Cover Profile / Ambassador Aziz Mekouar Morocco Embraces Modernization Without Shrugging Off Traditions by Anna Gawel In a rundown Moroccan pool hall, an elegantly framed picture of King Mohammed VI hangs on the walls alongside faded posters of pop singers like Avril Lavigne. Likewise, in the luxury Golden Tulip Farah hotel in Casablanca, the king’s picture stands in the gleaming lobby against a backdrop of plasma-screen televisions broadcasting CNN and the latest HBO shows. Right up the road, old-fashioned cafés are mostly filled with old men smoking and sipping on mint tea, while a few blocks away, fashionable young women and men gather at ocean-side restaurants with names like Tahiti Beach Club. Some of the women are clad in flowing headscarves, while others don designer tops and jeans. But in a Muslim nation such as Morocco, it’s not that modern-day women eschew the teachings of Islam. Rather, the North African nation of 34 million uses the Koran to preach a progressive brand of Islam — one that allows women to counsel in mosques or prisons, for instance. Likewise, King Mohammed VI uses his title as “commander of the faithful” to expressly protect all faiths, not only Muslims but also Christians and Jews, who’ve thrived in Morocco for centuries. At the same time, Mohammed VI is one of only two kings in the Muslim world to trace his lineage directly to the Prophet Muhammad (only Jordan’s King Abdullah shares that distinction), earning him a special place among the world’s 1.2 billion adherents of Islam. This is Morocco, a moderate Muslim nation embracing modernity without shrugging off its valued traditions. It promotes women’s equality, human rights, religious tolerance and social liberalization — all while remaining true to its Islamic heritage. That unique mix has led many in the West to prop Morocco up as a model for the Muslim world, although Aziz Mekouar, Morocco’s man in Washington, cautions that this formula can’t necessarily be replicated throughout the region. “It’s very difficult to say the country is a model because each country has its own realities, its own history…. Morocco is Morocco,” Mekouar told The Washington Diplomat. The ambassador emphasized that this transformation has been 100 percent “made in Morocco” — a homegrown movement that’s tailor-made to the country’s religious beliefs and propelled by a forward-looking king. “In our case I think our society, our social and political fabric, allowed the country to open up.” Indeed, over the centuries Morocco has opened itself up to an amalgamation of cultures that has shaped its multiethnic character. Located on the northwestern tip of Africa — a short ferry ride from Spain and less than an eight-hour flight from New York — Morocco’s Arab and Berber roots intermingle with European and African influences. Though Western-friendly, Morocco is firmly ensconced in the sphere of Arabic-speaking nations in North Africa and the Middle East. But unlike some of its autocratic neighbors, hundreds of civil society groups operate freely in Morocco, some 600 independent newspapers and other publications abound, and recent local elections were widely considered free and fair by international observers. But Morocco does not have a secular government. The Alaouite dynasty has ruled the kingdom since the 1600s, and today, King Mohammed VI wields absolute authority under Morocco’s constitutional monarchy. In fact, adherence to the king is almost a religion unto itself, with his portrait peppered throughout the country — including the ambassador’s office here in Washington. “He is the ultimate custodian of institutions,” Mekouar said, describing the king as “a kind of referee” in the political process. Yet Mekouar insists that authority doesn’t mean authoritarianism. Although Mohammed VI holds ultimate power, he’s clearly willing to share at least some of that power with an elected Parliament. The ambassador compared Morocco’s government to a European-style parliamentary system, whereby “the government needs a majority of the vote in Parliament, and obviously the majority is coming from the elections,” he said, noting that the Moroccan constitution resembles that of France, which was Morocco’s protectorate from 1912 until independence in 1956. “It’s difficult for an American mind to understand that. For Europeans it’s easier. The monarchy gives a lot of stability. In fact, monarchies in the region tend to be more stable,” Mekouar explained, citing Jordan as an example. “The legitimacy of the monarchy gives huge stability to the country and allowed us to go through important reforms.” And as for those reforms, Mekouar said “the king is the one who sets the long-term vision for the country.” Fortunately, most Moroccans think he’s a pretty good guy. This summer marked King Mohammed VI’s 10th anniversary on the throne, and his immense popularity has helped him usher in a wave of reforms that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago. The ambassador noted that when the young king — who just turned 46 last month — delivered his first speech, he vowed to push democratization, human rights and gender equality. “And if you look at the last years of progress, he delivered,” said Mekouar, a polished, approachable diplomat who has served as ambassador to Italy, Portugal and Angola. One of Mohammed VI’s most notable achievements has been supporting women’s rights, because “a country that doesn’t address 50 percent of its population can’t progress,” Mekouar said, echoing a statement often made by the king. A major milestone was achieved in 2004 with the passage of a revamped family law, or Moudawana, that granted women extensive rights. Before the “imbalanced” code was revised, Mekouar said women could be entrepreneurs or ambassadors “but were not considered adults” in the eyes of the courts. “According to the new family law, the husband and wife are both head of the household,” he said, and as such, entitled to the same divorce, property, inheritance, custody and other rights. Yet significantly, all of these legal changes were made according to Koranic text — part of a larger campaign to advance social liberalization within the confines of Islam. For example, women can teach Islam and counsel in mosques, schools and even prisons as mourchidates, or religious counselors, under a novel program that has underpinnings in the teachings of Prophet Muhammad. It’s feminism — Moroccan-style. But Mekouar stressed that Morocco isn’t reinterpreting the Koran to justify new laws. “The family law was adopted by unanimity in Parliament, including the [Islamist] party, because they considered it perfectly compatible with Islam,” he said, noting that a commission of respected religious scholars, lawyers, women’s groups and others all had a hand in examining verses of the Koran. “We showed there is no contradiction between Islam and equality,” he added. “This is because of the real will and real vision of the king, and because he put his legitimacy behind it.” The king also single-handedly put his weight behind exposing human rights abuses perpetrated under the rule of his father, King Hassan II. Since then, the Arab world’s first “truth and reconciliation commission” has been the only such commission to actually pay out compensation on some 16,000 individual cases for a series of arrests, kidnappings, killings, forced exiles and “disappearances” from the 1960s to the 1980s. Compensation ranged from as much as $350,000 to no less than $10,000 depending on the circumstances, along with social projects for 11 affected provinces, universal health care for victims and families, and the closure of all but roughly 100 missing persons cases. And although no perpetrators were ever named or brought to trial, the effort appears to have peacefully closed an ugly chapter while avoiding vengeful bloodshed. On the democratic front, municipal elections went off without any major hitches in June, with the Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), a new party closely aligned with the king, edging out the Islamist Party of Justice and Development. Most experts agree that ironically, the power of the monarchy has enabled such democratic strides to take place. Next Page

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