Report: Violence Against Women in Morocco Rises Sharply, Alarming Advocates

Between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2023, the listening centers of the "LDDF-INJAD Associative Network against Gender-Based Violence" and "Femmes Solidaires" respectively welcomed 2,677 and 6,797 women victims of violence, compared to 8,012 for the 2018-2021 period, according to the latest report of the Federation of the Democratic League of Women’s Rights on "gender-based violence". In other words, violence against women has increased in recent years.

With 20,353 cases recorded representing 46.2%, psychological violence is at the top. This is followed by socio-economic violence (10,940 cases, or 24.8%), physical violence (6,572 cases, or 15.1%), sexual violence (3,518 cases, or 8.4%) and legal violence (2,324 cases, or 5.5%). As for psychological violence, especially insults, slander and verbal attacks, it is the predominant form, representing 28% of the recorded cases. This is followed by ill-treatment (18%) that spouses, ex-partners or family members often inflict on women, which undermine their mental health and self-esteem.

The report indicates that physical violence, in particular beatings and injuries, with or without the use of weapons, are the most common acts. This violence affects 59% of expatriate women. About 60% of expatriate women welcomed in the centers of the two networks say they have been victims of economic and social violence, such as the deliberate non-payment of alimony. Another more striking act reported by women coming to the centers of the two networks: the act of sexual harassment which affects 30% of women. This attests that the protection measures provided for by law No. 103.13 against violence against women prove to be ineffective. It is therefore urgent to review the definition of sexual harassment in the Moroccan Penal Code and Law 103.13.

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This law stipulates that "a person is guilty of sexual harassment... anyone who, by virtue of the authority conferred on him by his functions, harasses another person by using orders, threats of constraint or any other means, with the aim of obtaining sexual favors". In other words, the act of harassment committed for the first time "remains authorized, provided that the legislator stipulates persistence, which indicates insistence on the act and its repetition," comments Hespress.