“Party Building in the Middle East”
December 22nd, 2010 by Jason
The National Democratic Institute (NDI) has released a new article titled “Party Building in the Middle East.” Written by Les Campbell, NDI’s senior associate and regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, the article seeks to “enumerate some of the key achievements of democracy assistance in the Arab world over the past decade; describe the strategies democracy assistance practitioners employ in their work; and explain, through four case studies and the voices of recipients, how specific interventions have contributed to the advancement of democracy in the Middle East and north Africa.” The case studies include Yemen, Morocco, the West Bank and Gaza, and Egypt.
Posted in Civil Society, Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Elections, Foreign Aid, Morocco, NGOs, Palestine, US foreign policy, Women, Yemen | Comment »
Morocco: Crackdown on Media Outlets Expands
November 18th, 2010 by Evan
Maati Monjib, a Moroccan political analyst, has a new article in the Carnegie Endowment’s Arab Reform Bulletin on the Moroccan government’s recent crackdown on independent and foreign media outlets. The regime has become adept at “using roundabout means to portray targeted newspapers or journalists as having violated the law, morals, sacred taboos, or national values,” Monjib writes. On the other hand, officials encourage the formation of government-friendly private media groups. Foreign media outlets have not been immune to government pressure. Al Jazeera and AFP have both had issues registering journalists and maintaining offices in Rabat. According to Monjib, the crackdown is the government’s response to the “increasingly prominent political role” the independent press has played in recent years.
Posted in Journalism, Morocco | Comment »
“Islamic Feminism and Beyond”
November 15th, 2010 by Jason
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Middle East Program released a new paper (pdf) today, titled “Islamic Feminism and Beyond: The New Frontier.” The introduction is written by Haleh Esfandiari and Margot Badran, and the paper includes six sections covering a range of topics and countries. The articles include “Feminist Activism for Change in Family Laws and Practices: Lessons from the Egyptian Past for the Global Present” by Margot Badran, “Recent Amendments in the Turkish Civil and Criminal Codes and the Role of Feminist NGOs” by Binnaz Toprak, “Women and the Politics of Reform in Morocco” by Souad Eddouada, “Beyond Islamic Feminism: Women and Representation in Iran’s Democracy Movement” by Nayereh Tohidi, “The Personal Status Code and Women’s Celibacy in Tunisia” by Lilia Labidi, and “Analyzing Reform Successes and Failures: The Personal Status Regime in the Arab World” by Amaney Jamal.
Posted in Civil Society, Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Human Rights, Iran, Morocco, Reform, Tunisia, Turkey, Women | Comment »
Morocco: “Let Democracy Reign” in Western Sahara
November 10th, 2010 by Anna
At Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel, Carne Ross of the diplomatic advisory group Independent Diplomat criticizes a recent article that calls for autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty. He describes “the devastating violence unleashed by Moroccan authorities against the indigenous Saharawi people of Western Sahara in recent days,” including against Sahrawi protesters earlier this week. He argues that “the autonomy proposal is completely at odds with the peace agreement” signed in 1991, and charges that Morocco has undermined progress on the deal, including by challenging the voter registration process. He calls on human rights organizations and foreign governments to condemn the violence and affirms the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination. Ross proposes: “let democracy reign. Give the people a vote. Let them decide between Morocco and independence.”
Posted in Human Rights, Morocco, Protests, Western Sahara | Comment »
Morocco: Confrontation in Laayoune
November 8th, 2010 by Jason
The BBC reports that three people have been killed in a confrontation between Moroccan security forces and Saharawi protesters in the capital of Western Sahara, Laayoune. The security forces reportedly entered the camp, named Gadaym Izik and housing 12,000 protesters, early in the morning “using helicopters and water cannon to force people to leave.” The violence comes as talks between the Moroccan government and the Polisario movement, which seeks the full independence of Western Sahara from Morocco, are scheduled to begin at the United Nations in New York City. The Polisario’s representative at the talks, Ahmed Boujari called the forced removal of the protesters “‘a deliberate act to wreck the talks.’”
Posted in Human Rights, Morocco, United Nations, Western Sahara | Comment »
Human Development Report Finds Inequality Persists in Arab World
November 5th, 2010 by Anna
The United Nations released its 2010 Human Development Report yesterday, titled “The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development.” This year’s report, which includes new indices to adjust for inequality, women’s disadvantage, and multidimensional poverty, found that of the countries measured, Oman’s Human Development Index (HDI) score improved the most over the last 40 years. Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco also improved considerably. Overall, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain ranked the highest in the region; Egypt came in 101 out of 169, and Sudan ranked close to the bottom.
Inequality remained a significant issue, and Jeni Klugman, the report’s lead author, observed that “the most significant losses for Arab countries in the Inequality-adjusted HDI can be traced to the unequal distribution of income.” Yemen and Qatar ranked very low on gender equality, but the report also notes that women’s representation in Arab parliaments has risen in recent years. On civil and political liberties, the authors report that there is considerable room for improvement across the region.
Posted in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Sudan, Tunisia, UAE, United Nations | Comment »
Morocco: Al Jazeera Suspended Over “Tarnishing Image”
November 1st, 2010 by Anna
The Moroccan government reportedly suspended Al Jazeera’s service in the country on Friday, a move the satellite television network condemned. The government charged the network with deviating from accepted standards of journalism, adding that its “refusal to be objective and impartial systematically tarnishes Morocco’s image.” One unnamed official stated that the government objected to “the way Al Jazeera handles the issues of Islamists and Western Sahara,” where over 2,000 Islamists have been detained since 2003.
Magda Abu Fadil, director of the Journalism Training Program at the American University of Beirut, writes at Huffington Post that “[r]un-ins with Arab governments have been a trademark of the channel, whose motto ‘the opinion, and opposite opinion,’ has often landed it in hot water in a region where personality cults and state-run media are standard fare.” Al Jazeera got in a spat with the Jordanian government last month over the jamming of World Cup broadcasting, and officials in Cairo have criticized the network’s editorial policies and “anti-Egyptian reports,” according to Abu Fadil.
Posted in Journalism, Middle Eastern Media, Morocco | Comment »
HRW Documents Human Rights Abuses in Morocco, Saudi Arabia
October 26th, 2010 by Evan
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released two reports this week documenting human rights abuses in Morocco and Saudi Arabia. According to HRW, the Moroccan authorities routinely detain and abuse suspects arrested under counter-terrorism statutes. Such treatment continues despite legislation adopted in Morocco to protect the rights of detainees. In Saudi Arabia, HRW called on King Abdullah and Interior Minister Prince Naif to halt the scheduled execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan housekeeper who was convicted of killing a 4-month old baby when she was 17.
Posted in Human Rights, Morocco, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Egypt: The Power of Statistics
October 25th, 2010 by Jason
Writing at The Guardian’s Comment is Free, Brian Whitaker takes Egypt to task for its failure to report basic statistics about its economy: “Imagine trying to govern a country that lacks adequate statistics about economic activity, healthcare, crime, education, urban development and environmental pollution. Imagine a country that relies heavily on tourism but has no figures showing why people visit or what they think of their stay. Imagine a country that relies heavily on agriculture, and yet has produced no data on the quality of cultivable land since the 1970s.” Whitaker cites a recent report by the Egyptian government that exposes the lack of reliable information on a number of issues. The selective usage of statistics by governments to control perceptions about their country is common throughout the world. Whitaker lists Lebanon’s failure to conduct a census since 1932, the lack of data on the number of Coptic Christians in Egypt, and the sensitivity of regimes in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan to opinion polling as examples of the power of statistics.
Posted in Civil Society, Egypt, Freedom, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Morocco: Monarchy Ups Pressure on Independent Media
October 1st, 2010 by Evan
Writing in The Atlantic, Max Fisher describes recent government pressure on independent media outlets in Morocco. Nichane, a popular Arabic-language news magazine with a history of addressing taboo social and political topics, has been forced to close, Fisher reports. The magazine and its publisher Ahmed Benchemsi have been harassed repeatedly by the government in recent years and ultimately succumbed to an advertising boycott led by the Omnium Nord Africain Group—a powerful holding company with close ties to the Moroccan royal family. Benchemsi promised to continue publishing his French-language magazine TelQuel in spite of the advertising boycott.
Posted in Freedom, Journalism, Morocco | 1 Comment »
Morocco: Saudi Restrictions on Moroccan Woman an “Insult”
August 30th, 2010 by Anna
Nesrine Malik argues in The Guardian that Saudi Arabia “is failing in its Islamic duties” by banning (Arabic) some Moroccan women from undertaking the umra (the lesser pilgrimage to Mecca). According to Saudi authorities, women “of a certain age” might abuse their travel visas “for other purposes” while abroad. Malik claims that this is meant to reference the sex industry, which is stereotypically staffed by North African women. Suggesting that Moroccan women might use a religious ritual as a guise for engaging in illicit sexual activity is, in Malik’s view, a charge that “summarily insult[s] the [Moroccan] nation.” Rather than using national stereotypes that draw on the perception of Morocco as being morally lax to justify restrictions on some travelers, Malik asserts, the Saudi government should be facilitating pilgrimages to Mecca for all Muslims. Political parties in Morocco have reportedly called on the parliament to intervene.
Posted in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Women | Comment »
Morocco: Civil Society as a Catalyst for Change?
July 13th, 2010 by Farid
An interesting article in The Daily Star assesses the role that civil society has played in reforming Moroccan politics since the 1990’s. According to Moha Ennaji, once “the electoral law was revised so all members of the country’s Parliament were elected by popular vote,” then under this democratic atmosphere, “a multitude of civil society organizations and associations emerged on the national scene, improving human rights, women’s rights, economic development, education and health.”
Ennaji describes two main types of civil society organizations in Morocco: One filling the gap where the government has failed to provide, and the other being human rights groups who have strengthened the democratic nature of the country. “Civil society organizations have become real schools of democracy by training youth to be more engaged in community work and collective action in pursuit of the common good,” she says adding that the current challenge that civil society in Morocco is facing the need to become innovative and form a “genuine partnership with the state” while while still working independently to fulfill the needs of the people.
Posted in Civil Society, Human Rights, Morocco, Reform | Comment »
Morocco: Not the Region’s Worst Oppressor
July 7th, 2010 by Jennifer
In a new piece at Commentary, Jennifer Rubin praises Menachem Rosensaft’s op-ed on recent controversy in Congress over the expulsion of foreign and American citizens from Morocco on grounds of alleged proselytizing. Rubin states that Rosensaft “provides some much-needed perspective on the incident,” and agrees with his assessment that Morocco “is the least of our concerns when it comes to suppression of religious freedom in the Middle East.” Rubin also mentions a letter sent by the World Jewish Congress last week to House Foreign Affairs Committee members and co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission– which held a hearing on the issue in June — urging caution toward any condemnation of Morocco, and calling the country “a paradigm of religious freedom and tolerance” in the region. Rubin concludes with a criticism of the Obama administration’s policy on these issues, arguing that “the best use of the time and focus of Congress — which is at least making a good effort to pick up the slack from an administration utterly indifferent to the issue of religious freedom — would be to focus on the worst actors in the Muslim World, not the best.”
Posted in Freedom, Morocco, US foreign policy | Comment »
Morocco: “Beacon” of Religious Tolerance, or Repressor?
June 30th, 2010 by Jennifer
Menachem Rosensaft, founder and Chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, writes at the Huffington Post that recent reactions by some U.S. Congressmen to the deportation of American citizens from Morocco on charges of proselytizing, are overly harsh and not merited. Rosensaft says that Jews and Christians practice their faith openly in Morocco without persecution, calling the North African nation “a rare beacon of tolerance in an otherwise mostly religiously xenophobic Muslim world.” He notes that Morocco is only one of many nations in the Arab and Muslim worlds with laws against proselytism on the books, and argues that the foreign citizens were expelled for violating national laws, not for their personal religion.
Rosensaft’s commentary comes in light of a hearing on religious freedom in Morocco held by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives in mid-June, in which several Congressmen leveled heavy criticism against the Moroccan government and called for repercussions. Rosensaft notes that Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) went so far as to equate Morocco’s actions to those of the Nazi regime in Germany, commenting, “these comparisons are over the top and betray either an ignorance or a disregard of history.”
Posted in Congress, Human Rights, Morocco | 1 Comment »
Morocco: When Patronage Prevents Reform
May 7th, 2010 by Josh
Carnegie’s Arab Reform Bulletin has a new piece up on Morocco, discussing how the pernicious culture of corruption has diminished the political efficacy of Morocco’s previously pro-reform Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP). Maati Monjib, a professor and researcher at Mohammed V University in Rabat, recounts a recent episode of three top USFP leaders freezing their party membership after party leader Abdelwahed Radi gave a speech ceding all power for constitutional reforms to the monarchy — a concession that some thought flew in the face of USFP’s stated goal of seeking “political and constitutional reform to extricate the country from the crisis of its struggling democracy.” Many within the party believe Radi surrendered his principles in order to become speaker of the monarchy-controlled parliament.
Lamenting this betrayal of USFP’s “progressive, modernist roots,” Monjib contends that it’s simply “emblematic of problems inside other political parties as well, which struggle with how to pursue their principles in light of Morocco’s patronage based system and the centripetal force of the monarchy.”
Posted in Morocco, Political Parties, Reform | Comment »
UN Renews Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara
May 6th, 2010 by Josh
After a rather heated UN Security Council debate, a majority of the 15-member council voted to extend the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for one year under the terms of the UN-brokered 1991 ceasefire agreement between Morocco and the Western Saharan-based Polisario Front independence movement. However, the resolution did not include provisions to monitor human rights — sought by some on the council — prompting a Polisario spokesman to condemn the action as grossly inadequate and a “scandal for the credibility of the United Nations and the Security Council.”
In the context of ongoing negotiations over the occupied territory, Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi praised the UN for producing a resolution that is consistent with Morocco’s approach and affirms the vision of graduated autonomy, not full independence.
Prior to MINURSO’s extension, human rights advocates had implored UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to push for the establishment of a “UN mechanism that would monitor and report on human rights.” Polisario did the same during a meeting with top UN officials last month, after which Ban expressed his desire to find a solution “that provides for the self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.”
Posted in Human Rights, Morocco, United Nations, Western Sahara | Comment »
Online Social Networking Disruptions in Egypt, Morocco
March 17th, 2010 by Josh
Over at Global Voices Advocacy, Ramy Raoof draws attention to the recent disruption in Skype connectivity for Egyptians using USB modems. According to an exchange Raoof had with Vodaphone, a large internet service provider in Egypt, the government’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) decided to block Skype for USB modem users after three telecommunication companies complained about revenue losses incurred from customers using Skype’s free service. Egyptian law mandates that all international calls be filtered through majority state-owned Telecom Egypt — one of the companies reporting lower-then-anticipated earnings — and the NTRA noted that it is only targeting what it considers illegal voice traffic on mobile Internet, not fixed traffic. “This is due to the fact it is against the law since it bypasses the legal gateway,” said an NTRA official.
Elsewhere, a Moroccan Facebook group advocating for the separation of religion and education was administratively deleted from the website without warning. Official inquiries by Kacem El Ghazzali, a Moroccan activist and founder of the group, to ascertain the reason for the shut-down went unanswered. Alluding to previous examples of inconsistent, suspicious, and unexplained Terms of Service (TOS) enforcement by Facebook officials, Jillian York from Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society suspects the Moroccan government may have pressured Facebook into removing the group from its server. “It seems that Facebook is now policing speech, possibly at the behest of a foreign government.” York also penned a separate piece commenting on an Issandr El Amrani post last week exploring the role of Facebook in Middle Eastern politics (covered here). Though agreeing that Facebook is certainly being used for political purposes, she contends that “The downfall, of course, is Facebook itself, which has garnered a reputation for selectively enforcing its own TOS.”
Posted in Egypt, Morocco, Technology | Comment »
