Mohammed Hashas 5 February 2019
Sara Borrillo in her recent book has produced a well-mapped view of the history and types of modern feminisms in the North African country.
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- Federica Zoja 19 December 2018In 2016, Loubna Bensalah walked a thousand kilometers across her country, Morocco, to better understand herself and her fellow citizen women. In 2018, she transformed these marches from personal encounters into collective ones, naming the project: “Kayna [I exist and act, in the Maghreb Arabic dialect, ed]—To conquer public space through women’s marches
- Federica Zoja 2 May 2018The Arab spring uprising opened the way to public debates inconceivable in North African countries before 2011. Yet, the reaction of the Cairo authorities has been very hostile to “free thinkers”, including citizens who eschew religion.
- Ilaria Romano 7 March 2018Is Daesh really over? Unfortunately not, and the organization can take advantage of the chaotic situations in both Iraq and Syria.
- Sara Borrillo 26 July 2017In recent months the Rif’s ‘people’s movement’ is playing a leading role in Moroccan current events and has been named the Hirāk shaʻabī.
- 13 February 2012Two months have elapsed since the Moroccan premature parliamentary elections of November 25th gave an unprecedented victory to the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD). The latter won 25% of the seats of the 295 seats of the Moroccan parliament. A victory that many observers of the Moroccan and Maghrebi affairs considered historic, given the unprecedented transparency, and quasi-total impartiality of the “Mother of Ministries”—the nickname of the Interior Ministry during the reign of Driss Basri because of its octopus-like shape and involvement in every aspect of the Moroccans’ life—who supervised these elections. Despite some activists’ lamentation of the negative impartiality of the authorities, none cast any serious doubt on the honesty of their results. This article endeavors to answer some of the pressing questions about the Moroccan political paysage in order discuss the internal circumstances and political calculations that forced the Makhzen—the street name of the whole regime—to cohabit with the victory of PJD despite the relentless war the same regime is waging against the Sufi Justice and Charity Brotherhood. We will also try to see the ability of a PJD-led coalition to effectuate the political change desired by the majority of citizens in the country. [1]
- 22 November 2011Civil society has many roles to play in the few months and years to come in order to keep the democratic momentum in the country, and also keep conviction alive among the youth that democracy is a national need. Democracy does not need regimes; regimes need democracy because it is their only way to stay abreast of the legitimate aspirations of their people and be responsive to them. The highly dynamic and active Moroccan civil society can help in implementing the new constitution and protecting this achievement through: playing their role of watchdog, doing more grassroots activism against corruption and political malpractice, spearheading the political cultural change, fighting all forms of abuse of power and advocating for social justice in the country.Photo by Vesna Middelkoop (cc)
- 11 July 2011By Nicola Missaglia From a scientific and philosophical perspective, Al-Jabri believes that the Arab-Islamic school of thought’s current problems in entertaining a harmonious and balanced relationship with the demands of the contemporary world depend on the progressive loss of a rational and scientific dimension that had instead inspired philosophers such as Averroes, Ibn Hazm and Avempace and with which the Islamic religion is, in his opinion, intimately permeated.
- 13 June 2011“It seems today that the acceptance of secularism within the Muslim world is extremely far away. It is as if, on the basis of deeply-held convictions, Muslim society were demanding a form of not exactly theocracy, but certainly a ‘moralisation’ of public life.” So says Abdou Filali-Ansary, director of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations at the University of Aga Khan, London. The director and founder of the Moroccan literary review ‘Prologues,’ Filali-Ansary is also the author of a number of works on the reformist tradition within the Islamic world, including L’Islam est-il hostile à la laïcité? (2002) and Réformer l’Islam? – Une introduction aux débats contemporains (2003). He recently spoke at ResetDoc’s Istanbul Seminars 2011 (19-23 May).
