A Moroccan Voice

A Logic-mind Man*

2015-11-24T21:52:00.000+00:00

He many times tried to return to bachelorhood, but he changed his mind at the last moment. The first time he decided to do that was when he discovered the shocking news about his wife. It was six in the morning. She was in the toilet when her phone rang. It was a text from a number that was not on her contact list. The text was about sex and such things. He didn’t believe himself when he read it. The sender was his wife’s lover. She didn’t deny this fact when he asked her who he was.

Women can be patient, but some can’t. I’m one of the latter. She said this when he asked her for the how come? It was his fault. He knew he was no longer able to get an erect, but he never tried to see a doctor.

No woman can live without sex. Women can be faithful for some time but not forever. Such ideas never crossed his mind. And it was he to blame when it came to his wife’s love affair. He would have been cured had he consulted a doctor, but the problem was that he knew for certain that he was not in need of a doctor to get his penis back to work with his wife.

Yes, only with his wife. His penis did work well with a woman he had been dating since his wife stopped to turn him on. And this was the reason why he finally didn’t find any meaning in divorcing her due to the humiliation he felt when he read the text on her phone that early morning.

When he came to think of it deeply, he came to the idea that his wife was only doing what he had been doing for a long time. Therefore they were the same when it came to treachery. He put the idea of divorce out of his mind but the question that was occupying his mind later on was what his wife would say when he told her his sexual problem was only with her and that he too had a woman he slept with whenever he felt the need of sex. Her reaction was extremely shocking. I knew all that and that was why I decided to take revenge. He found logic in her words. She was fortunate to have a husband whose mind was full with logic. They got divorced at the end. But the question she was yet to answer was, did how she paid him back have anything to do with logic?

(short story)

The Death of a Soldier’s Son

2013-08-14T13:50:00.001+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

Ben Jilali was a man in his eighties. He did not look his age, though. He looked thirty years younger than his real age. Some of his neighbors thought his well-built figure was because he had never taken any medicine. He was living alone in a house he inherited from his father who was a soldier in the Moroccan Army. After divorcing Hada, the woman he married for love, only a month after their marriage, Ben Jilali did not marry again.

He spent most of his life in the village where he was born though the majority of his family members went to settle in the city for different reasons. Some of them found it very difficult to keeping on living in a village that lacked many life basics, including drinkable water. Others moved to the city because they were fed up with leading a nothing-to-do life in the countryside.

Whenever some of his family members, particularly his cousins, visited him in the village, they never stopped from mentioning the things that made city life much better than life in the countryside. Their aim was to encourage him to leave his village towards the city or paradise as they used to call it. But Ben Jilali had made his mind and nobody on earth could make him change it. He decided to stay in his father’s land till the coming of death.

For many people living near Ben Jilali, he was a man whose life was beyond their understanding. They did not grasp why he was living alone in a house that was as large as a palace, why he divorced his beloved woman, and why his father was buried in the Sahara and was not brought to be buried in his hometown.

Two weeks passed since Ben Jilali did not come to the village’s weekly souk. His neighbors thought he went to spend a few days with his cousins in the city. They were, however, shocked one morning to know that Othmane, one of Ben Jilali’s cousins, had spent half an hour knocking at his door without any reply. This raised their suspicion and they had no other choice but to break into his house.

They were speechless from shock to discover that Ben Jilali had committed suicide in the room where his father used to sleep during his vacation. Othmane told them the room had been closed since his father was killed in the Sahara at the hand of some Polisario fighters.

The room where Ben Jilali hanged himself was empty with the exception of a wooden square table that village people use to put their blankets on. On that table, there were no blankets. There was a letter and a military uniform that lost its color because of sun-shines.

When Othmane read the letter that Jilali, Ben Jilali’s father, sent his son two years before his death, he let his neighbors know everything they ignored about him. It was his father’s wish to be buried in the Sahara which he loved to the bone and for which he fought the separatists till death.

They also knew why he divorced Hada. His father had a second secret wife, and Hada was his only child from the woman he married secretly. However, none of them knew for sure what made Ben Jilali put a full stop on his life. It was surely a secret Ben Jilali preferred to take with him to the grave.

On the Moroccan Tamarod movement

2013-07-17T16:03:00.000+00:00

A Moroccan version of the Egyptian Tamarod movement was created on Facebook soon after that of Egypt managed to persuade millions of Egyptians to take to the streets to protest against the fact that Mohamed Morsi had failed to make his promises to the Egyptian people true after almost one year since being elected president. One of those promises was that he would do his best to treat Egyptians on an equal footing regardless of their religion and political orientation. They seemed to be within reach of their objective, particularly when the military decided to be on the side of the anti-Morsi protesters in Tahrir Square and other places around Egypt. Read More ....

Open Questions

2013-07-15T14:36:00.001+00:00

My father was not a man even before he got seriously ill and died after five years of

suffering from his illness. She once told me so. I soon understood why she wanted me to be a man even when I was only a child. She was afraid of my becoming like my father. Like father, like son. Many children at that time failed to “kill” their fathers when they grew up.
She once told him that his children were dying of hunger, and that he had better do something to bring them something they could eat. His response was that he was unable to provide food for the “March”. He meant by it his eight children. For him, they were as big in number as those who took part in the Green March. It was as if they hadn’t been his children.
I totally agree with my mother. My father was not a man; otherwise, he wouldn’t have refused to work to feed his starving children. Work, for him, was not a life duty towards his family. He used to work only when he was in the mood of work. Yes, he was not a man. And that was why I never visited his grave and his death did not bring tears to my eyes. We usually shed tears over the loss of those who are ready to make sacrifices for us, and not the ones who make us suffer.
My mother burst into tears when she was told he was dead. I still remember the scene in detail. I am quite sure she was only shedding false tears. How could she shed tears over a man with whom her days had been as black as bad fate, and his death was her wish for many years?

This is a passage of a short story I have written as a university project. If you are interested in reading it, I can send it to you via email. The story’s title is “Open Questions”. My email address: eng_jamal6@hotmail.com

Why the Moroccan Regime is Still Ignoring Pro-change Voices

2012-10-07T20:04:00.000+00:00

By Jamal Elabiad

Rachid Taoussi is the new coach of the Moroccan football team. I was shocked by the news simply because I naïvely thought , like most Moroccans, that Badou Ezzaki would surely be the successor of Eric Gerets, the coach whose salary was and still is among the state’s top secrets.

One of the reasons why Badou Ezzaki’s candidacy was ignored is because he is wellknown for not allowing anyone to meddle in affairs related to his job as a football coach. For instance, when he coached the lions of Atlas for four years (2002-2006), Badou Ezzaki turned down many Moroccan senior officials’ requests to accept certain players in the Moroccan football team.Read more...

How Muslims Could Have Responded to Innocence of Muslims?

2012-09-27T12:09:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

Muslims are violent by nature. This is one of the rumors that Jewish and Christian hardliners have tried to spread against Muslims through the use of many tools, including films and cartoons. Islamophobia is one reason why they have turned to rumor-spreading and other means to distort the truth of Islam.

I totally disagree with the western columnists who attributed the anti-Islam films and cartoons to freedom of speech for several reasons. One is that it’s only Islam those hardliners have had the guts to criticize simply because their governments did not pass any laws to punish anyone who dares to offend Islam exactly as they did for other religions, including Judaism. To put it more bluntly, freedom of expression is only a pretext for Islamophobia.

The latest attempt that haters of Islam have made to distort the image of Islam was the production of a film entitled “Innocence ofMuslims”, which aims at having non-Muslims believe that the Prophet Mohammed was exactly the opposite of what they know about him. According to the Independent, the origin of the film is unclear. It’s alleged that it was produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian.

The screening of the anti-Islam film on the web sparked mass demonstrations around the Muslim world. In Libya, for instance, the anti-US angry protests led to the killing of the American ambassador and three other American officials at the U.S. embassy in the Libyan city of Benghazi.

I do subscribe to Hillary Clinton’s view on the film. She said after condemning it as "disgusting" and "reprehensible" that its contents were no excuse for violence. There is no question that the film’s sole intention was to defame the Prophet Mohammed. However, burning the US embassies in several Arab countries was not the right way to express strong opposition towards its content. I am quite sure that the Prophet Mohammed, if he were still alive, would be the first to denounce the violence with which Muslims have protested against the film that aims at spreading lies against him.

It’s beyond doubt that Muslims only served the agenda of the film’s director and his likes when they resorted to violence to vent their anger against the film whose content blasphemes the Prophet Mohammed. In other words, Muslims, by protesting violently over the anti-Islam film, have helped believers of Islamophobia achieve one of their basic goals: depicting Muslims as violent and aggressive.

There are many ways that Muslims could have used to respond to “Innocence of Muslims”. One is that letting non-Muslims familiar with the real attributes of the Prophet Mohammed through creating videos and films that shed light on his life story.

It’s regrettable that the conclusion that one will come to after searching for films that tell the story of the Prophet Mohammed is that such films are extremely rare. This is, surely, one of the weak points that anti-Muslim campaigners have exploited to spread rumors against the Prophet of Islam.

From Sidi Bouzid to Zagora

2012-09-07T21:59:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

I was in Zagora, a South-eastern Moroccan town, when Mohamed Bouazizi burnt himself in protest over humiliation. I was not shocked by the news and I never expected that his act of protest would lead to the fall of the Tunisian president, Zine Abbide ben Ali. That’s because it was not the first time I heard that self-immolation had become a means of protest against social maladies, including unemployment.

It’s also because self-immolation generally failed to put pressure on Arab government to fix the problems that lie behind people deciding to set themselves ablaze. In Morocco, for instance, a large number of unemployed graduates set themselves alight to protest over unemployment. However, the Moroccan regime didn’t take any urgent steps to find jobs for them, and, as a result, discourage other jobless graduates from protesting in the same way.

There is no denying that Mohmed Bouazizi was not the first Arab citizen to turn to self-immolation as a means of protest, but I can say for sure that he was the first whose self-immolation led to an unexpected positive outcome: the downfall of the Ben Ali regime. Such a result encouraged many people around the Arab world to emulate Bouazizi's act of self-immolation to protest against the social ills they were suffering from.

This time, the Moroccan ruling establishment didn’t remain unresponsive. It turned to every possible means in order to fix the social problems that forced many Moroccans into self-immolation. The reason? The regime was afraid of encountering the same tragic ending of Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali.

There is almost no difference between Zagora and Sidi Bouzid when it comes to poverty, unemployment and exclusion. Sidi Bouzid, by the way, is the Tunisian town where Mohamed Bouazizi was born and where he set himself on fire. My expectation was that Zagora would be one of the Moroccan towns that would witness a mass demonstration in support of real social and political reforms.

It was in Zagora where I decided to support the February 20^th movement. I did that shortly after I watched videos that activists of the February 20^th movement posted on the video-sharing website YouTube, calling Moroccans to protest on masse on February 20, 2011, the date that marked the start of the Moroccan Spring. Their narrative not only convinced me, but it also made me believe that the youth-led movement would be a golden opportunity for Moroccans to realize their dreams, one of which is a Morocco where all Moroccans are equal, and where no Moroccans are more equal than others.

As I expected, a large number of people in Zagora responded to the calls of protest made on YouTube by the movement’s activists. And when it comes to acts of vandalism, Zagora’s first pro-democracy demonstration was similar to most protest marches the February 20^th movement organized in more than fifty Moroccan cities. Moreover, the town’s pro-change protest, to my surprise, witnessed the absence of anti-riot police. They didn’t intervene till many public places were destroyed, including banks, restaurants, and cafes.

When I read the news about how the other protest marches around Morocco were organized, I came to the conclusion that Zagora protest march was no exception with regard to the absence of security forces. I soon recognized that not sending cars of anti-riot forces to keep the movement’s initial pro-change demonstrations under surveillance belonged to the tactics the Moroccan regime employed to weaken the movement. It’s beyond doubt that those acts of sabotage wouldn’t have happened if anti-riot police had been present at the places where the movement’s first pro-change protests were held.

Explanations varied as to why the regime chose not to send its security forces to watch the movement’s first protest marches and intervene if necessary exactly as it did before the outbreak of the Arab Spring. The most important one was that the Moroccan regime wanted to have the world, particularly its allies, believe that “Moroccans are free to protest whenever and wherever they want, and that anti-riot police don’t intervene until protesters turn to violence to voice anger against the ruling establishment.”

It’s regrettable that the Moroccan regime’s allies, including France and the US, subscribed to its narrative. Many of them expressed support and admiration of the speech King Mohamed VI delivered on March 9, 2011, unveiling a number of social and political reforms. They also turned a blind eye to the violence the regime used to disperse many of the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations the February 20^th movement organized every Sunday across the North African monarchy.

The attitude of both France and the United States towards the Moroccan Spring made me grasp the true meaning of double standards. They were, for instance, for regime change in Libya, but against it in Morocco and other Arab countries. My point is that the Moroccan revolution failed to achieve most of its key demands partly because France and the US allied with the ruling elite to crush the revolution. Think, for instance, of why China and Russia have so far opposed a military intervention in Syria, so that you can know some of the reasons why France and the US stood by the Moroccan regime instead of standing by the rebels!

What Happened When the February 20 Movement Lost Momentum?

2012-08-20T13:56:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

There is no question that many regimes across the Arab world lost much of the veneration accorded them when the Arab Spring reached countries they had ruled for decades. They found themselves unable to do what they were doing before the coming of the Arab Spring: ordering their oppression machines to attack anyone who shouted slogans or wrote articles ‘disrespectful’ of the ruling elite; sending to prison anyone who had the guts to criticize them. However, when pro-democracy protesters began to take to the streets, many Arab kings and presidents had no other choice but to turn a blind eye to their critics for several obvious reasons.Read more...

How the Moroccan Regime Weathered the Storms of the Arab Spring

2012-08-20T13:45:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

Soon after the Tunisian president, Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, decided to step down because of growing anti-regime protests around Tunisia, the country he ruled for more than twenty years, many Arab regimes were afraid of encountering the same terrible ending. They resorted to several measures in order to avoid the anger of pro-democracy protesters. Early elections, salary increase, and constitutional reforms are examples of the procedures many presidents and kings around the Arab world relied on for the purpose of facing the storms of the Arab Spring. Read more ...

On Abdellah Nhari’s Reponse to Mokhtar Laghzioui’s Views on Sexual Freedom

2012-07-19T21:43:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

There are many reasons why some Arab people, including Tunisians, Libyans, and Egyptians, took en masse to the street and didn’t return home till they had toppled those who ruled them with an iron hand for decades. One reason was that they were deprived of this basic right: freedom of expression. Read more...

“Useless Morocco”: March Protest in Zagora against Salt Water and Poor Medical Services

2012-06-28T18:20:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

Zagora is one of the most neglected Moroccan cities. This is the conclusion that many people-including myself- came to, soon after they were appointed to work in Zagora. All of the problems that the city has been suffering from for decades are due to negligence. Read more...

Shaking Hands with the King is not a Sign of Disrespect

2012-06-15T00:08:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

The conclusion I reached after reading Brahim Koulila’s opinion piece on Morocco World News entitled, "Bowing Before the King is a Sign of Respect" was that it contains a large number of fallacies with which he tries to justify why it’s normal to bow before King Mohammed VI and kiss his hand. My sole purpose behind writing this article is to respond to some of the misconceptions the writer used with the aim of defending his point of view about the tradition of kissing the king’s hand and bowing before him. Read more...

Is the Islamist-led Government Responsible for Hiking up the Price of Fuel?

2012-06-10T18:40:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

There is no denying that Morocco’s Islamist Prime Minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, was once one of the opponents of the Moroccan regime. He was one of those dreaming of reforming the regime for several reasons. One is that the prevailing system – for him – was responsible for the social ills the majority of Moroccans were going through. Then, of course, there were some Moroccans who became Benkirane’s strong supporters because of his strong opposition to that system. Read more...

What if Ahmed Shafiq Elected President of Egypt?

2012-05-31T18:40:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

The election of Ahmed Shafiq as a president of Egypt after the fall of Hosni Mubarak means one thing for many people around the world: the Egyptian revolution has been stolen. The reason? Ahmed Shafiq is one of Mubarak regime’s remnants. He was Mubarak’s former prime minister.

I totally disagree with the idea that Ahmed Shafiq, if he wins the Egyptian presidential elections, will get Egypt back to the old regime, or, in other words, he will rule Egypt on behalf of Hosni Mubarak and his regime.

One of the most important reasons why Ahmed Shafiq, if elected president of Egypt, can’t do anything to pave the way for the return of Mubarak’s regime is that the Egyptian people have broken the barrier of fear and are ready to take to the streets en masse if they feel their revolution is being stolen from them. The Egyptian people who ousted Hosni Mubarak are undoubtedly able to oust anyone who will try to reproduce Mubarak’s regime.

Who Am I?

2012-05-28T17:16:00.000+01:00

By Jamal Elabiad

I am a Moroccan whose writings will one day send him to prison.

I am a Moroccan whose identity includes many parts, including Islam.

I am a Moroccan whose public TV channels say nothing about his daily sufferings.

I am a Moroccan whose dreams haven’t come true yet.

I am a Moroccan whose protests against corruption have been met with repression and arrests.

I am a Moroccan whose basic necessities in life are not Chakira and Mariah Carey.

I am a Moroccan whose monarchy reigns and rules.

I am a Moroccan whose revolution was stolen.

I am a Moroccan whose family members aren’t VIPs.

I am a Moroccan who hasn’t lost patience yet.

I am a Moroccan who lives in poverty though some Moroccans are among the world billionaires.

I am a Moroccan who takes the red-lines into account while writing.

I am Moroccan whose children know nothing about Mohamed ben Abdelkrim El Khattabi.

I am a Moroccan whose government doesn’t rule.

I am a Moroccan whose current regime is no difference than the old one.

I am a Moroccan whose government members are more royal than the king.

I am a Moroccan whose voice is unheard.

I am a Moroccan whose Bouazizi hasn’t been born yet.

I am a Moroccan whose past and present are like two peas in a pod.

What Does It Mean to Be a Moroccan Citizen?

2012-04-22T18:44:00.000+00:00

By Jamal Elabiad

To be a Moroccan citizen doesn’t necessarily mean you are a Muslim by religion. By this I mean there are people were born and raised in Morocco, but they are not Muslims by religion. Morocco is among the countries around the world where Muslims, Jews, and Christians have co-existed for centuries. Muslims, simply put, are only one component of Moroccan identity. Other components are Jews, Christians, Amazighs, etc. These are the historians’ words, not mine.

It seems Moroccan Communications Minister Mustapha El Khalfi did not take those historical facts into account. Otherwise, he would not have obliged 2M, a Moroccan public channel, to broadcast the calls to prayer, five times a day, as well as Friday’s prayers and sermon. There is no doubt that his motive behind that was that Muslims are the only viewers of Moroccan public channels, including 2M.

There’s no denying that Moroccan Jews and Christians seldom tune to 2M or Al-Oula for several reasons. One is that the majority of their programs and news updates revolve around issues related to Muslims. And I can say with confidence that Mustapha El khalfi’s latest decision has made Moroccan Jews and Christians quite sure of that fact that 2M is not a channel for all Moroccan citizens.

2M doesn’t represent all the elements of Moroccan identity, including Jews and Christians. It is a channel for the Moroccans whose religion is Islam on the grounds that they form the majority in Morocco. Non-Muslim Moroccans, according to his decision, do not to have the right to watch their religious practices and teachings on 2M simply because they are only a minority in the North-African monarchy.

In a statement, 2M, for Mustapha El khalfi, shouldn’t see Moroccan citizens on an equal footing though its funding depends mostly on the taxes all of them pay to the government.

In Response to 2M’s Fallacies against Teachers

2012-04-16T21:50:00.000+00:00

By Jamal Elabiad

Moroccan TV channel 2M has once again proved that it is biased against teachers. It has seized every opportunity to spread fallacies against them. The latest issue of Al Wajh Al Akhar, a 2M monthly program, was full of fallacies against teachers in Morocco. Teachers, for 2M, go on strikes though they are well-paid.

The message the channel wanted to send to Moroccans and the world when it focused on the Maths teacher was that teachers in Morocco have their own cars and apartments due to the high salaries they receive from the state. In a statement, Moroccan teachers are living in better conditions is the false idea 2M wanted to have Moroccans believe.

I have been teaching for seven years, and I know quite well that Moroccan teachers’ salaries are not enough for basic necessities in life, let alone a car and an apartment. I know that there are teachers who managed to buy a car or an apartment, but it is not because of their salaries. It is simply because those teachers have other sources of money-making, including extra-hours.

Maths teachers, for instance, in Moroccan big cities, such as Tangiers and Rabat have made a fortune from giving extra hours to their students. The reason? Maths is among the subjects students are tested on in the Baccalaureate exam. And Maths extra-hours reach 500 dirhams per a week in those cities when the Bac exam is on the doorstep.

A Maths teacher one day told me that without extra-hours, he would not have got married and bought a car and a flat. For me, the problem doesn’t lie in teachers resorting to additional hours to improve their living conditions, but it lies in 2M presenting those teachers as a model of the Moroccan teachers’ life of luxury!

In addition to those teachers, I know teachers who have worked for more than twenty years without being able to buy a bike, let alone a car. They dubbed themselves “cell nine teachers” to refer to the many years they have spent in scale nine. They have been going on strikes and organizing protests before the ministry of education in Rabat for almost two years, but 2M has never sent one of its journalists to cover their protests and let Moroccans know why those teachers are usually on strike. The reason is that cell nine teachers, for 2M, are the exception to the rule that all Moroccan teachers are well-paid!

Another misleading idea 2M’s TV program Al Wajh Al Akhar wanted to spread against teachers was that “some” teachers participate in strikes despite the fact that their lives and salaries are similar to the Maths teacher. To have Moroccans believe that only a very small number of teachers go on strikes, 2M chose to film one of the program’s scenes on the days of the strike. For 2M, only very few teachers did not attend the school meeting because of the strike. That means those who participate in strikes within Moroccan schools are only a minority.

To fix that false notion in Moroccans’ mind, 2M interviewed one of those teachers who were present at the school meeting. One of the questions was on the teachers’ strike. The teacher’s response was that she had no reason why she should take part in strikes. 2M, however, did not contact one of the teachers who went on strike and asked him/ her for the reasons why he/she decided to participate in the strike. That’s because 2M isn’t a channel for all Moroccans. It is only for the ones who toe the government’s line.

Many questions came to mind soon after 2M’s TV program came to an end. One is that if only a minority of teachers participate in strikes, why the ministry of education decided last year to add a week to the academic year? Isn’t it because of the strikes the majority of teachers around Morocco did take part in?

Why Some Moroccan Areas Don’t Have Enough Teachers?

2012-04-11T17:47:00.000+00:00

By Jamal Elabiad

There is a shortage of teachers in some Moroccan areas, while there are more than enough teachers in other areas. This is not my conclusion. It’s the conclusion of both the Moroccan minister of education and the labor unions.

UNTM, a Moroccan labor union, has recently published a study on the number of teachers Meknes delegation is in dire need of, and also on the number of teachers who are surplus to requirements in the delegation. Take middle school teachers of Maths as an example. According to the UNTM study, eighteen middle school teachers of Maths are currently in surplus in Meknes delegation, or, in other words, Meknes middle schools have more than what they really need when it comes to teachers of Maths.

What is strange is that Maths teachers will surely move or be appointed to work in Meknes though its middle schools are not in need of them. The reasons the Moroccan ministry of education gave for this problem are not convincing and aim at having us believe that there are no secret reasons behind the fact that some cities in Morocco do not have enough teachers, whereas other cities have a surplus of teachers.

Bribery is one of the secret reasons behind the phenomenon of surplus teachers within many Moroccan schools. A large number of teachers have moved or been nominated to work in their home-towns not because their home-towns lacked teachers, but because they turned to bribery so as to move to their preferred places of work.

One example in point is a primary school teacher who worked one year in Zagora, a South-eastern Moroccan city, and moved the following year (2007) to work in a village twenty kilometers far from the centre of Agadir. His colleagues attributed that to bribery. He bribed his moving to work near Agadir with above thirty thousand dirhams.

What is abnormal is that bribery helped him not only move to work twenty kilometers far from Agadir, but it also helped him move though he spent only one year in his workplace, and though no teacher replaced him when he moved to work near Agadir. By the way, primary school teachers in Morocco can’t move to work somewhere else only after spending four years in the schools they were appointed to teach in.

Goodbye, Amina!

2012-03-18T22:50:00.000+00:00

Amina Filali

By Jamal Elabiad

The number of Moroccans who have killed themselves to protest against injustice is on the rise. Amina Filali has been recently added to the list. She had no other solution but to commit suicide, for she was forced to marry the person who raped her when she was fourteen.

The question that many of you asked when reading about Amina’s sad story was why sixteen-year-old Amina resorted to suicide (and didn’t resort to court) in order to put an end to her married life with her rapist.

How could Amina turn to the judiciary while it’s the latter that advised her rapist to marry her if he wanted to escape jail? This was my reaction to my friend when he said, while we were discussing Amina’s issue, that Amina could have sued her husband/rapist for divorce.

There are many reasons why Amina preferred to leave this world than to continue living with her rapist. The most important one is that she, like many others, came to the conclusion that the majority of Moroccan women are still victims of traditions, laws, and poverty.

They are still victims of traditions includes the fact that a woman who was raped had no other choice but to marry her rapist in order to preserve her family’s honor!

They are victims of laws means, among other things, a rapist can marry by law his victim in order to escape prison!

They are victims of poverty means Amina would not have been forced to marry her rapist had she been from a rich family in Morocco!

Goodbye, Amina!

Why Their Names were Made Public?

2012-03-04T20:46:00.000+00:00

Some beneficiaries of transport licenses in Morocco

By Jamal Elabiad

Most of them do not deserve those transport licenses. That was the conclusion I came to after reading the list that was posted online and that contains names of the Moroccans who benefited from the cake of transport licenses. Among those whose names were mentioned in the list are former footballers, highly-ranked military officials, king relatives, and wealthy Moroccan families.

Like many others, many questions invaded my mind soon after I learnt that the Makhzen has finally dared to make public the names of all Moroccans who benefitted from transport licenses. One of those questions is what lies behind the Makhzen deciding to announce the names of those it once rewarded with transport licenses as well as other privileges. Needless to say, the beneficiaries of transport licenses were until recently one of the top secrets in Morocco.

It’s worth mentioning before shedding some light on the question I asked above that there are many criteria Moroccans should meet in order to be rewarded by a transport license. One of those criteria is to be a loyal servant of the Makhzen and its policies. That means many of the beneficiaries of transport licenses have served the Makhzen faithfully.

Reactions varied as to why the Makhzen gave the green light to its government to uncover the Moroccans who benefitted from transport licenses. For some Moroccans, that was among the measures it has taken so far to convince Moroccans of the fact that the new constitution marked the birth of a new Morocco. As for others, the Makhzen decided to let Moroccans know who benefited from transport licenses in order to distract their attention of The Predator King, a French book that was written by Catherine Graciet and Eric Laurent, and that offers a critical look at the North African monarchy.

As for me, experience has taught me that the Makhzen doesn’t give up old practices till it adopts new ones in order to survive. Take, for instance, the fact that the Makhzen did not revise the constitution till it became quite sure of the fact that keeping the old one would surely mark the start of its fall. My point is the Makhzen has found new effective methods on how to reward its followers, and that’s why it ordered the government to declassify the list of beneficiaries of transport licenses in Morocco.

Saharawis First!

2012-02-24T22:54:00.000+00:00

By Jamal Elabiad

When unemployed graduates organized last January a sit-in in front of the province of Taza to force the mayor to find a solution to their joblessness, the mayor’s response was that he would find jobs for them only if they were originally from the Sahara.

What the mayor had in mind when he said that was the fact that Moroccans, for him, are not equal when it comes to job opportunities. Saharawis first when it comes to fighting unemployment. This was his message to Taza unemployed graduates. That means the priority is always given to unemployed graduates from the Sahara for a number of reasons, including the fact that Saharawi unemployed graduates will join the Polizario Front if the government doesn’t recruit them as soon as they obtain their university diplomas. The mayor’s response, no doubt, was among the reasons behind the violent clashes that took place on January 4th between demonstrators and the security forces.

It’s true that Taza unemployed graduates are not Saharawis by origin, but what the mayor is unaware of is the fact that a large number of the soldiers who were killed during the war between Morocco and the Polizario Front (1975-1991) are from Taza. Also, the mayor is unaware of the fact that there are still many families in Taza waiting to this day for their sons to be released by the Polizario front.

I mentioned this not to say that Taza job-seekers, like the Saharawi ones, should be given the priority when it comes to job opportunities for the reason that many of their family members were killed while fighting the Polizario Front in the 1980s. My rationale behind that is raising your awareness of the fact that the Sahara is an issue for all Moroccans, but not only for the ones who were born and raised there.

There are many reasons why Taza is likely to witness other new demonstrations in the coming few months. That includes the fact that the city mayor has not apologized yet to the unemployed graduates and their supporters!

What about the Videos that Remind Moroccans of the Years of Lead?

2012-02-14T14:47:00.000+00:00

Abdessamad El Hidour

By Jamal Elabiad

I was shocked to read yesterday on Facebook that Abdessamad El Hidour, a February 20 movement activist in Taza, was sentenced to three years in prison after he was accused of trespassing the red-lines through harshly criticizing king Mohamed VI on a YouTube video.

The trial of Abdessamad El Hidour as well as other Moroccan political activists shows beyond doubt that social networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook have become among the means the Moroccan cyber-police uses to bring to court anyone who has the guts to criticize the North-African monarchy.

We may disagree on the fact that criticizing somebody doesn’t necessarily mean insulting him or her, but what we cannot disagree on is the fact that the Moroccan cyber-police has so far turned a blind eye to a large number of YouTube videos that clearly show the barbarity and brutality Moroccan pro-reform protesters were treated with.

Think, for example, of the several videos that appeared on YouTube, and that show women from Taza accusing the security forces of having raided their homes at night, beat them and in some cases threatened them of rape. Why the Moroccan cyber-police didn’t call for the arrest of the members of the security forces whose brutality reminds Moroccans of the years of lead? The answers are many. One is that those videos, for the Moroccan cyber-police, are mere fabrications!

If She were in a Democratic State...!

2012-02-10T23:25:00.000+00:00

By Jamal Elabiad

The members of the disciplinary board at school decided to fire her. It’s not because she humiliated one of her teachers or got into a fight with one of her classmates. It’s simply because she videotaped her science teacher while he was doing an immoral act in class: wanking in front of his students. The teacher was arrested immediately after the video was posted on YouTube and many newspapers and news websites tackled his unprecedented immoral behaviour within Moroccan schools.

I was shocked to know that the student behind the video was sacked from the high school she was studying in. As far as I’m concerned, the student had done nothing wrong. Her sole purpose behind filming her teacher was exposing the immoral crime he committed in class. It’s beyond doubt that if the student were in a democratic state, she wouldn’t be fired from school as a form of punishment. She would, instead, be rewarded for having the guts to use her cell phone in order to uncover her teacher’s immoral act and, as a result, bring him to court.

I really do not know why the Moroccan Association of Bloggers resorted to silence and didn’t do anything to support the student in question. Isn’t one of the association’s aims is to stand by all the people who use digital media to expose all forms of corruption and impunity? The least the association could have done was issuing a statement of solidarity with the student and denouncing the unfair punishment she received from the discipline board at school. Possibly, most members of the association’s board are teachers, and that’s why they preferred to keep mum with regard to the unfair decision of the school disciplinary board!

On Moroccan Bouazizis

2012-02-01T09:37:00.000+00:00

By Jamal Elabiad

The question I find myself asking whenever a Moroccan sets himself on fire in protest over unemployment or injustice is why Moroccans do not take to the streets in solidarity with their Bouazizis and do not return home till they realise all their demands exactly as the Tunisians did when Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself to protest against the fact that he was humiliated by a police woman.

Is it because Moroccans are against self-immolation as a form of protest?

Is it because Moroccans are self-centred?

Is it because Moroccans are satisfied with a monarchy that reigns and rules?

Is it because Moroccans haven’t lost patience yet?

Is it because Moroccans are still waiting for their government’s promises to come true?

Is it because Moroccans are afraid of change?

Is it because Moroccans have short memories?

Is it because half of Moroccans are illiterate?

Is it because 2M and RTM are the only TV channels Moroccans trusted for news updates?

Is it because Moroccans are the exception to the rule that all Arab countries suffer from high levels of unemployment, poverty, and corruption?

Is it because all Moroccans are equal and no Moroccans are more equal than others?

Is it because the Moroccans who have set themselves alight are mentally ill or something like this?

Don’t ask me for the answer. As you surely know, questions are sometimes better than answers.

Everything is Nice in Morocco!

2012-01-27T23:53:00.000+00:00

By Jamal Elabiad

They could have tried other means of protest rather than setting themselves on fire. That’s how many Moroccans commented on the news that some unemployed graduates set themselves alight last week in Rabat in protest over unemployment. I’m sorry to say that one of them died last Tuesday in a Casablanca hospital.

Moroccans are victims of their national TV channels that usually keep them in the dark when it comes to the serious social ills Moroccans suffer from, including unemployment. For instance, they have never informed Moroccans of the fact that those unemployed graduates did not turn to self-immolation till all the other means of protest failed to put pressure on the Moroccan government to find jobs for them. Think of the rallies, sit-ins, and hunger strikes Moroccan unemployed graduates have organised on a daily basis around Morocco, and that 2M and RTM have never covered.

Many foreign TV channels have covered the Moroccan unemployed graduates who burned themselves last week in Rabat, and some of them even re-published the videos that were posted on YouTube showing their colleagues trying to rescue them. Moroccan TV channels, however, didn’t cover the incident for many reasons. One is that it doesn’t serve their slogan behind selecting news for Moroccans: everything is nice in Morocco!