Rabat, Morocco (TMT)– The Moroccan Union of Feminist Action (UFA) published a recent report in which it said that violence against women in Morocco has risen since the start of the quarantine.
This is contrary to what was stated in the Journal of the Public Prosecution issued last April, which reported that violence against women recorded a decrease during the first month of the quarantine (from 20 March to 20 April), compared to the same period last year.
The union described the life of a number of Moroccan women inside their crowded homes during the nationwide lockdown, given the amount of violence they went through, as “hell.”
The report stated that women are subject to various forms of violence (physical and psychological,) deprivation of spending, and some of them receive death threats.
The figures presented by the UFA, based on a tally gathered by its help centers across the kingdom during the period from 20 March to 15 May, indicate that the number of cases of violence against women doubled, compared to the number of cases registered since the beginning of the year till March 15. Their platforms received more than 760 calls regarding 1000 cases of violence.
The UFA said that the high tally shows that battered women find it difficult to file complaints by the means suggested by the Public Prosecution Presidency in the current exceptional circumstances. More than 60 percent of callers are unable to read and write, and they cannot write an email, as they lack the technical means to do so.
Women’s help centers received calls from women from both cities and villages, complaining about marital and domestic violence, violence against children, the seizure of their savings, and the threat of eviction from the marital home during the quarantine that has further deepened their suffering, given the difficulty of movement or not having the money to escape the house.
The report pointed out that when the police take the initiative to return an expelled women to the marital home, their husbands reluctantly accept, for fear of being sued, but some of them brutally assault them again after their return, to the point of being transferred to the emergency as a form of retaliation.
