The harsh reality in Morocco when school is not option, many parents living in the countryside are left with only 2 possibilities.
Selling their daughters to the highest bidder if they are lucky, or the girl gets picked up by an aunt or an uncle living on the extremities of the city and who have 5 children and needing help. The girl travels to live with her aunt/uncle and in no time she finds herself being trafficked for sex by the same people who brought her to the city.

Who is to blame here? the king who is a billionaire among his extremely poor subjects? poverty, lack of education, the system, the father or the mother, life, lack of luck?
or shall we just blame the girl herself as it is unfailingly the case in Morocco.

Morocco is indeed the most beautiful country on earth but............

This does happen here in Morocco, but this is a rare condition mostly in the poorer mountainous regions. I feel for this young women, this girl!

The nut wingers, talk from both sides of their mouths ,people who marry children, have a name and not a pretty one they’re called pedophiles, and what their excuse is? Religion solve all end all and not only they’re jockeying for control and by doing so ruining the other half of the population (women) and the nonsense claim that by marrying children they protect them ,like wolves claiming to protect sheeps gimme a break ,as for the situation mentioned by the author, that’s the norm in the rural morocco and the cities are catching up, yes that’s right not the other way around.and instead of having people, trying to save the victims ,their throwing religion in the mix to validate pedophilia, and last but not the least as a thought ,the rich get richer and the poor get children.

Dear Hind Fassi,

In our view, these cases (wherever they may occur in the world) are mostly due to these factors: lack of fair governance,poli tical will to invest in education, enhance social facilities and fair economic policies.
Poorer families find themselves so unprotected and vulnerable that they just know how to strive in the way this girl's father did...
More than ever, education, equity and social justice are the urgent cry for a peaceful world!
Thanks for the article.

In a country where the name Fassi run everything no wonder this family is no exception. Of course poverty exists everywhere even in the old uncle sam country but it shouldnt be so , Moroccan society luck equality and justice and we shouldnt blame the father. Perhaps it is time for Fassi , Benani etc to stop being greedy and boring . greetings from Tetouan

that is reality however you can not blame islam for this. the answer is culture and and poverty and freaking ignorance of whole generation and they influencing this coming up one and they kill anything that is different without any sense. and what up!!!!!!!!!!! with this turkish and mexican series and to make matter worst they translated to darija........w here they driving this country of ours??????

Life for girls in the country side of Morocco sucks.
She is born without ever seeing a doctor. At the age of 4 she is already carrying her new born brother on her back the whole day long and entertaining her 2 year old sister playing with sticks and plastic bottles tossed on the side of the road by "jemenfoutist" Moroccans, she never ever had the luxury of having a simple 2o dirhams doll. Her parents think that acquiring her a doll could be tempting, this will certainly make her start thinking about a dress for the doll which they want to avoid at all cost. They decided not to be tempted themselves and be nice once caring parents. She looks outside and see those lucky people with their happy face children driving by, the only contact she ever had with them is when her 9 year old brother standing on the side of the road the whole day beneath the scorching sun selling mint or few vegetables instead of being in school playing with his peers, his life sucks too. We already know his fate, he will end up working in construction in the city making 60 dirhams a day and hoping not to ever get sick, a cold, a fever or an infection of some sort, if he does, he will have 50/50 chance to life. Life of misery when his , his majesty the multibillionair e only walks on red carpets from the exit of the palace to the inauguration point where Moroccan authorities borrowed money from Europe and Qatar to build a soccer stadium to keep the masses busy thinking about the next game Morocco will play.

There was talk in MB about people against renouncing their nationality. If what you read above still make you against those who choose or think about country they want to belong to, then, there must be something amiss.

I have see those sad faces, I have had contact with them, I bought mint from them under the watchful eyes of an older granpa sitting behind the cart that holds the stack of mint, I have seen people with their Mercedes trying to get the mint cheaper or haggling to get extra mint from the poor girl.

The sad part in all this, is the light is nowhere to be seen at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel is still and will always be dark.

Many of my fellow Moroccans here in the US wanting to get in contact with the Moroccan authorities to see if they can get cheaper RAM tickets, and if we only could use that effort to shed a light on the tragedy that is taking place in the Moroccan countryside.

Subhanallah indeed!

So, you are actually advocating subjection of women because of your ideology? You also think education leads to 'affairs?'

This is what's holding Muslims back. May be you could enlighten us and list some of these wonderful places where Islam is solving all problems and turning places into paradise. Please include tangible stats such as literacy rate, GDP, etc.

Quoting abdelwahab:

subhanallah. What ru trying to say? That the other way is better? The girl goes to school finish it then goes to college. After that she goes to the university gets graduated. Finds work maybe in marrkech or in casablanca. She starts to earn her own money. She becomes independent. After years when shes close to her thirties and after having some affairs. She finally falls in love() and gets married. So will this make her a better person? Does this mean that she will be happy? Why are u guys in one or otherway always try to force ur opinions on others. I myself was born in europe and live there. And i think the islamic way of getting married is decent in every aspect. Ofcourse the girl should not be forced doing that is not part of islam but tradition.

Furthermore im sure that there will come a time and it is already happening that ppl will see that islam has all the answers to their daily problems. Society starts within a family. And women are so so valuable in it. That islam sees to protect the women. Its not forcing its protecting. And who is more wise then the almighty Allah swt.
Finally i want u guys to remember that we r muslims. We believe in Allah. We believe that this life is temporary a stage to prepare oneself for the eternal life. The true life with no shortcomings. So think about urself before u start judging others. So funny when ppl stand at the wrong side and think they got it right.

Meet Abdelwahab, the first commentator, he was born in Europe and yet, he is still somehow intimidated by educated women!!!! He would rather they stay home, cover their entire bodies and get married at 14!!! Abdelwahab also claims that "the islamic way of getting married is decent in every aspect" -- This includes men marrying minors and having multiple wives!!!! He didn't stop there... he went as far as claiming that: "islam has all the answers to their daily problems"???

Who is imposing opinions here?

The Author and many of us see what happened to Naima as a tragedy and borderline child-abuse. We Would like to see these outdated practices stopped -- and yes-- we do want to see our sisters, daughters and female friends educated so they don't have to deal with the likes of Bouazza, Abbas or worst, (haj) Abdeallah!!!!

Hind is NOT laying! I can personally attest to a "bouazza" that I know VERY well!!! He happened to be what I could hardly call a cousin who is exactly what she described. Except this incident did not happen in "some village" but in the city of Mohammedia!!! The only difference is that the girl wasn't 14 but 17 which in my book is the same @#$%. He brought the girl to his mom's house, his mom locked her in all day while her "husband" was out back in Italy... the girl finally gave up and when given the opportunity to go out never came back! The dude is still wondering today what has gone wrong? why did his "bride" run away? what did he do wrong?! who do I blame here? Do I blame her father? no? her father is just a victim of "takaleed" in a society that dictates a father start to plan out a process of how to get rid of his little girl as soon as she is born. It is a sick society and we need LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of education to upgrade our "takaleed" to the latest code release that the rest of the civilized world is using.

Quoting Aziz El Alami:

Meet Abdelwahab, the first commentator, he was born in Europe and yet, he is still somehow intimidated by educated women!!!! He would rather they stay home, cover their entire bodies and get married at 14!!! Abdelwahab also claims that "the islamic way of getting married is decent in every aspect" -- This includes men marrying minors and having multiple wives!!!! He didn't stop there... he went as far as claiming that: "islam has all the answers to their daily problems"???

Who is imposing opinions here?

The Author and many of us see what happened to Naima as a tragedy and borderline child-abuse. We Would like to see these outdated practices stopped -- and yes-- we do want to see our sisters, daughters and female friends educated so they don't have to deal with the likes of Bouazza, Abbas or worst, (haj) Abdeallah!!!!

You're right, Mr Abdelwahab is quite lucky that he happens to be a MAN and not Mrs Wahiba, a little woman living in a harsh islamist country. These men, that I call "legal pedophiles", who can get anytime it pleases them, a liitle wife under the age of 14, a virgin, and no one can say anything against it since they live in "Rajl dima rajl" culture, so why should Mr Abdelwahab bother himself with Moroccan women situation and change it? He's quite happy like the way things are now. The all work at home including raising children is under the burden of the wife and sometimes the wives (4 legal wives), and Mr MAN is enjoying himself, watching TV or surfing on the internet, so why should he claim any change? He should be stupid if he does!

Good point and good observation. Anyone who lived in Morocco through 80's, 90's and may be 00's can attest to this trend.

I wanted to point out my theory about this 'Islamization' of the Arab world starting in the late 70's (others might have come to the same conclusion): In the post colonial era, most Arab states gravitated toward the Soviet Union because it was seen as anti-colonial (since the west had almost all the colonies). A lot of Arab states implemented different flavors or communism (Iraq, Syria, Egypt, etc). It suited the dictators just fine that the state controlled everything. Morocco, of course, had its makhzen and it combined best (or worst depending on who you are) of both worlds.

The 50's, 60's and 70's proved communism couldn't solve Arab's problems which were really rooted, as mentioned before, in backwardness, medieval non-sense wrapped in religion. The defeat of Arabs in the Israeli wars destroyed communism as the savior. A new hero/solution was needed now. That gave rise to Islamists. Around the same time, they took power in Iran and killed Saddat in Egypt. Others, which were underground, were of course embolden that an Islamic revolution is possible.

Fast forward to now...the Islamists have highjacked the Arab Spring and the sheep are looking for their savior still not realizing that the change needs to come from within. May be abolishing child marriage and mistreatment of women would be a good start.

The Arabs ought to adopt Tina Turner's "We don't need another hero" as their anthem.

Quoting Aminaa:

Quoting Morcelli:

Our traditions are backward and medieval. In Morocco people still live in the Jahiliya. If you are a woman in Morocco, I feel for you, you are born in a harsh society when you are treated as an inferior, weak human being from the get go.
In Islam you are considered half good but never as good as you brother. The excuse is that your brother or husband will protect you. Today we have statistics that shows that 50 % of women in Morocco are abused by their own hubbies. The Islamists government in Morocco is composed of more than 30 dudes and only ONE woman who is so hiding behind Benkirane.

Back in the Days in the 80's women were much more anticipated, my classmates are now doctors, engineers, high level administrators,. Now 90% of them are wrapped up in some sort of veil looking like a ninja. We even have women wearing the Taliban Burqa. I have never seen a burqa in Morocco when I was living there. At the same time couple of years ago Saudi Arabia banned Moroccan women from traveling to Mecca, Saudi authorities justified the ban on the suspicion that young female visa applicants (whether accompanied by their parents or not) “may have something else in mind” than strictly pious intentions, in clear reference to underground prostitution.

As you can see the burqa has not helped a lot, Moroccan women are still considered prostitutes by many "brotherly" arab countries.

Let's see what the Islamists will do to regain the honor of Moroccan women other than imposing more burqas.

All this nonsense started after the Revolution in Iran in the late seventies, then all Moroccan women started to hide themselves in that stupid veil. Moroccan women born in the 50s and 60s are 10 times educated and clever than those wrapped stupid girls born in 80s and 90s. Most of them has 100% arabarised education, their French is so weak that they can never dream of finding a decent job in a one the Moroccan big cities, so what alternative they have? Wrap themselves and pray for 3riss al ghafla. Very degrading!

I am just apalled by this trend and I feel that it is just about time that we left religion in mosques and in homes for good .
Also may I add that the only time muslims experienced their true renaissance ( in Spain ) was when they were secular quite a few hundred years ago .Don't people get it ?

Girls in Morocco and in any other Muslim country are second class creatures, they are only worth of what they provide to men, sexual gratification and child bearing this is from a sociological point to view. At home and within the confines of their families, they are protected and are priceless. The problem is that the parents and men do not see this larger picture of utter mysogyny and contempt they have againt females of their own family... I always wondered if this is not something muslims learned from their sunna. The Prophete married young girl and he married many other captured beautiful wives like Safiya he jewish trbe of Khaibar and the coptic slave girl Maria. Did he really mary them for the sake of marriage or to have sex with them? With the total of thirteen possible wives it is hard to beleive that he loved them all for just being women.... Well that's the sunna what else would we expect from an average poor and uneducated Moroccan..

"What about Pakistanis kids who die under drone and what about kids in Gaza who was killed every day.I Wish you better think about all this then worry about Mala Yousef !!!! which media highlighted to achieve their own bad motives."

One word Answer : SYRIA!
Life is cheap in the Muslim world. The butcher of Damascus can kill children at will. Read the news lately? Everywhere you look in our violent, morally-bankrup t part of the world, you'd find the same sad narrative, Muslims butchering each other everyday.
But God forbids if one terrorist is blown to pieces by U.S. drones, or the Israeli army. Outrage!
Why am I wasting my time preaching to the conveniently deaf?

Quoting Aminaa:

Just to clarify one IMPORTANT FACT. In Morocco, there are different types of women, I read some comments generalizing the women situation in Morocco as if we are Afghanistan or Pakistan or Algeria. In Morocco, there are very educated women, especially from the following Moroccan community: Fassi, Andaloussi, Jews, and Imazighens living in big cities. Then there are women in some Moroccan Arab villages, or in the South, or the Center, or the North or Sahara, where women are still treated with respect, but for some reasons, they don't go to school or decide their own destiny as marriage for example. Yet they are not treated as badly as in some Muslim countries. If you go to Casablanca or Rabat or Marrakech or Fess, you can see some women working as lawyers, doctors, teachers, journalists, judges ... So stop generalizing things if you don't know the Moroccan Culture. The other thing which worth mentioning is that Morocco is not an Arab Country, since the majority of its population are Imazighens, thus Moroccan in general are moderate muslims and are totally different from the rest of islamists extremists ideologist Muslims. This is the difference that makes us step out from the other muslim countries, and it is also one of the reasons why all these mad islamists are after us and criticizing our way of life, our modern women, our tourism, our jew community, and so on. They just don't get it. We are Moroccans, We are Muslims but WE ARE NOT ARABS.

WHERE DO YOU GET THIS IDEA THAT "WE ARE NOT ARABS" FROM WHOM ARE YOU TRYING TO HIDE? NOW IT IS ONLY THE ARABS WHO DO NOT RESPECT WOMEN... IT IS NOT EXCLUSIVELY AN ARAB ISSUE, IT IS AN ISLAMIC ISSUE. THE TALIBANS ARE NOT ARABS THEY ARE PASHTOUN, THE PAKISTANI MUSLIMS ARE NOT ARABS THEY ARE INDIANS FROM THE SUB-CONTINENT.. PLEASE STOP PUTTING THE BLAME OF THIS STUPID IDEAS THAT WE ARE NOT ARABS... AMAZIGHEN ARE ALSO MUSLISMS AND ARE SOMETIME ALSO MORE FUNDAMENTALISTS ... YOU NEED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OTHER CULTURES OF THE WORLD AND STOP THINKING THAT MOROCCO IS IMMUNE FROM THE MISOGYNISTIC TENDENCIES.... "WE ARE NOT ARABS" HEY THAT'S RIGHT... AS IF ONLY ARABS ARE MISOGYNIST..

Quoting Nellia:

I must agree with Amina even though I do appreciate Redouane's input on women .Its always a pleasure to see men respecting women as individuals like you do .Much appreciated!
Of course arabs are not responsible for everything but to be honest they are responsible for a lot of the headaches and horrors in the world and in the forefront Saudis when they started exporting their Wahhabist ideology everywhere .
Eversince the Arab invasion there has always been a desire to erradicate the culture and identity of the indigeneous population without any remorse or sometimes a conscience .Thus the indigeneous populations( Berbers, Assyrians and so many more ) have started getting confused about their own identity or even witness it disappear .Before the invasion Moroccan women were actually leading armies ( jewish berber Kahena) and were enjoying lots of privileges .
Truth be told most of the Moroccan population is in fact berber and it has been genetically proven and most of the population is moderate.And I must add to the defense of Arabs in Morocco that they are very different from the kind of arabs in Egypt and in the middle East.I find them to be much better on lots of fronts even if I sometimes find that they would rather stick with other Arabs in the middle East than their Moroccan for example berber fellow citizens.
Anyhow times are changing and now the situation of berbers in Morocco has really improved considering that our King is also half Berber and a man who truly loves his people and who is making all the efforts possible to take Morocco to whole new level.
Slowly but surely the populations resilience will pays off.

I sense some sort of Amaghizen ethnocentrism here... maybe I am dealing with young Amazighen people who had their jolt of berber pride without facing the real problem women experience in Muslim lands... The berber pride is OK but it does not deal with the problem embedded and rooted in the very nature of religious dogma. Again I repeat for those who do not understand and keep diverting a cultural/religi ous issue into an ethnic one. MYSOGYNY IS NOT AN ETHNIC ISSUE, IT IS A RELIGIOUS ONE... and please stop this berber symbolic ethnicity stuff. It is hardly a factor.

Quoting Nellia:

Dear Redouane,


Religion might have played a role
That is may be why we need to continue in our path towards a secularisation in our political system and laws of course with the king keeping his religious legitimacy.Turkey is a great example that shows that it can work.
I have no problem with any race I was just giving my take on the chronological evolution of things for women in Morocco so do not take it personally.
My view is that every ethnicity has its good and bad habits but I just don't think that womens rights are the Arabs forte .They might excell in lots of areas but womens rights is not one of them as I have also noticed quite some patronizing towards women with christian Arabs as well. but You might be the exception to the rule.
I just hope that they will put an end to this backward practices. Why is it so hard to abolish such a law? Are the people that doing that thinking they are going to hell if they don't marry a teenager ? What is that ?

I am all for secularization of society. However, secularization means ultimaletly the downgrading of the religious importance of daily life. You cannot have religion playing a big role and thinking you can get secularization. They are two opposing aspects on how to live one to live your life with religious dogma controling everything or living your life with secular and scientific thinking. And this is quite difficult to do with Islam, because apparently islam is more than a religion, as I hear people explaining to me. If it is not religion than it is a political dogma and it can change by pushing it aside. You asked the question Why is it hard to abolish the law (child marriage). You should read my first entry on this blog.. I gave my take on this... That's why secularization of islam is a wishful thinking... you simply cannot have it both ways....this is the main issue that Westerners are having with islam the religion of peace... all they see is backwardness, mysoginy, destruction of property and terror... Let us not let the religious ignoramuses charlantans incite hatred, fatwas in the name of islam.

Wow, it is really stunning to hear you saying that........... ..I think you should seek help before is too late........Tra Dition? Where is the Law of the Land ?........the people who are into marrying girls are actually fundamentalits moslems, they would do the same if theywere allowed in the west..Europe full of Moslems Terrorists, they are everywhere especially Moroccans....th ey bombimg themselve in every corner for a very early reservation in "JANA" or Heaven, but instead going straight to hell....I never heard or seen any what they call themselves" MODERATE MOSlEMS" condemning terrorims, they are always hiding behind doors...they are cowards they prove to the world that they supporting terrorits...the y are cancer to the west

Mr Frankie and all who are reading this post!!

When there is inequality , hipocrisy , the slaves of the west and the west will and continue to blame Islam. Learn from History? Who has taught " a paradise in in your mothers feet" Its the Islam. Its really funny to hear lessons of good treatment to women by westerners and weterner slaves. the article itself is ridiculous ..250 dollars ? Can i ask my brother who posted only one question.

My hats off and respect to the girl who decides and take cares of husband and family of whole life for 250 dolars? where else you get a commitment like this.Do you want her to have affairs/valenti nes as you do? is that you want ??
These unholy crap modernizers westerners who pay/receive as prostitutes.
Have some thinking to check from where PORN is born , its the west who created.

Dont teach on how to be civilised..an ARAB/Morocco above all a practising MUSLIM are far better than the open minded slaves of west, When a nun wears a cloak she is sacred? and if a muslimah wears a hijab, west says she is in prisioned in male dominated house hold? When a Rabbi gorws a beard he is respected, then why cant a Muslim man be respected. Read Quran dont just speak a quote of illeterates..en d of the age you and me die one day for Aaqirah.

Sounds good to me, in western countries girls are stuck up, priveleged, and nasty. Take the pressure off your women and they will eat you alive like reptiles, look at the poor bastards in the west who have to be gay cause there's no women left here.