By Louubna Flah
Morocco world news
Casablanca, Dec 21, 2012
The minister of solidarity, woman and family, Bassima Hakaoui drew a bleak picture about the surge of violence against women in Morocco during a conference on Thursday in Rabat.
The PJD minister urged the government to undertake a rigorous assessment of the strategy put forward in 2008 to curb violence against women as reported by the Moroccan daily Akhbar al Yawm.
Hakaoui admits that she shares equal responsibility with the ministry of justice, the ministry of communication and the ministry of health. She called on the three ministries to design a comprehensive strategy to thwart the steep rise of domestic violence.
In her intervention, Ms. Hakaoui pointed out that” violence is engendered by a host of cumulative factors that overlap with different sectors. Everyone is responsible in the struggle against this phenomenon that constitutes a disgrace for our society and our country”.
Hakaoui made it clear that the strategies implemented by former governments proved to be a total failure. Hence the necessity to give a new impulse to the struggle against domestic violence in synergy with the different stakeholders.
Ms. Hakkaoui exhorted the network of Moroccan NGOs operating in this area to collaborate with the ministry of solidarity, woman and family to alleviate the plight of many Moroccan women.
On the other hand, the minister of communication, Mr. AL Khalfi asserted that the Moroccan media fell short from improving the representation of women in public media. He pinpointed that the new specifications for public channels stipulates the production of programs that promote women rights.
A 2011 study conducted by the High Commission for Planning (HCP) on the prevalence of violence against women found that 62.8% of women in Morocco aged between 18 and 64 had been victims of some form of violence during the year preceding the study. This HCP study found also that 55% of these acts of violence were committed by the victims’ husbands.
