Female leadership and the fight against racism in Morocco

Within the framework of the cooperation project financed by the European Union’ Trust Fund in Morocco (‘Living without discrimination‘), a session was held on “Accompaniment for changing attitudes regarding gender equality: gender equality and non-discrimination”.

The project, jointly managed by AECID and FIIAPP, has technical support from the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE). The aim is to reinforce the instruments and public policies aimed at fighting and preventing racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia towards the migrant population. It is being implemented in association with Delegate Ministry in Charge of Moroccans Residing Abroad and Migration Affairs (MCMREAM) and National Human Rights Council (CNDH).

In this session, the theme of which was “Obstacles to women’s participation in public space”, participants debated two main topics – the appropriation of the physical space of cities by men and women and female leadership in decision-making and political participation.

With regard to the former, we identified the spaces and places in Moroccan and Spanish cities that perpetuate gender inequality by ignoring the specific needs of women and girls, what the causes are and proposed changes.

Current female representation in spaces of the Moroccan political sphere was also analysed, with debate on the different measures of positive discrimination in existence, such as quotas.