Qandisha is a French language online magazine for women in Morocco and the wider Arab world. It was founded in 2011 by Fedwa Misk, a Moroccan journalist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and a group of other women concerned that women's rights were being ignored by the media during the Arab Spring. [1] The publication is a hybrid between a magazine and a webzine, and is a collaborative effort, encouraging participation from its readers.
Qandisha was established in 2011 and is published in French. The name is derived from Qandisa, a female jinn from Moroccan folklore. [2] The magazine focuses on a range of subjects including political and social current events. In an interview, Fedwa Misk stated "We want to give a boost to all the women who want to discuss and comment on current events, whether political or social – to encourage women to speak up. In our Arab Muslim conservative countries, women are less inclined to make their voices heard." [3] The magazine is developing video and audio content in both French and Darija, a colloquial form of Arabic. [1] The magazine often covers controversial subjects and the website has been hacked on more than one occasion. [4]
Western Sahara is a disputed territory on the northwest coast of Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 80% of the territory is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. It has a surface area of 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 sq mi). It is the second most sparsely populated country in the world and the most sparsely populated in Africa, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at just over 500,000, of which nearly 40% live in Morocco-controlled Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara.
Fatema Mernissi was a Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist.
Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.
Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco is the first cousin of King Mohammed VI and Prince Moulay Rachid. He is the son of Prince Moulay Abdallah of Morocco, the late brother of the late King Hassan II, and Princess Lalla Lamia Solh, daughter of Riad Al Solh, the first Prime Minister of Lebanon. He is also the cousin of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, whose mother Mona Al Solh is another daughter of the Lebanese family. Under the Moroccan constitution, Moulay Hicham stands fifth in the line of succession to the Alaouite throne.
Morocco became a highly repressive country under the absolute monarchy of King Hassan II, and continues to be considered repressive under the reign of King Mohammed VI, though the latter has instituted some reforms. Dozens of journalists, artists, and ordinary citizens are regularly sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for exercising basic rights enjoyed elsewhere in the world, such as freedom of the press, protesting the government, or criticizing government officials. Morocco heavily restricts basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, the right to assembly, and the right to criticize officials. Moroccans also feel the pressures of inflation within the country, such as the lack of basic services like healthcare, clean water, and the difficulty of parents to access quality education for their children. While there have been a handful of reforms that have been generally welcomed internationally, most Moroccans feel this is insufficient, and continue to be unhappy with the trajectory of the country under the policies of King Mohammed VI, despite his transition of the government to an ostensible constitutional monarchy. Under his father, King Hassan II, Morocco had one of the worst human rights records in Africa and the world, especially during the time period known as the "Years Of Lead", which lasted from the early 1960s until the late 1980s; it was a period in the country's history that was known for the brutal repression of political dissent and opposition, that involved wide-scale arrests, arbitrary detention, lengthy imprisonment, and even killings of political opponents. Currently, Morocco continues to face some of these issues, as well as other human rights problems, such as poor prison conditions, the mistreatment of women and the LGBT community, and the widespread use of torture by police. Despite the considerable improvements made in the last several years under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, who has rolled back some of his father's harshest decrees, repression of political dissidence, and torture of citizens by officials, is still commonplace in Morocco today.
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights is one of the biggest Moroccan human rights non-governmental organizations. It was founded on June 24, 1979, in Rabat to work for the preservation of human dignity and the respect, protection, defense and promotion of human rights in Morocco and Western Sahara. It uses different means to achieve its objectives such as the publication of a monthly newspaper, sit-ins and the holding of conferences. The AMDH considers it equally crucial to build partnerships with internal and external organizations and networks in order to be stronger in the fight for human rights.
The roles of women in the Arab world have changed throughout history, as the culture and society in which they live has undergone significant transformations. Historically, as well as presently, the situation of women differs greatly between Arabic speaking regions, their urban or rural population and age groups. Among other factors, these differences can be attributed to local traditions, culture and religion, women's social or legal status, their level of education, health or self-awareness. Since the 19th century, and notably through the influence of the colonization in North Africa, the Arab Renaissance in Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria, and the end of the Ottoman Empire, the social and economic changes in the Arab world have become greatly accelerated and diversified.
The Arab Organization for Human Rights is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works on human rights issues in the Arab World. It was founded with a resolution agreed on in Hammamet, Tunisia, in 1983.
Dr. Oussama (Sam) Cherribi is a Moroccan-Dutch sociologist, former politician for The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) party, and current professor at Emory University. He was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002.
Abdellah Taïa is a Moroccan writer and filmmaker who writes in the French language and has been based in Paris since 1999. He has published eight novels, many of them heavily autobiographical. His books have been translated into Basque, Dutch, German, English, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish and Arabic.
The Arab Spring or the First Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām!.
Nawal Elsaadawi was an Egyptian feminist writer, activist and physician. She wrote numerous books on the subject of women in Islam, focusing on the practice of female genital mutilation in her society. She was described as "the Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab World", and as "Egypt's most radical woman".
The Moroccan protests are a series of demonstrations across Morocco which occurred from 20 February 2011 to the fall of 2012. They were part of the larger Arab Spring protests. The protests were organized by the 20 February Movement.
Yassin al-Haj Saleh is a Syrian writer and political dissident. He writes on political, social and cultural subjects relating to Syria and the Arab world.
Fatima Sadiqi is a senior professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, in Fez, Morocco.
The history of women in Morocco includes their lives from before, during, and after the arrival of Islam in the northwestern African country of Morocco.
Irreligion in Morocco is relatively uncommon, in the country. While a 2015 poll of about 1000 Moroccans by Gallup International found that 4% of respondents said they were "not religious", and 1% reported being a "convinced atheist", while 93% said they were religious
Zineb El Rhazoui is a Moroccan-born French journalist. She was a columnist for the Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo from 2011 to 2017, but was in Morocco during the Charlie Hebdo shooting on 7 January 2015.
Bahia Shehab is an Egyptian multidisciplinary artist, designer, historian, creative director, educator and activist based in Cairo. Her work is concerned with identity and cultural heritage, and uses Islamic art history and in particular Islamic calligraphy and graphic design to explore contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues.
Fedwa Misk is a Moroccan writer, former journalist, feminist, and women's rights activist. She participated in the 2011 February 20 Movement and subsequently opened an online magazine with the aim of promoting discussion about women in Morocco. Misk's publication Qandisha featured several high-profile stories and was targeted by hackers twice. She has been working as a writer for many newspapers and broadcaster of Diwane, a literary radio programme. In 2021, she published a, "Nos mères", a play about transmission between women and its impact on feminism.