Morocco

January 2007: WLP Morocco/Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM) held a Youth Leadership Institute for seventeen young human rights leaders. Young people make up over 30% of Morocco’s population, making their involvement in civil society critical.

WLP, in cooperation with WLP partner in Morocco, Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc, published the French edition of Leading to Choices: A Multimedia Curriculum for Leadership Learning. It is the second culture-specific adaptation of WLP's innovative multimedia training package. The English and Persian editions are available online at: http://www.learningpartnership.org/publications/multimedia. The French edition is tailored for human rights and democracy activists, educators, women leaders, and facilitators working with francophone communities in Africa. The curriculum is based on a concept of participatory leadership that enables women and men to develop skills to prevent conflict, share power, and build coalitions to promote human rights, social justice, and peace. The package provides three guides and three videos on Developing Effective Advocacy Campaigns, Communicating for Change, and Learning to Facilitate Interactively. The curriculum is used in training of trainers programs and focuses on developing persuasive and compelling media messages and coalition building strategies for advocacy campaigns on women's rights. The French edition will be available online in October 2007.

By Sarah Touahri
Magharebia
April 8, 2007

Because many Moroccans continue to put their faith in male political leadership, the country's women’s associations are calling upon female voters to elect more women to parliament.

As Morocco prepares to create candidate lists for September's legislative elections, women are stepping up efforts to increase their representation both on party lists and in parliament itself.

From September 5 to October 21, 2005, a group of 14 experienced leadership trainers from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine participated in a five-week prototype Arabic eCourse to test and adapt the Arabic curriculum in preparation for a full eCourse in 2006.

WLP trained partners from Morocco and Lebanon to act as facilitators for the upcoming course, focusing on use of the course technology and the interactive, problem-solving methodology that guides the course.

February 24, 2004 

Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) and our partner organization l’Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM) are pleased to report that on January 25, 2004, the government of Morocco adopted a new landmark Family Law supporting women’s equality and granting them new rights in marriage and divorce, among others.

WLP partner Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM) coordinates a much-needed national network of violence against women centers in Morocco called ANARUZ. The centers provide legal services to women victims of violence, gather data about the problem of violence against women in Morocco, raise awareness of gender-based violence, and advocate for policy and legal reforms to protect women and reduce violence.

By Loh Foon Fong
The Star (Malaysia)
March 27, 2006

Women's groups in Muslim-dominated Morocco and Turkey have pushed the democratic process forward by bringing about justice and equality in their family laws.

Two years after Morocco achieved independence in 1956, an Islamic family code that discriminated against women was introduced. Women were seen as incapable of making their own decisions even up to the 1970s. Today, Morocco has one of the most progressive Islamic family laws.