Morocco has added itself to the list of farcical counties in the Middle East with two women prosecuted for wearing skirts. Morocco has a significant population of modern and secular Muslims but also has a growing influence of Islamic advocates demanding greater criminalization of immoral and anti-Islamic conduct. In this case, a market trader told police that there were two women wearing skirts and a crowd formed calling for their arrest in Inezgane last month.
Secular activists have launched a petition to call for the charges to be dropped against the two women, 23 and 29. Indeed, some women have taken to mini-skirts in a unique form of protests.
Prosecutors however insist that wearing a skirt is an act of “public obscenity” that can result in up to two years in jail. The court will rule on July 13th.
It is ironic that Muslim countries often portray the United States as obsessed with sex but these actions suggest the inverse. Sharia courts and morality codes in these countries show a preoccupation with women and sexual relations — as well as a palpable fear over the impact of women being allowed to dress and move freely in their society. It is particularly distressing to see such prosecutions in Morocco, which has a significant modern, educated, and secular population. I continue to believe that the natural progression of humanity is toward more freedom and equality. Countries like Morocco hold the greatest promise for such advancement — as did Turkey before the takeover by Islamic parties.
On the other end of the bizarre spectrum is a French school telling a Muslim student that her shirt was too long. I find both efforts to control the fashion choices of women to be ridiculous and an infringement of individual expression.
Source: BBC
bambam, come on, are we gonna revisit the site of your latest discomfiture? How many times should I check mate you for you to get the message?
You keep speaking of islam as that holistic thing, with one head to decide and conduct everything. Are you not paying attention?
1- Re denunciations:
I have given you previously many such examples. Type on your search box islamic denunciation of terrorism or ISIS and you’d see 291000 results dealing with just that, including this one http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/01/07/what-fox-wont-show-you-muslim-leaders-are-conde/202049.
But, as a commentator said,” when the truth doesn’t fit, you must not permit.”
2-Which islamic texts condone, permit and encourage rape,murders, beheadings?
We’ve gone down this road before, and I remember you throwing in the towel for you could not support your claims, so you kept moving the goalposts before finally giving up.
If you want to enter into a religious discussion, be honest and straightforward and I’ll eagerly indulge you. Your ignorance of that which you spouts makes it hard not to limit myself to just ridiculing you, again and again.
I am gonna belie your claim that I am trying “to confuse and to distract one from examining the commandments and teachings found in Islam which encourage the vile and brutal acts” by asking you to do just that. Examine each one of those and let us discuss them openly and fairly. Can you do that?
And please don’t go to your favorite islamophobic site and quote en masse the drivel they put out and offer it as intellectual offering, it is not, it is just parroting crap and passing it off as knowledge.
Awaiting your first salvo.
Karen S
Allegedly, if one is to be so foolish as to be conned by po, mass beheadings, rapes and murders are not indicative of Islam’s religious tenants. Okay. Let’s see. Since these acts are often blanketed in the cloak of fulfilling Mohammed’s message, where are the widespread denunciations, by Muslim clergy and adherents to Islam, worldwide? Any large scale demonstrations? One could assume that if atrocities were being conducted in the name of some religion, that its followers, incensed over the beheadings, rapes and murders, would rise up and let their collective voices be heard. The silence is deafening. That is the question, and an easy one to answer. Islamic texts condone, permit and encourage this behavior. Hard to protest what your religion dictates as being righteous and acceptable. The double talk, from po, is an effort to portray Islam as a religion opposed to those very atrocities. The fact is that Islam commands its adherents to engage in this conduct. The statistics on crime are a ruse. Nothing else. It is a mechanism to confuse and to distract one from examining the commandments and teachings found in Islam which encourage the vile and brutal acts.
Here you go again, Karen, the more you talk, the more you expose yourself by affirming exactly what I am saying. There are 1000 different sharia laws around the globe, from the extreme to the benign, and yet, yet, and as usual, you choose the most extreme of those, which is widely denounced by most muslims, scholars and laymen alike, as unislamic as the standard by which you compare and contrast!
Do you really think that ISL ‘s actions are representative of the faith? Really? That shows, for a Mullah, how little you know about that which you speak. It also shows that you are of the same extremist bent that drives ISL, the inability to see things other than in black and white.
ISL, what 10,000 strong, murders, crucifies, throws gays off buildings and it is the shariah law of 2 billion people worldwide? What’s wrong with you?
Based on your standard, what do we make of the Mexican gangs, Catholics, who have done and keep evil unmatched even by ISl? Are they driven shariah law too? They tortured, murder, rape, throw children off bridges, decapitated…etc.
How come you are so lenient on those who murdered 20,000 women in Tijuana?
What do you make of Uganda’s laws, supported by American Christian churches that condemn gays to death?
Oh yeah,that is all okay because it is not muslims doing it!
If I am not mistaken, America who does no wrong is a Christian nation, yet we have this:
U.S. STATISTICS
Fact #1: Over 22 million women in the United States have been raped in their lifetime. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)
Fact #2: 18.3% of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)
Fact #3: Of the 18.3% of women who have survived rape or attempted rape, 12.3% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 29.9% were between the ages of 11 and 17. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)
Fact #4: Every 90 seconds, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. (Calculation based on 2012 National Crime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice)
Fact #5: One out of every five American women has been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)Fact #6: Approximately 1,270,000 women are raped each year. Another 6,646,000 are victims of other sexual crime, including sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact, or unwanted sexual experiences. (Department of Justice 2010).
Fact #7: 15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12; 29% are age 12-17; 44% are under age 18; 80% are under age 30; ages 12-34 are the highest risk years. (Department of Justice 2010)
How come that is all okay with you? Where is your outrage? That must mean, based on your (il)logic, that you actively support the extremism in american society that makes women and young girls preys to be abused and violated. How shameful of you, how selectively (im)moral, how hypocritical!
Also in America, schoolgirls are not forced to stay inside a burning building, where they burn to death, because they were not allowed to evacuate because they were missing their hijab.
You do not libel garbage when you say it stinks.
Once again, Po desperately tries to deflect any valid criticism against Sharia Law with the false logic that since crime exists everywhere, one cannot criticize Sharia Law.
That’s a juvenile, nonsense argument.
Under Sharia Law, homosexual men are sentenced to death. Professor Turley just recently wrote an article in which 3 gay men were executed by throwing them off a roof. This is the law of the land, not some random act of violence. And yet, Po would have us believe that if gay men are murdered, anywhere, for any reason, then how dare we criticize Sharia Law for encoding it in criminal jurisprudence?
Again, it’s a spurious argument.
Here in America, there is crime. But mobs do not burn women alive for allegedly insulting the Prophet. We do not crucify children for not properly fasting during Ramadan, as ISIS does in its race to see who’s the most extremist. If we lived under Sharia Law, Po’s assertion that I was anti-Islamic could have had me executed, under the law. My testimony would count for literally half of his. Here in America, when an extremist (or any other kind of criminal) tries to murder someone for drawing the Prophet’s likeness, they are shot by police guarding people’s free speech.
As much as Po struggles with this concept, we are free in America to criticize whatever we want, whether it’s local crime or women being burned to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet.
Men, Karen, abuse women anywhere the two are found together. You can bring up any crime anywhere on the planet and it does not change that fact.
Aren’t you glad you live in America where the following does nto take place? Where in spite of sharia law being non-effective, women are killed, maimed, terrified, raped, abused, hurt en masse, hourly…in schools, in barracks, in prisons, in churches… I wonder where is your outrage…or do you care solely for muslim women? Why? Why don’t you care about your fellow american women and girl? Why Karen?
According to your (il)logic, shariah law must be behind the following:
———————————————-
U.S. STATISTICS
Fact #1: Over 22 million women in the United States have been raped in their lifetime. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)
Fact #2: 18.3% of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)
Fact #3: Of the 18.3% of women who have survived rape or attempted rape, 12.3% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 29.9% were between the ages of 11 and 17. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)
Fact #4: Every 90 seconds, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. (Calculation based on 2012 National Crime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice)
Fact #5: One out of every five American women has been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)Fact #6: Approximately 1,270,000 women are raped each year. Another 6,646,000 are victims of other sexual crime, including sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact, or unwanted sexual experiences. (Department of Justice 2010).
Fact #7: 15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12; 29% are age 12-17; 44% are under age 18; 80% are under age 30; ages 12-34 are the highest risk years. (Department of Justice 2010)
Fact #8: Girls ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. (Department of Justice 2010)
Fact #9: Most female victims are raped before the age of 25, and almost half of female victims are under the age of 18. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010). Fact #10: More than 75% of female victims were raped or sexually assaulted before age 25. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010). .
Fact #11: In 2006, 78,000 children were sexually abused. (Child Maltreatment 2006.) Because majority of cases are not reported, it is estimated that the real number could be anywhere from 260,000-650,000 a year. (Finklehor 2008). Fact #12: Almost two-thirds of all rapes are committed by someone who is known to the victim. 73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger (— 48% of perpetrators were a friend or acquaintance of the victim, 17% were an intimate and 8% were another relative.) (National Crime Victimization Survey 2010)
Fact #13: 63.84% of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, or date. (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010)
Fact #14: Of female rape or sexual assault victims in 2010, 25 percent were assaulted by a stranger, 48 percent by friends or acquaintances, and 17 percent were intimate partners. (National Crime Victimization Survey 2010) Fact #15: Almost 10% of high school students are victims of dating violence each year. (Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance 2009).
Fact #16: According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBSS), a national survey of high school students, 8.0% of students had been forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to. Female students (11.8%) were significantly more likely than male students (4.5%) to have been forced to have sexual intercourse. Overall, black students (17.1%) were significantly more likely than white students (15.2%) to have been forced to have sexual intercourse (CDC 2012).
Fact #17: A study reported in the New York Times suggests that one in five adolescent girls become the victims of physical or sexual violence, or both, in a dating relationship. (New York Times 8/01/01)
Fact #18: 93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker. 34.2% of attackers were family members and 58.7 were acquaintances. (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement 2000.)
Fact #19: The Campus Sexual Assault Study estimated that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 college women experience completed or attempted rape during their college years (National Institute of Justice 2007).
Fact #21: About one-third of female murder victims ages 12 or older are killed by an intimate partner. (Department of Justice 2007)
Fact #22: A University of Pennsylvania research study found that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to low-income, inner-city Philadelphia women between the ages of 15 to 44 – more common than automobile accidents, mugging and rapes combined. In this study domestic violence included injuries caused by street crime.
Fact #23: The FBI estimates that only 46% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police. U.S. Justice Department statistics are even lower, with only 26% of all rapes or attempted rapes being reported to law enforcement officials.
Fact #24: Less than half of domestic violence incidents are reported to police. African-American women are more likely than others to report their victimization to police Lawrence A. Greenfeld et al. (1998). (Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends. Bureau of Justice Statistics Factbook. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Justice. NCJ #167237. Available from National Criminal Justice Reference Service.)
Fact #25: Sexual violence and gender based violence is associated with a host of short- and long-term problems, including physical injury and illness, psychological symptoms, economic costs, and death (Lifetime Prevalence of Gender-Based Violence in Women and the Relationship with Mental Disorders and Psychosocial Function, Journal of American Medical Association 2011).
Fact #26: Rape victims often experience anxiety, guilt, nervousness, phobias, substance abuse, sleep disturbances, depression, alienation, sexual dysfunction, and aggression. They often distrust others and replay the assault in their minds, and they are at increased risk of future victimization (DeLahunta 1997).
Fact #27: Victims of sexual assault are 3 times more likely to suffer from depression, 6 times more likley to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, 14 times more likely to abuse alcohol, 26 times more likely to abuse drugs, and 4 times more likely to contemplate suicide. (World Health Organization 2003)
Fact #28: Sexual violence victims exhibit a variety of psychological symptoms that are similar to those of victims of other types of trauma, such as war and natural disaster (National Research Council 1996). A number of long-lasting symptoms and illnesses have been associated with sexual victimization including chronic pelvic pain; premenstrual syndrome; gastrointestinal disorders; and a variety of chronic pain disorders, including headache, back pain, and facial pain (Koss 1992).Between 4% and 30% of rape victims contract sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the victimization (Resnick 1997).
Fact #29: The costs of intimate partner violence against women exceed an estimated $5.8 billion. These costs include nearly $4.1 billion in the direct costs of medical care and mental health care and nearly $1.8 billion in the indirect costs of lost productivity and present value of lifetime earnings. (Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta, Georgia, March 2003).
Fact #30 Intimate partner violence causes U.S. women to lose about $727 million in wages from their approximately 8 million days of missed work. (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2003).
Fact #31: It is estimated that 43% of lesbian and bisexual women and 30% of gay and bisexual men have experienced at least one form of sexual assault during their lifetimes. (Rothman 2011)
Fact #32: About 67.9% of rape victims are white; 11.9% are black; 14% are hispanic and 6% are of other races. (National Crime Victimization Survey, Department of Justice 2010).
Fact #33: About half of all rape victims are in the lowest third of income distribution; half are in the upper two-thirds. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
Fact #34 Women who resided in households that earned less than $10,000 annually are four times more likely to experience violence than women in wealthier households (Browne, Salomon, & Bassuk 1999)
Fact #35: An estimated 17,500 women and children are trafficked into the United States annually for sexual exploitation or forced labor. (U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2012).
Fact #36: Offenders have been reported to be armed with a gun, knife or other weapon in 11 percent of rape or sexual assault victimizations. (Criminal Victimization, Bureau of Justice, 2010)
Fact #37: Factoring in unreported rapes, about 6% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. 15 out of 16 will walk free. (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) calculation based on US Department of Justice 2010 Statistics)
Fact #38: Boys who witness their fathers’ violence are 10 times more likely to engage in spouse abuse in later adulthood than boys from non-violent homes. (Family Violence Interventions for the Justice System, 1993)
LINKS TO STATISTICS:
The following are a selection of other web sites at which to find and verify violence against women statistics:
Bureau of Justice: Crime and Victim Statistics
Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women
Family Violence Prevention Fund
RAINN Statistics
Violence Against Women Online Resources
World Health Organization: Violence Against Women
Islam definitely has a spirit which propels it…it’s called “evil spirit”…islam is from the devil…the bowels of hell…
Po:
Sharia Law abuses women and other human rights everywhere that it is practiced. Period. Professor Turley writes about it frequently on this site. I comment on it out of pity for the people abused.
You can bring up any crime anywhere on the planet, and it does not change this simple fact.
Your making sexual comments to me cannot hide those facts. I feel so blessed that I am in America, and can speak my mind, and am not under the control of anyone like Po.
Karen says:
Oh, and arresting women for wearing skirts does not “happen everywhere else.” You may notice that women are not, actually, arrested for wearing a skirt in America or any other Western country. Many Muslims that I have known count their blessings that they live here in freedom rather than oppressive Sharia Law.
—————————————————–
Exactly my point above. A more comprehensive reading of the issue shows it to be a global phenomenon…some of the African countries listed are Christian nations, which beside abusing women also kill gays… I see that you ignored that oh so conveniently.
Now you have moved the field to the west…ignoring those Christian nations listed where the same abuses happen, wanting to make it now about America and western nations.
How transparent…you just proved my initial comments about your tendency to twist the statements to fit your purpose.
Speaking of pit…here is our favorite islamophobe crawling out of his…nice to see you too bam bam…temper your racing heart, dear friend, such eagerness to lob the stone… 🙂
Karen, in light of 50 shades of grey, and the millions of women swooning at the mere mention of restrains, both literal and figurative, your trying to portray Muslims as especially abusive falls flat.
Good try though.
Go ahead, prove to me that you don’t cry yourself to sleep every night lamenting the fact you don’t belong to a harem.
Predominantly Muslim societies, not predominantly Christian societies.
Karen S
What is wrong with you? Don’t you know that women in predominantly Christian societies face the same perils and the same obscenities as their sisters face in predominantly Christian communities? You know, the rampant honor killings, which are synonymous with America’s Heartland? The genital mutilation, so common among Yankees? Really, you must be slipping. How dare you infer that life in a predominantly Christian society is somehow better for women than life would be in any predominantly Muslim community.
Make note that your detractor has abandoned his Muslim Garden of Eden to live in the pits of infidel Hell. Telling.
But I must say the timing of the harem comments was apropos, considering the topic was the treatment of women under Sharia Law. How interesting that you referred to using sexuality as a punishment for a female who spoke out against the abuses of women . . .
“Finally, I never said you belonged in a harem…I wondered if your obsession with all things islam and your rabid antagonism with it is just…perhaps….maybe… a relentless, lifelong attempt to subdue your longing to belong in a harem, and to its master, a rough, handsome, arabian prince who would make you his favorite and express it with equal doses of erotic punishment and cuddling.
Just wondering!”
I see you are doubling down on the sexist harem comments. Do not include me in your weird sexual fantasies.
Po:
“Prof made it a muslim issue, you (as usual and unavoidably) made it a shariah law issue…the link that I offered shows that this is a global problem women experience everywhere. So to point the finger at one spot of the world when it happens everywhere else is, yes, wait for it….HYPOCRITICAL! (or maybe just myopic!)”
Are you saying that we are not allowed to criticize the abuses of women under Sharia Law unless we also include an exhaustive list of the abuses of women under every other conceivable scenario?
That’s absurd.
When a man murders his pregnant lover, I speak out about that (such as a recent thread here.) When a woman is burned to death by a mob for supposedly insulting the Prophet, I spoke out about that, too.
This appears to be hard for you to understand, but you do not get to dictate my speech or opinions.
Welcome to America.
Oh, and arresting women for wearing skirts does not “happen everywhere else.” You may notice that women are not, actually, arrested for wearing a skirt in America or any other Western country. Many Muslims that I have known count their blessings that they live here in freedom rather than oppressive Sharia Law.
People who either defend Sharia Law or attack its critics have a hard row to hoe when atrocities committed in its name (such as murdering gay men) make the news daily. We cannot impose our values or laws on other countries, but, enjoying our First Amendment Rights, we can certainly speak out against such abuses.
Perhaps if you find yourself incapable of addressing the facts without resorting to personal insult, you may simply be overreached with the enormity of your task, protecting Sharia Law from all criticism.
Karen S
1, July 8, 2015 at 7:53 pm
Po:
If you want to convince us that women fare well under Sharia Law anywhere that it is practiced, good luck to you, because you are going to need it.
——————————————
As usual, Karen, the fight you fight is one of your own devising…you set up your own issue, your rules, your own reactions and blame everyone else for staying on topic.
Prof made it a muslim issue, you (as usual and unavoidably) made it a shariah law issue…the link that I offered shows that this is a global problem women experience everywhere. So to point the finger at one spot of the world when it happens everywhere else is, yes, wait for it….HYPOCRITICAL! (or maybe just myopic!)
i never said anything about shariah law, you mentioned it, you are fighting it, that is your obsession and your fight, not mine. Blame shariah law as much as you want, not my fight, just make sure, in the name of fairness, to point out where else it happens, notably in societies that are majorly Christian.
Lest we think you a hypocrite.
Finally, I never said you belonged in a harem…I wondered if your obsession with all things islam and your rabid antagonism with it is just…perhaps….maybe… a relentless, lifelong attempt to subdue your longing to belong in a harem, and to its master, a rough, handsome, arabian prince who would make you his favorite and express it with equal doses of erotic punishment and cuddling.
Just wondering!
Oh, and for anyone not familiar with Po’s shenanigans, “our favorite mullah” is an insult referencing me. Every time I remark how tragic the treatment of women is in the Middle East, Po insults me for speaking out against it. Hey, at least this time he didn’t tell me I belonged in a harem.
It would be so very nice if Po could simply address the issues rather than attack the critics personally.
Po:
If you want to convince us that women fare well under Sharia Law anywhere that it is practiced, good luck to you, because you are going to need it.
On Sharia/Islamic Law in Morocco:
“In 1956, a Code of Personal Status (Mudawana) was issued, based on dominant Maliki school of Sharia jurisprudence. Regional Sharia courts also hear personal status cases on appeal.[41] In matters of family law, a woman’s testimony is worth only half of that of a man.[42] With 2003 reforms of its criminal law, Article 222 of its new criminal code is derived from Islamic law; Articles 220–221, 268–272 of its criminal law similarly codify those activities as crimes that are prohibited under Sharia.[43] Morocco adopted a new constitution in 2011; Article 41 of this constitution granted sole power to the Superior Council of the Ulemas to guide its laws through Fatwas from principles, precepts and designs of Islam.[44][45]”
So . . . you want to blame the Christians? How interesting.
Now, me, personally, I support women’s equality globally. So, obviously, I criticize the abuses of women under Sharia Law every single place where it is practiced. And when women are abused elsewhere, such as the high suicide rate through ingestion of pesticide in rural China, I also speak out.
Poor Po. It must be very difficult to keep defending the treatment of women in the Middle East.
The problem is not the length of the skirt. The problem is when a group of people with power – we could call a limited oligarchy – determines the skirt length for everyone. Which is why we have a constitution that limits what government (would be oligarchs) can do. And here is the liberal rub – they center on the outcome, such as the “right” to be seated at at a restaurant, which now has extended itself in the popular debate to include other “minorities” and all retail establishments. I would have preferred to maintaining the right to serve to anyone you choose. The drift away from prejudicial treatment of blacks would have brought along the whole country, just as the country was moving now toward a truly civil and respectful treatment of gay people. Politicians are always running to get in front of a wave o change, thinking they are leading it. And the mental shenanigans, especially by lawyers, to square new concepts into constitutional language is a wonder worthy of the best of medieval theologians. That includes the able attorney I admire who sponsors this page. How many angels can fit on on a word in the Constitution? The same as can fit on the medieval pin X100.
Lest someone miss the point, all of these places are majorly Christian:
But bringing in shariah law, by none less than our favorite mullah is once more a chance to hate and to point the finger…:
” Earlier this year, it was Zimbabwe’s turn, which produced #DontMinimizeMyRights. The year before that, it was Kenya, where women organized around #MyDressMyChoice and #StripMeNot. Before that, in the same year, women in Uganda responded to an assault against women with #SavetheMiniskirt. The year before that, Namibian women responded to an anti-miniskirt campaign with “Rape is not NAMIBIAN.” And the year before that two teenage girls were attacked by a crowd of 50 or 60 `adult’ men `because’ one of them was wearing a mini-skirt. Four years earlier, Nwabisa Ngcukana was stripped and assaulted for exactly the same `crime’, at exactly the same taxi rank in Johannesburg.”
Hmm…! Site won’t let me post the content so I’ll split up.
——————————–
“On June 14, Sanae and Siham, 23 and 29 years old respectively, identified as students and professional hair stylists, went to shop in Inezgane, south of Agadir, on the southern part of Morocco’s Atlantic Ocean coast. A shopkeeper attacked them, claiming their skirts were too short. Soon they were surrounded by a more than threatening mob. Terrified, they sought shelter in a boutique and waited for the police to arrive. The police did arrive … and arrested them for “indecent exposure”, or “gross indecency.” Their trial was heard Monday, June 6. If convicted, the two women face up to two years in prison.
And so begins another chapter in the miniskirt front of the global war on women, from New York to Kampala to Jakarta. In May, Algeria had its “affaire de la jupe”, when a security guard barred a law student from her exams because he decided that her dress was “indecently” short. Earlier this year, it was Zimbabwe’s turn, which produced #DontMinimizeMyRights. The year before that, it was Kenya, where women organized around #MyDressMyChoice and #StripMeNot. Before that, in the same year, women in Uganda responded to an assault against women with #SavetheMiniskirt. The year before that, Namibian women responded to an anti-miniskirt campaign with “Rape is not NAMIBIAN.” And the year before that two teenage girls were attacked by a crowd of 50 or 60 `adult’ men `because’ one of them was wearing a mini-skirt. Four years earlier, Nwabisa Ngcukana was stripped and assaulted for exactly the same `crime’, at exactly the same taxi rank in Johannesburg.
In Morocco, the real story is once more that of women organizing, pushing back and pushing forward, creating new spaces precisely where others try to shut them down. Moroccan women, with male supporters, organized a campaign, using the hashtag #mettre_une_robe_nest_pas_un_crime. Wearing a dress is not a crime. First, they pushed to have the police investigate those who had harassed and threatened the two young women. Finally, the police gave in, investigated and arrested two young men. Demonstrations were organized all over Morocco. Women organized July 6 as a National Day for Our Individual Freedoms, with demonstrations in Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir, Tangiers, and beyond.