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Lamiae Fadili is a post-graduate student of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez. Lamiae received her Master’s degree in English literature with a concentration in Women’s Studies. Lamia is an active member among some associations that call for Moroccan women’s development and Moroccan women participation in all societal aspects. [/symple_box]
Fez, Morocco—Before taking on gender inequality in the Moroccan context, it is very important to mention that gender per-se has usually been defined as the socially produced attributes of masculinity and femininity, including the social arrangements based upon them. As the French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir suggests, being a man or a woman is not a pre-determined state, but rather a work-in-process one. This brings me to say that femininity and masculinity are socially constructed through the society’s assignment of certain characteristics to men and women. Physiologically, we are born with a certain sex (male or female), yet we learn or perform certain gender roles which our society dictates. That is to say, gender is understood as a socio-cultural construct rather than a biological one, where women and men are ascribed specific social roles within society. In Morocco as well, the division of social roles between men and women is the product of culture rather than human physiology or anatomy. Thus, the patriarchal Moroccan society has strictly assigned men and women specific roles to follow.
Whereas Moroccan women’s social role is usually linked to marriage, procreation, child bearing, fetching wood and water, farming, cropping, and animal feeding, men’s social role is linked to schooling, work and breadwinning. Although it is the woman who does the daily battles to survive, the privilege is always given to men because women’s voices are usually unheard. In other words, Women’s efforts and struggles are not really valued and recognized because they are usually invisible and their struggles are usually restricted to the private sphere, which is home. Moroccan women are usually ‘tamed’ to behave according to the social roles assigned to them, usually taught and acquired from an early age. For example, the Moroccan dialect is full of sentences that illustrate this. This includes among others “Kouni Hadga,” which may translate to “be persevering in your work” and “kouni mra Gadda,” “meaning be a hardworking woman” … etc.
The daughters do automatically internalize such education and become obsessed to reach the status of “Hadga” or “Gadda”. As a result to such education, the domestic duties taught to girls from an early age are the reasons behind women’s failure to achieve independence and development. That is to say, when those girls grow up, they seek to serve men, cook well, do housework to fit the social norms and be accepted, which forces them to forget about their own selves, dreams and goals as human beings. That is why the majority of Moroccan women still depend financially on their fathers, brothers, husbands or older sons, which prevent them from joining the labor force, earn a living and be independent. Consequently, they are usually marginalized, subordinated and relegated to outsiders in the Moroccan society. Ergo, to my eyes, women’s subordination in Morocco is rooted in a set of customary and legal constraints that blocks their entrance and success in the public world.
[symple_box]Lamiae Fadili is a post-graduate student of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez. Lamiae received her Master’s degree in English literature with a concentration in Women’s Studies. Lamia is an active member among some associations that call for Moroccan women’s development and Moroccan women participation in all societal aspects. [/symple_box]
