Gender violence in Morocco: An approach to the social reality and the ideological debate

Abstract

This article has a double objective: firstly, inquiring into the prevalence of gender violence in Morocco and the governmental action strategies against this kind of violence from the 1980s to the present. Secondly, and taking up some theoretical references of the subalternity, analyzing the main tendencies of the debate that exist in Morocco around this subject. Basing its methodology on the analysis of official statistical data and secondary sources, this article focuses on the significant increase in violence against women throughout the last years and its characteristic factors. Among other contributions, this research highlights that not only the fight against gender violence was introduced late in Morocco, but that it also denotes a lack of political will to effectively execute the different action strategies and the internationally acquired commitments. Regarding the debate tendencies, two of them are the main ones: the most committed civil society with gender violence claims secularity spaces in the framework of the most advanced universal referents. While the Islamic-Islamist model, where the Morocco government is situated since the Justice and Development Party (JDP) took power in 2012, proposes an interpretation/adaptation of certain cultural, historical and national specificities founded on religious values.