women in morocco

Moroccan Culture Series
Women in Morocco
The situation of women in Morocco is somewhere between that of women in the West and those in conservative Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia.* Here in Casablanca, everything seems fine on the surface. Clothing varies: women wear the entire range from the traditional conservative jelaba and foulard (although chadras are rare),** to Western suits, to skin-tight shirts and mini-skirts. The choice of dress tends to depend on both age and occupation: in general, teenagers wear sexy or casual Western clothes; professional women wear Western-style business clothing; and older, blue-collar, and unemployed women wear jelabas.

I see both men and women working together almost everywhere I go: in banks, bakeries, schools, stores, and even government offices (although there are noticeably more men than women in the latter). I have never seen women running a stall at the souq (market) or driving a taxi; these domains seem to be reserved for men. From the conversations I've had, it sounds as though women are usually paid about the same as their male colleagues, which is more than can be said for some of their Western counterparts. My husband teaches at a private school of English for professionals, and at least half of his students are women. Thus, there doesn't seem to be any prejudice against women working and going to school, at least in Casablanca. Upon further study, though, there are a number of serious problems. Please note that unless otherwise stated, these observations are restricted to Casablanca; the situation in rural areas is probably quite different.

Illiteracy

In the whole of Morocco, there is an extremely high illiteracy rate, especially in the countryside, and especially among women. According to the UNDP, more than 80% of women in rural Morocco are illiterate. I don't know what this means, exactly, except that based on what I said above about women at work and school, Casablanca is not a representative sample of Morocco.

Women and Work

A married woman must get her husband's permission before seeking a job. Most working women, about 60%, are in textiles and light industry. Another 10% or so are femmes de ménage (housekeepers or maids). Typically, these women are uneducated, illiterate, and unmarried, and earn room, board, and extremely low wages. They usually speak Arabic and possibly a few words of French. Their duties may include cooking, cleaning, and taking care of their employer's children, and those who don't live in usually go home to do the same thing for their families (which may include illegitimate children, sickly siblings, and/or elderly parents).

I have befriended two professional women in Casablanca. Mina runs a sports center, while Jamila is an English teacher. Both of these women work full time in their respective jobs, and they also do essentially everything in the home: cook, clean, take care of the children, etc. The cooking alone takes tremendous amounts of time - I would say much more than in the typical Western household, and even more during holidays, including the entire month of Ramadan. From what I can tell, their husbands do not assist in these domestic chores at all. (The one thing that men have sole responsibility for is the killing of any animals which the wife plans to prepare for dinner.) The husband and wife both work full time outside of the home, but the wife has a second full-time job caring for the household. While both of my friends say that it is difficult to do so much work, neither of them reacted to the suggestion that maybe their husbands could help out. These two women are something of an exception, however; most working families employ a femme de ménage.

Our own femme de ménage, Fatima, is an extraordinary women and an exception in some sense. She has always made it a point to work for ex-patriates and do an excellent job. When Fatima started working (at 14), she taught herself to cook in order to meet the complicated nutritional demands of her French employers, and she is now a tremendous cook. Because she can guarantee a clean house, happy children, and an excellent dinner, she earns twice the normal rate. Although she never went to school, she speaks fluent French and can read Arabic. She treats her employers like family; doesn't hesitate to offer impromptu lessons on Arabic, Moroccan culture, or Casablanca; and is one of the most honest and genuine people that I have ever met. Fatima has no brothers and lost her father at a very young age; thus as the older sister she has had to support her family since then. She has spent most of her life (she is now about 55) working full-time and then going home to care for her sick mother and, until she passed away, her younger sister.

There is essentially no such thing as a non-working woman. Even if she does not go out and earn money, she cooks, cleans, takes care of the kids, etc. In contrast, unemployed men abound - they sit at cafés day and night.