Home > Morocco > Morocco Faces Calls to Reform Outdated Laws on Abortion and Extramarital Sex
Morocco Faces Calls to Reform Outdated Laws on Abortion and Extramarital Sex
Tuesday 24 September 2019, by
The legal proceedings for "debauchery" and "clandestine abortion" against Hajar Raïssouni, a 28-year-old journalist for the Arabic-language daily Akhbar Al-Yaoum, reflect the persistence of outdated legislation and the use of women as scapegoats in a country that claims to be modern. For the French newspaper Le Monde, the call of 470 Moroccans for the repeal of laws against abortion and extramarital sex is timely.
Le Monde, in its editorial on the status of women and, to a large extent, the sexual issue in Morocco, went all out: it is necessary to "end sexual hypocrisy".
If the condition of women is often a good indicator of the health of a society and the state of a political regime, Le Monde notes that the one reserved for Moroccan women reflects both the remarkable vitality of a country where more and more women are gaining access to responsibilities, and a hypocritically obsessed system with virginity, where sexual freedom serves as a pretext for political settling of scores.
Citing the very recent case of Hajar Raïssouni, the newspaper recalls that the journalist was arrested on August 31, along with her fiancé, as they were leaving a gynecology clinic where she says she was treated for internal bleeding.
In a legal context where Hajar Raïssouni, who has been detained since then, awaiting a trial where she risks up to two years in prison, Le Monde insists on an appeal published by its own newspaper, as well as by several Moroccan media. It cites 470 Moroccan women and men, known or unknown.
They proclaim, in fact, their solidarity with Hajar Raïssouni and with the other victims of attacks on sexual freedoms observed in the kingdom, demanding the repeal of repressive laws, and affirming that they have placed themselves "outside the law" for having had extramarital sexual relations, undergone or practiced an abortion.
The newspaper, which is surprised by the criminalization of extramarital sexual relations in a country where the average age of the first union is rising dramatically and reaches 29 years, comes to denounce outright "the culture of lies and social hypocrisy", just like these 470 Moroccans who affirm that "Moroccan society is mature for the right of everyone to dispose of their body" to be finally ratified.
Moreover, Le Monde states that the regime of King Mohammed VI, which claims to be liberal in matters of morals, uses this repression to destabilize its opponents.
"Is it a coincidence that Hajar Raïssouni, apparently targeted and followed by the police to her doctor’s office, is the niece of two intellectuals hostile to the government, one Islamist and the other from the left?" the newspaper wonders.