse an entire country of a crime that a few individuals allegedly committed, thus falling repeatedly and consciously in the trap of generalization.
The report also mentions that the police confiscated several parcels coming from “this country” which contain the substances used to perform witchcraft rituals in the UAE where hundreds of women of “this nationality” reside for no other purpose but to ruin young Emiratis’ studies, marriages and social lives in general.” And for this reason, the Emirati police insist that all procedures related to giving either temporary or permanent VISA to women of “this country” should be and will be reconsidered with scrutiny from now on.
Needless to say that “this country” is no other than our dear Morocco whose entire female citizens are being accused repeatedly of immigrating to the Gulf, in order to become prostitutes or sorcerers, which is why they’re being labeled UAE’s number one home wreckers.
Sadly, some of these allegations are well-founded since some Moroccan women do practice witchcraft with the intention of seducing some men and convincing them to leave their wives and marry them instead.
But what about the other innocent women who are happily married to men from the Gulf without having used witchcraft once in their lives? How about the hundred if not thousands girls who were conned by Emiratis and Saudis who hid the fact that they were already married in their home towns and took their Moroccan wives to literally work as maids there? How about the thousands Gulf tourists who perceive Morocco as their favorite destination where they can practice their perverted sexual fantasies with girls who are unfortunately blinded by the sight of huge amounts of money?
Didn’t the Emirati reporter say in his report that semen from illegitimate sexual intercourses was found amongst the items at the suspects’ apartment? Then why is not only an entire gender but an entire country accused of a sin that is committed by both these Moroccan women and Gulf men? Didn’t the Emirati reporter say that the police spotted certain cafes and restaurant where prostitutes from “this country” spend their time fishing for clients, who are unwillingly, he said, seduced and unconsciously, he claims, dive in the world of drugs and illegal sexual affairs, thus ruining their lives? Then why couldn’t these seduced men control their sexual urges and need for care that these prostitutes tap into and stop for a moment to consider the repercussions of their acts before indulging in such forbidden acts? Didn’t the reporter finish his report by stating that these women should think of the religious connotation of witchcraft? Did he forget to mention the religious connotation of willingly frequenting places with the intention of finding prostitutes that will feed their sexual hunger?
Why is it in our Oriental thinking that we always blame the female for the same acts that the man does, except that when it comes to the latter, we always give excuses to them or even fail to mention that they did something wrong worthy of our mentioning? Apparently, living in male oriented societies such as ours will never give women the equal rights that Islam granted them more than a thousand years ago, where both men and women are equally treated, thus, equally rewarded or punished.
I speak on behalf of all Moroccan women when I say that neither the four women stated above nor the few prostitutes and sorcerers found in the Gulf begin to represent us. Moroccan women work as skilled doctors, lawyers, teachers, thinkers, writers, amongst many other jobs where they enjoy a compratively more freedom than women in the Gulf.
Moroccan women have also given birth to the teachers who educated your country’s young generation when it first obtained its independence, as we well as the doctors and nurses who cared for your elderly and healed your patients. Moroccan women have also given birth to world class stars, who honored the whole Arab nation, such as Said Aouita, Nawal El Moutawkil, Khalid Sekkah, Hicham El Guerrouj, to name but a few. Moroccan women have also given birth to world acclaimed geniuses, such Kamal Oudrhiri, the Moroccan who was in charge of Monitoring NASA’s Mission to Mars last August and astronomer Meryem Chadid, considered the first astronomer in the world to have been committed to install a large astronomical observatory in Antarctica.
Unfortunately, and as a result of the generalizations and stereotypes mentioned above, many young Moroccan women currently face dead-ends when applying for a VISA to enter Saudi Arabia to perform their religious rituals in Mecca and Medina simply because some Saudi men are too weak to face the temptation of some Moroccan women. Now, because of a minority’s whims, the majority has to pay the price!
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
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