User:Haleykolus/sandbox

= Women's rights in Morocco =

PE Org
My PE org is called the Voice of the Amazigh Woman, in Rabat, Morocco. They serve muslim women in rural morocco by providing legal assistance in personal law, as well as literacy, computer skills, sewing, and painting classes. For my internship, I will be researching potential funding and writing grant proposals, help translate between French and English, update the website and social media, assist with planning and facilitating classes, as well as assist with counseling. Therefore, for my research I will be studying rural women's livelihoods and position in Moroccan Society for my Area article. For my Sector article, I'm adding to Women in Islam, researching women in Muslim countries in the rural workforce compared to the urban, adding ideas about feminism and literacy. (Is that too Area?) Test. Momo.

Wikipedia Article Selection
The top article in each section is what I decided to work on, however, I find it helpful to have these other ones here (for now) to give me sources and ideas on what to add to may main article.

Area
**Women in Morocco - I chose this article because it talks almost entirely about women in the urban areas, only touching on rural women. Because my PE org deals directly with women's literacy and legal education in rural Morocco, I'll be adding a section, incorporating what little material is already on the page, on rural women in Morocco and their livelihoods. I also plan on adding to the section on Amazigh women, who are briefly mentioned, but only in reference to their colonial history (as soldiers and war heroines), and not in a cultural context.

Agriculture in Morocco - This article talks about what Morocco produces, not as much about who works in agriculture. For my PE I'll be working with women on family-owned farms who have been farming for their husbands instead of going to school, and are therefore illiterate. I plan to add a section about demographics of agricultural labor.

Sectors
**Women in Islam - I chose this article because of how interested I was in the topic while reading it, more so than the other articles I was considering. However, I'm having much more trouble finding a clear subject to write about for this article. My goal is to write about education, legal matters, literacy, rural dynamics, and feminism (or some combination), but I don't know where in the article they would go because it is already so developed, and the Talk page (if you click through the edit history) is highly contentious and opinionated. My plan for now is to go through and research the "better citation needed" tags, fix them, and help myself get a better hold on the subject because I feel like I'm going in blind.

Section on rural women, working with other women/muslim women.

*Islamic Feminism - this article is more focused on the type of work I'll be doing in Morocco; specifically, teaching women skills to help them break traditional Islamic patriarchal systems. As Prof. Talwalker suggested, I could add a section on Shari'a Law.

Womens Empowerment - the article has a tag that is needs to be re-written in a style detached from the authors opinion; the Barriers section could include more about cultural barriers, so I could add a paragraph about Islam and Islamic feminism;

Evaluating Content
Could potentially add to the section on women in the workforce (under modern era) distinguishing rural from urban women, but that might be too "Area" heavy; Some information on domestic violence laws seem out of date?; Theres a discrepancy between sections relating to domestic violence (section is marital behavior); could add information about recent laws on inheritance, there are none;

Evaluating Sources
Several sources have a "better citation needed" mark, page needed, or citation needed

Checking the Talk Page
Absolutely no content on the talk page

This article is a part of 3 WikiProjects: Islam, Feminism, Women's History

Evaluating Content
Everything is relevant, although there are a lot of textual examples of "feminism" in the Qur'an as are referenced by many different authors/scholars.

The article doesn't mention recent legal strides taken by legislative institutions like the UN or individual governments. Part of my research paper last year was analyzing the effects of microfinance and UN-imposed sanctions on Muslim countries regarding women (CEDAW and another one I can't remember).

Didn't talk about recent movements much at all (Twenty-First century section)

Some topics could be rearranged (for example, islamic vs islamic feminism came up and the beginning and the end), to condense the article, it is difficult to finish at the end, the subject matter gets sloppy.

Evaluating Tone
I'm not really sure how to evaluate for tone, I think it's ok. It emphasizes specific people and their ideas more so than greater movements and popular support.

Evaluating Sources
A few (one or two) "better citation needed" notes, and two or three "citation needed" notes.

Other sources are scholarly or relevant opinion pieces (using quotations from specific people or using journalism to capture the message of a movement).

Checking the Talk Page
This article is a part of several WikiProjects: Islam, Feminism, Gender Studies, Women's History, and Spoken History)

There's discussion to add a "opposition movement" section and to expand the MPL section, which I could potentially do.

Other editors are from Colgate University! They mostly talk about Sharia law, and sexuality, and there is a To-Do list!

A lot of proposed edits and discussions on the talk page (some from almost 10 years ago) aren't realized in the current version of the article.

Scholarly Sources
Write 1-3 sentences in which you briefly summarize the article's focus and approach, and say how you plan to use it for your PE prep/Wikipedia drafting/final 105 paper.

search "CEDAW Morocco" into Google Scholar

islam women development

muslim women development

* then two more searches adding empowerment

Area - Women in Morocco
My addition would focus on rural women in Morocco, as well as cleaning up the section on harassment.

Divorce Reform in Egypt and Morocco: Men and Women Navigating Rights and Duties
Sonneveld, N. (2019). Divorce Reform in Egypt and Morocco: Men and Women Navigating Rights and Duties, Islamic Law and Society, 26(1-2), 149-178. doi: https://doi-org.libproxy.berkeley.edu/10.1163/15685195-00260A01 why is the citation number at the end..?

This article compares divorce reform from 2000 and 2004 and analyzes how men and women go about divorce differently in Egypt and Morocco. This could be helpful in creating a section under "Women in Politics" specifically for divorce laws (expanding on some information that already there) and how women use them. This might be considered sector because this is part of what my PE org helps rural women do (navigate and utilize their legal rights), and there is no distinction between rural and urban women or Amazigh women in the source.

Gendering Political Agency in the Maghreb
Sadiqi, Fatima. "Gendering Political Agency in the Maghreb." Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, vol. 12 no. 1, 2016, pp. 88-92. Project MUSE

There isn't much about the history of Amazigh (Maghrebin) women in the my Area article outside military officials and anti-colonialists, so I could definitely use this article (and those cited within it) to expand this section. This source gives a richer cultural background of women's roles in Maghreb society in the 19th century, and cites several sources about the feminist movement and legal pluralism. However, it also acknowledges that its information on women is narrowed to urban women.

Note: The beginning is basically a report about another article that seems more detailed and empirical (about Maghreb history), I definitely should look at it! She writes her opinion on several other journals I should also look into about feminist movements and legal/legislative gains.

Note pt. 2: She mentions another article about Moroccan feminism that is "uniquely Moroccan" and is aided by secular Moroccan women; Could apply to my sector?

Note pt. 3: She mentions an article with this bibliography: Guessous, Nadia. 2011. “Genealogies of Feminism: Leftist Feminist Subjectivity in the Wake of the Islamic Revival in Contemporary Morocco.” PhD diss., Columbia University. but it's not in Google Scholar, lib.berkeley.edu, or JSTOR. The article talks about how this source highlights the secular aspect of the Moroccan Feminist Movement that seems helpful to my Sector page.

==== THE FEMINIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE: WOMEN’S ACTIVISM, THE FAMILY LAW, AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN MOROCCO ==== Sadiqi, Fatima, and Moha Ennaji. “The Feminization of Public Space: Women’s Activism, the Family Law, and Social Change in Morocco.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies (Indiana University Press), vol. 2, no. 2, Spring 2006, pp. 86–114. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2979/MEW.2006.2.2.86. its at the end again should I be worried This article talks about the progression of liberalism/restructuring, to feminism, to reform in the form of the 2004 Family Law. It talks about the concept of the public and private space, the private being the one traditionally occupied by women, and that it is dynamic and up for interpretation, with newer versions leading to the feminist movement. This article talks about the separation between urban and rural women as it relates to the private sphere, and how the dynamic understanding of the private sphere, as well as recent economic downturn has resulted in high rural illiteracy rates relative to men and urban women. Finally, it emphasizes the role of feminism in the 2004 Family Law, but notes that it is “still poorly known in rural… areas”. For my PE, I will be working with illiterate rural women, helping them gain professional skills and navigate their legal rights. This article therefore gives me a cultural and historical background for their situation, and why they are at a disadvantage compared to other women in Morocco (which is considered a progressive Arab country). I’ll use this source in my Rural Women section (which doesn’t currently exist), to talk about rural Morocco as it applies to Islamic concepts of public and private spheres, as well as to give a description of gender dynamics in rural areas.

==== States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco ==== Charrad, Mounira M. 2001. States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Berkeley: University of California Press. This source is a book, so I will be drawing only from select chapters. The chapters I’m focusing on talk about the history of the tribal Maghreb region as colonies and as they transitioned to nation-states. It talks about the patrilineal society being founded in tribal kinship, as a “structure of cousins” in order to maintain land, power, and ownership of tribal regions. It talks about how this translated into Muslim Personal Law when the state was formed, and how it was formed around tribal custom to maintain the patriarchal system. This is relevant to my PE because it gives me cultural context of the people I’ll be working with, who identify as Amazigh, and who still live in a similar, tribal-influenced rural society. I’ll be able to apply this source to the section on Amazigh women on the Women in Morocco page, describing the role of women in tribal history.

The Impact of Internal and International Migration on the Position of Women Left Behind in Rural Morocco
Hein de Haas & Aleida van Rooij (2010) Migration as Emancipation? The Impact of Internal and International Migration on the Position of Women Left Behind in Rural Morocco, Oxford Development Studies, 38:1, 43-62, DOI: 10.1080/13600810903551603

This article explores women’s roles in rural Morocco in education and household duties, analyzes how those duties change when their husbands migrate (internally and internationally), and most importantly, how they feel about their increased responsibilities. They state that wives of international migrants are often wealthy, and thus enjoy more freedom and liberty while their husbands are gone, while wives of internal migrants are younger, more poor, and have difficulty keeping up with all their duties. He also notices that women of any migrant lament that they miss their husbands and would prefer their presence over increased responsibility or liberty, contrary to popular belief that male migration is emancipating for women. This article refers to women working in rural Morocco, as well as gender roles and expectations. It talks about migration patterns and social norms (that women are not allowed to migrate unless its to reunite with a migrated husband or family member), and female education in terms of the workforce, all important aspects of rural life that I should add to my section on rural women.

Migration, Remittances and Educational Levels of Household Members Left behind: Evidence from Rural Morocco
Jamal Bouoiyour, and Amal Miftah. “Migration, Remittances and Educational Levels of Household Members Left behind: Evidence from Rural Morocco.” Working Papers, 2018. EBSCOhost

This text, similar to the preceding one, details the effects of male migration on the education of the children left behind. He concluded that women, once expected to take on more duties, passed much of their responsibilities onto their older daughters, significantly reducing their education levels. I used this text in tandem with the preceding text, linking migration to children and education/literacy.

Women and Poverty in Morocco: The Many Faces of Social Exclusion
Skalli, Loubna. “Women and Poverty in Morocco: The Many Faces of Social Exclusion.” Feminist Review, no. 69, Dec. 2001, pp. 73–89. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=apn&AN=ALTP272473&site=eds-live.

This article calls into question how poverty is measured in Morocco. Skalli lists data on unsalaried and family-based work, overwhelming prevalent in rural areas, contributing to poverty for rural women. I used this source to describe the situation of rural women in Morocco.

Women, Islam, and Political Agency in Morocco
Sadiqi, Fatima. “Women, Islam, and Political Agency in Morocco.” Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Agents of Change, by Fatima Sadiqi and Moha Ennaji, Routledge, 2011, pp. 36–47.

This article talks about women, particularly rural and illiterate, as being the barriers of Berber culture through oral folklore. Sadiqi details the effect of illiterate women’s folklore on challenging and intimidating men as a way of combating colonialism and the patriarchy. She describes how globalization brings these tales and the plights of the women who tell them to the forefront of the feminist movement as the representatives of culture. I used this article to expand on the Amazigh Women section.

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Contextualising street sexual harassment in Morocco: a discriminatory sociocultural representation of women ===== Habiba Chafai (2017) Contextualising street sexual harassment in Morocco: a discriminatory sociocultural representation of women, The Journal of North African Studies, 22:5, 821-840

Sector - Islamic Feminism
My sources right now are Morocco-heavy I realize. I'm still considering changing my article back to Islamic Feminism and talking about the role of secular women in the movement (again, my sources are focused on Morocco).

search islam women development

==== Vulnerable identities: Pious women columnists' narratives on Islamic feminism and feminist self-identification in contemporary Turkey ==== Unal, Didem. “Vulnerable Identities: Pious Women Columnists’ Narratives on Islamic Feminism and Feminist Self-Identification in Contemporary Turkey.” Women’s Studies International Forum, vol. 53, Nov. 2015, pp. 12–21. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2015.08.003.

Despite the title, the article has real statistic and history of conservative Islamic regimes in Turkey trying to put down and marginalize women, as well as information on movements reclaiming the headscarf as a feminist symbol, CONTRARY to the state, which outlawed it ?

==== Feminist Critique and Islamic feminism: The Question of Intersectionality ==== Salem, Sara. “Feminist Critique and Islamic Feminism: The Question of Intersectionality.” Postcolonialist, vol. 1, no. 1, Nov. 2013, pp. 2–15. EBSCOhost, libproxy.berkeley.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3da9h%26AN%3d102264097%26site%3deds-live.

This source criticizes the Western feminist approach to Islamic feminism for not understanding intersectionality within the movement, and allowing the religion to define the people. She says Western Feminism labels Muslim women “third world women” who are by the nature of their religion oppressed by religion and without the agency to change their status, thus giving western feminism an imperialist opportunity to intervene. I find this article interesting and pertinent to my PE for checking my own preconceptions and the motivations of my org. In terms of my wikipedia articles, I’d use this source as a islamic narrative countering secular feminism under a section about secular feminism as it relates to Islamic feminism.

Women’s NGOs and social change in Morocco
Ennaji, Moha. “Women’s NGOs and Social Change in Morocco.” Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Agents of Change, by Fatima Sadiqi and Moha Ennaji, Routledge, 2011, pp. 79–88.

This article gives a history of the need and development of women’s rights NGOs in Morocco, and their interaction with the state to accomplish their goals. Ennaji lists efforts in reforming Mudawana through working with political parties and ultimately with the King, as well as addressing sexual and domestic violence. This article was cool because I could see how my organization fit into the history, and I used this text to describe how feminism in Moroccan politics operates to achieve its goals.

Women, work, and Islam in Arab Societies
Yusuf Sidani, (2005) "Women, work, and Islam in Arab societies",, Vol. 20 Issue: 7, pp.498-512, https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420510624738

This article attempts to compare four competing lines of thought in Islamic Feminism: traditional scholars, progressive scholars, traditional feminists, and progressive feminists. After summarizing the main points of each perspective, Sidani synthesizes them to make his point that the different views are fragmenting the feminist movement in their disagreement on where Islam fits in to women’s rights policy, leading to an overall lack in efficacy of the feminist movement in terms of participation and education. This article is helpful to understanding my PE because it frames the debate behind different modes of addressing female empowerment and participation in social, political, and economic spheres. I would use this article to add the concept of conflicting perspectives, as well as the data stated on participation rates to a section on Obstacles and Shortcomings.

The Moroccan Women's Rights Movement
Evrard, Amy Young. ''The Moroccan Women’s Rights Movement. [Electronic Resource]''. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, [2014] (Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2015), 2014. EBSCOhost, libproxy.berkeley.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dcat04202a%26AN%3ducb.b21467535%26site%3deds-live.

This source is also a book, and I will be referring to the second chapter: Obstacles and Opportunities. This section analyzes the role of the monarch in the feminist movement, both supporting and circumventing women’s rights; as well as the role of left-leaning political groups and international funding. The book says compares women’s rights agendas of the three monarchs: Hassan II, Mohammad IV and V, to show the progressive evolution of women’s rights to the king, yet also shows the lack of efficacy in realizing their claims. This pushes her argument to left-leaning political groups, used as an agency of the monarch to suppress Islamic groups, which are an outlet for women’s involvement, yet are also ineffective due to their ties to the state. Thus leaving Women’s rights NGO’s. With international funding (from Europe and North America) came the Western and secular beliefs about women’s rights, pushing and ultimately realizing a more secular approach to Family Law in 2004. I would use this in Islamic feminism to show how outside actors (non-muslims) influence women’s rights reform in the context of Islamic law, and how Islamic feminism is portrayed through the Monarch, to show the movement is increasingly secular.

Muslim Women at Work: The Way Forward
Sidani, Y.M. (2018) The Way Forward. In: Muslim Women at Work. Palgrave MacMillan, Cham

This article addresses the obstacles, opposition, contradictions, and shortcomings to the Islamic and Arab feminist movement. It talks about how the feminist movement in Arab countries is fragmented, among different ideologies, and that it’s gains are proven to be mostly symbolic, with little concrete proof (according to literacy, representation, and hiring statistics) that society is equalizing, giving a criticism of the quota system for female representation. I’m not sure if this is a scholarly source because it seems too opinionated, but it has been helpful in raising questions about other research I can do, and has led me to consider adding a section in Islamic feminism under “Areas of Campaign” about Education, what my PE org does, or a section about Shortcomings and Obstacles.

Gender Quotas in the Morocco: Lessons for women's descriptive and symbolic representation
Lloren, Anouk. “Gender Quotas In Morocco: Lessons For Women's Descriptive And Symbolic Representation.” Representation, vol. 50, no. 4, 2014, pp. 527–538., doi:10.1080/00344893.2014.979224.

This article uses a focus group of 15 women who currently or formerly served in Moroccan parliament. Lloren starts by describing how the quota system has been hailed as a positive change for Morocco, then describes the different women’s commentary and criticisms of their experiences. Because of how the quota system is implemented, the women report not being able to garner any popular support to be re-elected, and are discriminated against and undermined by their male peers while in office. I used this article in conjunction with others in my section on the quota system.

Women, Education, and the Redefinition of Empowerment and Change in a Traditional Society
Al Barwani, Thuwayba. “Women, Education, and the Redefinition of Empowerment and Change in a Traditional Society.” Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Agents of Change, by Fatima Sadiqi and Moha Ennaji, Routledge, 2011, pp. 215–231.

This article analyzes the effects on education and higher education on the career prospects of women in Oman. Like Islamic feminism, Oman women seek to combine their intellect with their religion. However, Al Barwani explains that women out-enroll and outperform men in higher education, and yet are underrepresented in business and politics. I used this to contribute to my education section on women in higher education, and to analyze education as a means of access.

Area - Women in Morocco
Rural women

how is their experience different from that of urban women, in daily life, in tradition, and in the workplace. They also have a different feminist movement, excluded from the urban version. They are less educated/exposed to education, and therefore have lower literacy rates. I'm also focusing on Amazigh (berber) women in history. Rural women are closer tied to their cultural traditions, and my sources cover the history of women in the Berber culture, and how colonization has effected those roles.

For my Area article, I’ve learned through my research so far, the recent history of the Amazigh people as patriarchal tribes whose traditions still exist in rural Morocco, the dynamic dichotomy between public and private spheres as they relate to women and development, and how Western and domestic development affect rural families through migration. Going forward, I want to research more about women in Amazigh culture, how colonialism affected local traditions and power dynamics, men in rural Morocco (to compare lifestyles), rural participation in politics, and female migration to urban areas.

Sector - Islamic Feminism
Secular women helping Muslim women

Family Law 2004 framed the feminist movement in Morocco. (similar laws were put in place in other countries around this time). My sources cover these movements in terms of secular and muslim women working at odds and with each other, and how those perspectives changed the outcome of the laws they influenced.

For my sector article, my research taught me the complex relationship between the king, liberal political parties and feminist NGO’s, the complex relationship between secular feminism and Islamic feminism, and ideological divides within Islamic feminism. I’ve learned that although feminists have made significant academic, legal and political advancements, there are still sociological barriers to women’s development and entrance into the workforce. To further my research, I want to look into other chapters of the books I’ve chosen, specifically The Moroccan Women’s Rights Movement, to read about the backgrounds of the women involved, in the preceding chapter: “Convincing Women”. In addition, I want to look into the sources cited in the “Muslim Women at Work” article about education, as well as other articles in general about education to build a section about feminism and education. Finally, I’d like to broaden my search to all arab countries, using “Arab” as a search word instead of “Islam/Islamic” or “Muslim”.

Drafting
SCARY

Area
The Feminization of Public Space: Women’s Activism, the Family Law, and Social Change in Morocco; Rural Women in Morocco:

"The strict public/private space dichotomy has been disrupted significantly ever since women started to take jobs outside the home from the 1960s onward (although in rural areas women have always worked on their families’ farms). This significant change in women’s lives was reflected in poverty and education, as poor women worked as domestics or in low-paid sectors of industry and educated women secured the jobs their education allowed (cf. Barkallil 1990; Filali Meknassi 1994).States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco)"

This reorganization of space has been enhanced greatly by continuous changes in the economic and educational levels of families. In urban areas, women have had more and more access to power-related public spaces; they have special types of dress for public and private spaces. In rural areas, women do not have access to power-related public spaces and do not have special types of dress for public and private spaces if we exclude lħayk (a large, usually white piece of cloth that covers a woman’s body except for her face and, in eastern Morocco, all except one of her eyes) or the jellaba (a Moroccan traditional hooded female garment that covers a woman’s body except for her head), which are used for errands outside the neighborhood.

Further, rural women are generally excluded from the administration, usually do not go to the mosque, and are generally poorly educated in religion. The last point explains the fact that the spread of Islamist movements is a typically urban phenomenon. However, so far as women are concerned, rural vs. urban location does not determine the reason one wears the ∏ijāb, as the choices for veiling are various and range from faith to modesty, political affiliation, etc. (cf. Rafea 2000).

Thus, rural and urban women differ as to their degree of access to FATIMA SADIQI & MOHA ENNAJI  91 the powerful public space. If rural women are relatively absent from the mosque and administration, they are present in the fields and the marketplace. As for urban women, their access to jobs has individualized them in the sense that it has offered them a space where they are called by their own names and not associated with their fathers, husbands, or sons. Most women who work have not given up their domestic duties. In spite of the fact that women have started to invest in the public space, their traditional function in the private space is maintained (cf. Belarbi 1997). Moroccan women are conscious that housework valorizes them inside the house, that is, in the eyes of their husbands and children; they generally cling to their status as “homemakers” even when they are wealthy and have domestics. Working women usually avoid praising their domestics in front of their husbands out of fear of losing “moral” control over the household.

Modernization benefited upper- and middle-class women to the detriment of rural women who, up to present times, suffer from illiteracy. In fact, according to the Department of Statistics (2004), 68% of rural women are illiterate.

First, the Family Law is still very poorly known in rural and sometimes urban areas.

Figure 2 shows that, over the past 50 years, there has been a truly dramatic increase in primary school attendance, which has now become almost universal. The dramatic increase happened first for men. Among the 35–39-year-old women, more than 90% had never attended school, against less than 20% among men. Over the last generation, this gender gap in primary education has rapidly closed. This is likely to presage a similar development in secondary education, where boys still predominate

Besides the influence of gradually shifting norms vis-a`-vis female education, their increasing participation in education is facilitated by the recent extension of schools throughout the valley. Proximity of schools is particularly important for girls, as in many p

In rural Morocco, out-migration of men tended to have negative consequences for the autonomy of spouses left behind if they followed the traditional pattern of continuing to live within the extended family households of their in-laws. While they tended to bear major responsibilities in child bearing and rearing, housekeeping and agricultural production during the absence of their spouses, they were also expected to obey their in-laws, their mother-in-law in particular

The majority of internal and international migrant households are de facto female households. Although it is generally the oldest remaining man (e.g. son) in the household who is identified by other household members, including women, as the official remplacant of the migrated spouse, it is generally the migrant’s wife who tends to bear the actual responsibility

the household workload of women living in nuclear households did not significantly increase as a consequence of migration. After all, women were already responsible for all domestic and many agricultural tasks before the migration of their husbands

This can be partly attributed to recent technological advances, such as the advent of gas stoves, private water wells and water pumps. Other factors that have eased the burden of women in their own eyes are the decreasing birth rates and the fact that most women now buy leather, fabrics and clothes at the market, instead of manufacturing them themselves as their mothers used to do. Before the arrival of piped water, fetching water from public wells was a heavy burden. Many women also point to the large extended families their mothers had to take care of. New, more spacious and often concrete houses are easier to clean and often contain lavatories. It is particularly households involved in international migration that enjoy such facilities, thanks to remittances. Wives of non-migrants or internal migrants generally lived in more difficult conditions. For instance, 74% of households of returned international migrants live in a concrete house and 94% have a lavatory in their house, compared with 36 and 57% among non-migrant and internal migrant households, respectively.

However, a key observation is that this gain in authority is mainly temporary, as migrants take over their position as “patriarchs” as soon as they return. It is particularly striking that the vast majority of migrant women saw this (temporary) increase in responsibilities and decision-making power as a burden.

Amazigh women

The Impact of Internal and International Migration on the Position of Women Left Behind in Rural Morocco

Some authors have suggested that migration has encouraged the emancipation of rural women in Morocco, as, in the absence of their husbands, their responsibilities, autonomy and power have increased (De Mas, 1990; Aı¨t Hamza, 1995; Fadloullah et al., 2000). However, such observations are mostly made “in passing” and tend to be based on assumption or moral prejudice rather than on systematic empirical inquiry. (46)

Owing to conservative social values on gender roles, women have generally not been allowed to migrate on their own. However, a small but growing number of young women started to migrate on their own to cities and, in some cases, abroad, to study or work in the late 1990s and 2000s

Migration has become an all-pervasive phenomenon in the Todgha valley. Almost half of the surveyed active male population (16–65 years) has been, or still is, involved in internal (33%) or international (15%) migration. Taken together, 40.4% of all households participate in international migration and/or receive international remittances. A total of 25.0% of all surveyed households participate in internal migration, so that only 34.5% of all households can be classified as non-migrant.

The typical household tasks of women living in oasis villages are: cleaning the house of dust and sand; the daily preparation of bread and cooking of lunch and dinner; washing clothes by hand; fetching and carrying water, which is a heavy task, especially when there is no private well in the family’s courtyard; and taking care of the children. In a minority of households that do not yet use gas stoves, women have to walk several kilometres to fetch wood. The main male household task is purchasing food at the weekly market.

Women harvest fruits and crops such as wheat and barley, and regularly walk to the small agricultural plots to cut alfalfa for the livestock, to weed, and to collect wood, leaves and twigs. The latter products are used to feed the livestock, heat the bread ovens and to braid baskets. Women also take care of the families’ small livestock, traditionally consisting of several sheep, goats, a donkey and (for wealthy families only) one or two cows, and make products such as milk (butter) and wool. Typical male agricultural tasks are: ploughing, sowing, irrigating, the maintenance of irrigation infrastructure (e.g. dams, irrigation ditches), and climbing date palms to pollinate, cut old leaves and harvest dates

Gender inequality is manifested further by the fact that, at least until very recently, only men were allowed to migrate on their own. If the migrant was married, the honour of the family and, in particular, the chastity of his wife and daughters who were left behind used to be guarded by the migrant’s extended family household. In this perspective, remittances, which are destined for the entire extended family household, can be considered as the price that the migrant pays for this (

Sector
Feminist Critique and Islamic Feminism: The Question of Intersectionality

Underlying assumptions that distinguish what can be called “Western feminism” include: the theorization of “women” as an unproblematic category of analysis that assumes women have homogenous or similar experiences and needs, which serves to construct a “universal” womanhood that erases power relations between women; the subsequent use of academic research to prove the universality of women’s experiences; and the construction of third world women as the opposite of Western women: in other words, constrained, victimized, poor, ignorant as opposed to Western women who are educated, modern, and free to make their own choices.[12] “Women are characterized as a singular group on the basis of shared oppression.

Western feminists, therefore, are situated within a global system. In other words, the way the “third world” has been constructed[17] forms the context of any scholarship on women The Postcolonialist, November 2013 5 in said third world. The lack of awareness of this, as well as the lack of self-reflexivity has meant that scholars within the field have often reproduced imperial notions in their work on women in non-Western contexts or marginalized women with Western contexts themselves.

The discursive construction of third world women as homogenous and disempowered is similar to the construction of religious women as uniformly and automatically oppressed or suffering from false consciousness. Religious women are thus produced as a homogenous bloc who cannot or will not see the inherent patriarchy in religion. When it comes to Muslim women, this is amplified due to the already-prevalent construction of third world women (of which Muslim women are assumed to belong to) as oppressed and victimized. This construction serves to hide the specificities of each woman’s lived reality and instead centers the debate on false consciousness

A key tension within these debates over agency and religion is the blanket depiction of religion as oppressive, which raises the pertinent issue of subjectivity. Scholars have pointed out that many women choose to submit themselves to a higher power, and do not interpret this as a form of oppression

Women, work, and Islam in Arab societies

The Moroccan Women’s Rights Movement

The Way Forward. In: Muslim Women at Work

Rural Women - New Section
Morocco is separated into spaces considered public and private. The public space is male-dominated, urban, and professional, while the private space is domestic, rural and feminine. The separation excludes women from urban and professional environments, driving the modern feminist movement in urban city centers. In contrast, rural areas are considered domestic and female-dominated and agricultural. Feminist advancements are insulated in urban areas, making reforms like the 2004 Family law granting women expanded marriage, divorce, and property rights unknown to rural women.

Rural women are also generally excluded from the mosque and lack proper religious education, and are instead present in the fields. Young girls in rural areas are expected to gather water and wood, clean the house, and wash clothes and dishes. Women do the same domestic tasks, take care of children, and prepare food; but they also harvest fruit and crops, tend livestock, cut alfalfa, and make wool. By age eleven, girls are expected to help their mothers with household chores, decreasing their likelihood for finishing school. Agricultural work done by women considered domestic work and is unpaid, with 4.6 percent of rural women reporting having salaried jobs, and 69.4 percent reporting unsalaried family jobs in 1997.

Because of their domestic duties and expectation, rural girls are less likely to finish school, with only 13 percent of girls aged 17-19 attending school as of 1999. Instead, males are given priority due to their more lucrative career prospects. As of 2004, 68% of rural women were illiterate. Recently, education has been recognized as a socially acceptable reason to postpone marriage, closing the literacy gap between men and women.

Male migration to urban centers or different countries is common in rural families in order to support women and families with remittances. Due to increasing feminization of rural poverty, women also migrate out of rural spaces, a phenomenon previously considered part of the masculine public space.

Amazigh Women
Amazigh women have had a lasting position in Moroccan folklore, a position that predates the Arab and Muslim conquest of the Maghreb region. Women, who have been historically illiterate compared to their male counterparts, use Berber and Moroccan Arabic to transmit their traditions and folklore orally. Women also used oral folklore against colonialism and a male status quo, and much of Amazigh female history must be recorded from oral sources. '''It is believed that the tale of Aisha Qandisha has existed since at least the 7th century.[6] There are several variations of Aisha Qandisha's name, among which include Lalla Aicha and Aicha Hamdouchia. Stemming from the pre-Islamic era of Morocco, Aisha Qandisha is said to have been a female demon that takes the shape of multiple beings, including a half-goat.[7] Aicha Qandisha, unlike other demons in Moroccan folklore, appears mostly in men's dreams and is said to make a man impotent. Such folklore remains widely popular in Morocco today.'''

Sexual Harassment
'''Women in Morocco are often forced to endure daily harassment whenever they go out in public. Often the sexual harassment takes the form of name callings, such as "whore" or even catcalling.''' Street sexual harassment is not considered a legitimate form of sexual harassment, and is often trivialized by media and the community. Sexual harassment in the workplace and in schools, however, has been researched since the 1970’s in relation to gender inequalities in society. Research shows harassment occurs in public spaces still hostile to the presence of women according to Islamic beliefs surrounding gendered public and private spaces. To fight this abusive misogynistic culture, a number of Moroccan women have stood up to their abusers.

The culture of sitting at a café had been dominated by men for a long time. It is only Over the recent past two decades that seeing women began mixing with men in cafés in urban cities to fight a culture that has long been dominated by men. It is now socially acceptable in Marrakech, Tangier, Rabat or Casablanca became socially acceptable '''. There is also a demand to uphold the state law to ensure the safety of women, and to punish the abuser. Despite the fact that there is a law that protects women from abuse,  the real problem is that there is  no little tangible  intention effort to pursue or apply it. In 2018 a law went into effect throughout Morocco known as the Hakkaoui law because named after it’s drafter Bassima Hakkaoui drafted it ; it includes a ban on sexual harassment in public places, as well as a ban on forced marriage and harsher penalties for certain forms of violence, but it was criticized for requiring victims to file for criminal prosecution to get protection.'''

Islamic feminist
'''Islamic feminists interpret the religious texts in a feminist perspective. They can be viewed as a branch of intersectional interpreters who ground their arguments in Islam and its teachings, seek the full equality of women and men in the personal and public sphere, and can include non-Muslims, Marxist feminists, and secular feminists in the discourse and debate for women’s rights.'''

Western feminist rhetoric, based on foundations in Judeo-Christian humanism and secularism, labels Muslim women “Third World Women,” opposite to Western women. Islamic feminists embrace Islamic traditions considered to be oppressive by Western feminists, like veiling, to challenge the Western secular definition of feminism. Islamic feminists view western feminism as being aligned with colonialism, referring to a fascination with Muslim symbols like the veil being used as tools of oppression.

Islamic feminism is defined by Islamic scholars as being more radical than secular feminism,[3] and as being anchored within the discourse of Islam with the Quran as its central text. Yet it has been opposed by Islamist political parties as incompatible with Islamic tradition and practice.

'''During recent times, the concept of Islamic feminism has grown further with Islamic groups looking to garner support from many aspects of society. In addition, educated Muslim women are striving to articulate their role in society.[7]''' After protests in the 1980’s concerning the headscarf at universities in Turkey, highly educated Muslim women continued working in media as journalists, novelists, and authors for Islamist and secular organizations to criticize both Republican secularism and Islamic patriarchal values.

Areas of Campaign - Education (new sub-section)
Many highly educated women, who engaged in debates and protests in the 1980’s over female students wearing the veil at universities, continued into media and journalism to represent intellectual women in the public sphere. Muslim female intellectuals oppose the “Third World” interpretation of Muslim women by western feminists, being at once liberal and pious. The most prominent Muslim intellectuals, “ulama”, are men who believe in women’s spiritual education, and their responsibility to instruct their children.

Mohammed Akram Nadwi, a professor at the University of Oxford, identified 8,000 female Muslim scholars instrumental in transmitting Islamic Hadith, teaching others, and writing laws. In the early 1900’s, Arab women were not allowed to get an education. Illiteracy is commonly thought to be a byproduct of the Mudawana.

In response to education disparities, women’s rights NGO’s in Arab nations have launched literacy campaigns at the local, and lobby governments to improve their services. NGO’s in Morocco partner with the government for area-specific social development. Arab female literacy rates have tripled in the last 30 years, with Quatar, Jordan, and Lebanon breaking 80 percent, and most other countries (with the exception of Mauritania, Yemen, Morocco, and Egypt) ranging between 50 and 65 percent.

Although schools are widespread in urban and rural areas, there are still an estimated 80 million illiterate Arabs, and despite advancements in literacy and education, women continue to report being excluded from political and economic life. Women are now able to get an education in a male-dominated field, and in some countries, female enrollment in higher education exceeds that of males in the same fields, with women often outperforming their male counterparts. However, many employers continue to treat educated women as inferior, and subject them to harsher scrutiny and criticism than they would a man. Despite the implementation of quota systems in several Arab countries, real female participation has not significantly increased. Female employment is more prevalent in the public sector, and slowly growing in the private.

The Quota System - New Section
Since the 1970’s, over 100 countries have implemented gender quota systems. Morocco implemented a ten percent quota for representation of women in parliament and a 20 percent quota in political party bureaus, such that in the 2008 there were thirty-four women in parliament and seven ministers. In india, one-third of local council seats must be occupied by women.

From a women’s rights perspective, quota-imposed representation is considered a step towards equality, where women and women’s rights NGOs can lobby for civil rights and personal status law from within political institutions. Supporters also claim that it’s the best way to ensure representation in a resisting, patriarchal society. As of 2014, the percentage of women in parliament in Arab states has risen to 15.9 in upper and lower chambers.

Opponents claim that the women chosen to office are relatives of influential men, making them unqualified for their positions. Compulsive representation contributes to an overall perception that women are inferior, and are therefore subject to more intense scrutiny and criticism. The quota system has also not increased symbolic representation of women, and the number of women in elected office remains marginally higher than the mandated minimum. Women currently and formerly serving in Morocco’s parliament report that they are unable to gain local support to be re-elected, and are not taken seriously by their male peers.

20th Century History - Political Pushback
In Morocco in October 1990, women’s rights NGOs gathered a million signatures protesting the Mudawana and the widespread poverty, illiteracy, and domestic violence they claimed it produced. Activist efforts were constrained by the monarchy and political parties such as the Islamic fundamentalists, who pushed back in 1992 using a Fatwah, a religious ruling, saying Mudawana reform was against Islamic traditions. In response, King Hassan II, named the Commander of the Faith, organized a meeting with reformist women and issued a statement recognizing their grievances. Although the Mudawana was reformed in 1993, women activists pushed for further reform, citing the law still defined women as economically dependent on men. Women continued lobbying until Mohammed VI took the throne in 1999, and passed a new Family Code that reconciled Islamic Law and universal human rights. The monarch holds his position as patriarch of moroccan society and has the ability to control and produce religious symbolism. The monarch is a spiritual figure connecting the people to otherworldly spirituality, such that he cannot be easily opposed. The success of women’s rights efforts in Morocco ultimately depends on the father-like king, whose power is based on a history and tradition of patriarchy.