Women's Empowerment and the Feminization of Poverty among

I. INTRODUCTIONAttitudes about gender inequality in terms of female rights are evolving within societiesworldwide – including within inegalitarian structures that empower men to dominate womenaccording to gender-role ideologies:The power of customary constructions of de jure rights over recentlyintroduced legal ones also raises a question about processes of social changewhich has yet to be satisfactorily answered in the empowerment literature:How do attempts to change deeply entrenched structures, in this case, pittingthe law against rules legitimized by custom and religion, translate intochanges in individual agency and choice? (Kabeer, 1999: 444)While some women in developing regions have charged Western feminists with qualifying femalerights by cultural relativism, patriarchy and limiting women’s access to the public sphere isuniversal, though expressed differently across cultures. Therefore, movement toward globalwomen’s empowerment requires academics and practitioners in gender and development (GAD) tofind common pains, values, challenges and goals (Billson and Fleuhr-Lobban, 2005: 399).This study analyzes the Kingdom of Morocco as a functioning inegalitarian societyattempting to progress toward women’s empowerment and isolates a traditional town within it todemonstrate how, in the context of social change, to best address the link of women’s empowermentwith gendered poverty. Morocco’s experience of urbanization after independence from Frenchcolonial rule in 1956 changed societal norms and resulted in liberal cities and conservative ruralareas (Dwyer, 1978: 120). Thus, the case study is set in a large town located in the rural southwhich lacks a dramatic shift in economic priorities toward international markets, unlike its urbancounterparts in northern Morocco: “Thus, the city of Taroudannt displays a less radical dislocationof style, goals and images from the past than have certain other regions of Morocco” (Ibid.: 8).Ultimately, the following study emphasizes the need for gendered poverty literature toconceptualize a holistic framework “to encapsulate gendered privation – encompassing capabilities,livelihoods, subjectivities and social exclusion” (Chant, 2006: 203). This includes less generalizedassumptions; therefore, the focus is on one highly heterogeneous group of women – female-headedhouseholds. Lessening the precedented emphasis on quantitative dimensions of income allows for aholistic step toward qualitative dimensions of choices and options. Incorporating the disciplines ofpolitical science, anthropology, sociology, economics, history, and law, this study contributes to theGAD discourse, which “exposes structural, asymmetrical power relations between the sexes, anddoes not regard economic growth as a prerequisite for improving women’s living conditions,”instead highlighting qualitative, power-related legal and social obstacles to women’s empowerment1

(Johnsson-Latham, 2010: 41). This opposes the other gendered poverty school of thought – thedominant discourse of economic growth and quantitative measurements – which ignores themultidimensionality of gender disadvantage (Ibid.).Morocco provides a contemporary context of social transformation from legal, socioeconomicand cultural inequalities; however, to have explanatory reach in GAD, this studyincorporates participatory tools. These have been regarded as invaluable in assessing the genderdimensions of poverty as they include women’s voices, a “potentially important step towardenhancing the gender-responsiveness of poverty assessment” (Chant, 2007: 59). The contextualapproach to the Moroccan situation of female-headed households complemented by participatoryresearch from a particular rural community seeks: to conceptually examine the validity of thefeminization of poverty theory; to empirically explore the nature of women’s empowerment amongfemale-headed households from a gender perspective; and to present implications of the nature ofinequality experienced within wider society in legal, socio-economic and cultural terms. Theaddition of participatory research – inclusive of varying life stages, marital arrangements,education, employment, social networks, and self-confidence – illustrates the need for subjectiveand culturally specific data.The following literature review discusses concepts of women’s empowerment, feminizationof poverty theory, female-headed households, and the linkages between all of these in the currentGAD discourse. It challenges the feminization of poverty theory for having simplified notions ofboth poverty and gender and glossing over major gender-power issues in feminized poverty bothwithin and beyond household-level (Chant, 2010: 3). The methodology chapter then explains thepresent study’s approach to analysis of the legal, socio-economic and cultural realms of Morocco,specifically the participatory research in a women’s group in Taroudannt. The next chapter situatesthe case study in the Moroccan legal, socio-economic and cultural experience. The case study ofTaroudannt follows to apply qualitative data to the discussed concepts of women’s empowerment,feminization of poverty and female-headed households. Finally, this study concludes with a briefconjecture of the research implications.2

II. ANALYSIS OF EXISTING LITERATUREConceptualization of women’s empowermentTamkine – ‘empowerment’ in Arabic – is the initiative of the Kingdom of Morocco’sMinistry of Social Development, Family and Solidarity launched in 2008 to combat violenceagainst women (Bordat, 2011: 91). To explore the nature of women’s empowerment among femaleheadedhouseholds in rural Morocco, this chapter must first focus on the conceptualization of‘empowerment’ from a gender perspective as used in GAD studies. To even begin with an image ofan empowered woman is a dilemma of sorts, which Naila Kabeer describes as the tendency torepresent ‘the self’ in representing ‘the other’ in her research:Although this portrayal of the ‘average’ disempowered Third World womanwas intended to evoke sympathy and action on their behalf, its reductionismreflected the fact that the social distances of location, class, nationality andlanguage which often separate researcher and ‘researched’ in the socialsciences tend to be particularly large in the development field (1999: 459).Other researchers find that their own personal satisfactions are linked to “realising one’s capacitiesand fulfilling one’s social roles within a matrix of shifting and negotiated relationships” (Moore,2010: 36). This dilemma in a conversation of advocacy of gender equality and developmenttranslates the concept from “feminist insights into the discourse of policy,” losing some of the“original political edge of feminism” (Kabeer, 1999: 436).Scholars and organizations worldwide use different interpretations of empowerment, and notall accept that ‘empowerment’ can be clearly defined – many feminists even value the “fuzziness”of the concept (Ibid.). Despite being one of the most contested terms both within and beyonddevelopment fields, the notion of empowerment is accepted by the majority as not an end in itself,but as a process – built upon the work of Michael Foucault (McIlwaine, 2012c: 4). Empowerment isnot a uniform process and depends on the context in which it is realized: “[It] will be influenced bythe intersection of social relations and individual histories which form the vantage point from whichthey view these new possibilities” (Kabeer, 1999: 460).The definition of women’s empowerment used in the present study is as a multidimensionalprocess of change within the livelihood approach to poverty. This combines both the feministempowerment and poverty alleviation paradigms supported by the ideas of Jo Rowlands and Kabeer(Chant, 2007: 37). Rowlands conceptualizes empowerment as access to decision-making andchange in people’s perceptions of self in three dimensions (1996: 86; Chant, 2012c: 4):3

alternatives and the ability to have chosen otherwise,” based on Amaryta Sen’s focus of ‘power’within empowerment (Kabeer, 1999: 437; Sen, 1985).In the field of development, this equation between power and choice requires the input ofgender subjectivity to complete the conceptualization of women’s empowerment. The importanceof a gender ‘lens’ to examine the gender-poverty nexus stems from the common misconception thatgender is synonymous with women. As gender does refer to the multidimensional process ofimages, ideas, differences, and hierarchies becoming socially institutionalized practices, using agender lens keeps away from solidifying gendered poverty concepts that are in reality diversified bythe varying circumstances of social groups (Davids and Driel, 2010: 108). Importantly, GADresearcher Sylvia Chant further connects gendered subjectivities across different levels, domainsand cultural understandings as the “way people imagine and experience the nature and value of theembodied, gendered self, and how they orient themselves within a set of relationships thatpractically and ethically define a complex moral terrain” (2010: 37). Processes of economic andpolitical transformations can both undermine and solidify current cultural and socialunderstandings, which shape gendered subjectivities, particularly in societies where differences ofpower and choice pervade social relations (Ibid.: 38).The reality of gender subjectivity gives way to a notion of self that sacrifices individuality toaccommodate imposed gender roles. In studies of gender alienation, societies can negate gender of‘the other’ and lose appreciation, respect, and tolerance of ‘the other,’ an aspect advanced by DanielGhanim in his gender studies of violence in the Middle East (2009: 79). As the concept ofempowerment includes a process of change in the image of self, it inherently requires a healthyrelationship to ‘the other.’ Ghanim argues that the social constructions of masculinity and femininityexaggerate differences and oppositions between categories of active males and passive females,which does not afford “a healthy socially existing self and unconstrained interactions with the other,[which] are both basic human rights that any society should guarantee its citizens, regardless oftheir sex” (Ibid.: 79).An example of such a disruptive societal structure that forces women to live a dividedprivate and public life is patriarchy, which Dwyer and Bruce argue as repressive of women’ssexuality, emotions, aspirations, and individualities on both a gender and generational level (1988:193). In anthropological literature on sexuality, patriarchal society holds a double-standard norm ofheterosexual relationships in that female sexual activity is prevalent to shame and dishonor, “a verycommon societal response to the sexual maturation of males and females” (Davis, 1989: 133).5

In recognition of the importance of both Chant’s cross-cultural consideration of gendersubjectivity and Dwyer and Bruce’s assertion that the denial of a natural right like sexuality canmake it “easy for society to deny other natural rights such as access to wealth and decision-makingcapabilities,” it is vital to note the Islamic feminism approach toward women’s empowerment inorder to then contextualize the present study on the Muslim society of rural Morocco (Dwyer andBruce, 1988: 192). A strong opposition between secular feminism and Islamic feminism thrives infeminist reform models, leaving no middle-ground in the debate. The Qur’anic interpretation ofgender equality remains the theoretical core of Islamic feminism (Badran, 2006). Secular feministslike Haideh Moghissi present a valid deconstruction of the merits of Islamic feminism in the contextof social theory as “an apologist philosophy that serves to undermine the liberal goals of secularfeminism while legitimating an inherently unjust religion” (Ibid.).Through his comparative analysis of the grassroots movement of family code reforms acrossthe Maghreb, Brian Archer demonstrates how secular feminism may be a reasonable challenge toIslamic feminism; however, he more convincingly shows the gains that Muslim women are makingvia an Islamic feminist framework (Archer, 2007: 50). In the example of Moroccan women’sempowerment, the Islamic feminist reform model used in the 2004 Moudawana 1 reforms “seeks toutilize the egalitarian tenets of Islam as a basis upon which to expose and undermine the unjustnature of misogynistic family laws; it engenders progressive change” (Ibid.). Theoretically,“attempts at reforming family laws anywhere in Islamic societies can never be a truly feministendeavor, seeing how any legal changes would occur within a politico-socio-religious system inwhich men wield ultimate control” (Ibid.: 51). Moghissi opposes Islamic feminists for ignoring the“very real suffering experienced by Muslim women whose agency is genuinely stifled byoppressive norms and practices” (1999: 43).I fault secular feminism in practice in the Moroccan example only, because it “seeks todefine all women primarily in terms of their gender, often at the expense of one’s religiousidentity….a rejection of what for many Muslim women forms the core of their selfidentity”(Archer, 2007: 57). Alternatively, Islamic feminism is a legitimate and effective movementtoward women’s empowerment in Muslim societies, because it’s an ideology that “expresslyacknowledges that for many Muslim women, their self-identity as believers precedes their genderedidentification” (Ibid.: 53). The 2004 revision of Moudawana made it “the most gender-egalitarianShar’ia-grounded civil code” (Badran, 2006). Ultimately, the Moroccan Islamic feminist reformmodel sparked an “inter-Islamic phenomenon produced by Muslims at various locations around the1Moudawana is the Moroccan Islamic Code of Personal Status and Inheritance, also referred to as Family Code.6

globe” – Tunisia, Algeria, Malaysia – with its family code triumphs predicted to be “theenhancement of social justice and equality in the African and Asian societies where Muslimslive” (Badran, 2006).Today, very few contend that women’s empowerment exists outside of a process of change.Bourdieu’s dated idea of ‘doxa’ refers to traditions and beliefs that are so naturalized within aculture that they challenge the fundamental level of reality of empowerment (1977: 7). It can behelpful to consider doxa to focus away from the consciousness of empowerment and on the realitiesof specific societies. According to Bourdieu, empowerment can be conceptualized only when thereis a loss of naturalization and there are “material and cultural possibilities” of competing ways ofbeing and doing (Ibid.). Thus, Kabeer’s process of change toward the agency of decision-makingcould be improved by Bourdieu’s doxa, which still remains intact “as long as the subjectiveassessments of social actors are largely congruent with the objectively organized possibilitiesavailable to them” (Kabeer, 1999: 441).As the conceptualization of women’s empowerment within GAD must incorporate the callfor collective action, feminist literature explains “collective action as a primary step for women inachieving personal power and status in the public domain,” identifying the existence of femalesolidarity groups as the most important of four cross-cultural indicators of high status (Dwyer andBruce, 1988: 9). However, some authors like Andrea Cornwall have recently criticized such anapproach as softening the realities of many women who do not in fact have the luxury of being ableto make choices (McIlwaine, 2012c: 5). While maintaining this present study as an academicresource rather than a development practitioner’s guide, this paper still incorporates the definitionof empowerment as has been done by many Moroccan women’s groups responding in collectiveaction – with “a bottom-up nature and grassroots-level focus” (Bordat, 2011: 93).Feminization of poverty theoryThe discussion of conceptualizing empowerment fits into the larger debates within GADdiscourse of the ‘feminization of poverty’ and its link with female-headed households, which Ichallenge in the present study. The feminization of poverty theory incorporates empowerment as“women’s capacity to command and allocate resources [which] can be as, if not more, importantthan the actual resource base in their households” (Chant, 2007: 34). To draw attention ondevelopment agendas, the definition of the theory has remained widely unchallenged, namely that“women feature disproportionately among the world’s poor, with the term ‘feminization’ relating tothe way poverty changes over time as a process” (Ibid.: 18). Similar to the contested concept of7

women’s empowerment, the feminization of poverty theory requires critical differentiation amongwomen as a heterogeneous group in application as a gendered poverty analysis.Chant necessarily brings the assumptions of the theory to the forefront in fear of a highpolitical cost of extreme oversimplification. I agree with Chant’s assertion that evidence used towidely support the first main assumption that women are becoming poorer than men is too narrow.The practice of prioritizing quantitative aspects such as income, which leads to the downplay of‘overwork,’ ‘time deficiency,’ ‘powerlessness,’ and ‘vulnerability’ – concepts as, if not more,“relevant to women’s perceptions of disadvantage, and to the ‘trade-offs’ they make or are able tonegotiate between different aspects of poverty” (Chant, 2007: 18). Qualitative measures often getundervalued in “grassroots subjective experiences of poverty” when compared to “narrowexternally imposed criteria” (Ibid.). The dimensions of poverty included by the feminization ofpoverty theory also lay outside the theory’s narrow definition. To be applied, it needs to scrutinizedifferent developing contexts – not only reference objective measures – for what exactly it claimsmakes some women poorer than some men (Ibid.: 22).The poverty of women as highlighted by feminists is not only multidimensional but multisectoralas well – experiences varying in different times and different spaces (Bradshaw, 2002: 12).However, gendered poverty is experienced by both men and women due to such variables as age,race, nationality, sexuality, class, household headship and composition, the marital, fertility andfamily status of women and men, and urban versus rural residence (Chant, 2010: 2). Theirintersections with gender and poverty produce outcomes that are then filtered by varying conceptuallenses depending on the researcher’s orientation toward objective/quantitative versus subjective/qualitative/participatory measures and/or spatial orientation at the personal, domestic, local,national or global level (Ibid.).Chant also perceptively challenges the second popularized assumption of the theory –feminization of poverty as a process of household inequality – because it reinforces the reliance onquantitative national data on poverty and inequality. While these can provide baseline information,Tonkiss recognizes that the complete evidence to then be able to determine inequalities withinhouseholds, not only in income distribution but in access to labor and consumption markets,education and welfare, does not exist in either developed or developing countries (Tonkiss, 2010:158). Subjective elements of giving birth, raising children and growing older make many womenmore likely to live in poverty than men, which has a challenging implication: “Poverty ‘defeminises’when caring for a child or growing old become facts of life rather than riskfactors” (Ibid.).8

The link between the assumed poverty of female-headed households and the feminization ofpoverty theory is of an importance that cannot be undermined, as 13% of households 2 in theMENA region alone are estimated to be headed by women (Chant, 2007: 20). The assertion ofDavids and van Driel that the theory focuses on female-headed households as an expression of thatsame ‘feminization of poverty’ has created what Chant coins a “culture of single motherhood,”often designated as the ‘New Poverty Paradigm’ (Ibid.: 21). The trouble with this classification ofheterogenous groups such as female-headed households is that it masks the impermanence ofhouseholds.For example, in many developing contexts women marry much older men or begin theirfamilies as pregnant adolescents who may “face abandonment, extended separation or divorce as alikely occurrence at some point in their lives” (Dwyer and Bruce, 1988: 18). In some communities,the recorded classification of female-headed households is as high as 50%, which would support thetheoretical assumption; however, such cross-sectional information lacks a record of how manywomen pass through a life-phase as a head of household, meaning as a primary or sole economicprovider for children (Ibid.). As I contend throughout this study, it is impossible for studies ofheterogeneous female-headed households to simultaneously use poverty generalizations and presentthe reality of diversity:Differentiation occurs through routes into the status (whether by choice orinvoluntarily, and/or through non-marriage, separation, divorce,widowhood, migration), by rural or urban residence, by race, bycomposition, by stage in the life course (including age and relativedependency of offspring), and by access to resources from beyond thehousehold unit (from absent fathers, kinship networks, state assistance). Thesignificance of these variables – which can intersect in myriad ways – is, inturn, mediated by the particular social, cultural, demographic, political andeconomic contexts in which female heads are situated (Chant, 2007: 108).Since female-headed households consist of a high proportion of lone mother units with theperceived major disadvantage of raising children alone, development literature widely assumes thisgroup to be the ‘poorest of the poor’ (Ibid.: 100). While both the short and long-term implications ofthe economic disadvantage as the sole income-earner and carer should not be minimized, some lonemothers negotiate above-average survival through ‘trade-offs’ or social networks.Trade-offs are certainly a very subjective measurement of poverty as Chant brings to bear indeveloping contexts where household heads are highly likely to be objectively poorer by income:2‘Household’ as the internationally accepted definition based on space and function: a group of people living under thesame roof and who share domestic activities and finances (McIlwaine, 2012a: 1).9

“Although women are often victims of unequal power relations and limited agency, emphasis onsubjectivity has brought about recognition that this can also drive women to make choices forthemselves and their dependants, which reduces access to some types of resource, but enhancestheir prospects of others” (Chant, 2007: 44). Some lone mothers, for example, choose to remain inthat status by not choosing to re-marry after divorce or widowhood as the increase in autonomy,control and personal security can make some lone mothers feel and be less vulnerable (Ibid.).Another challenge to the theory’s assumption of household inequality among female-headedhouseholds is social networks. Many supporting theorists assume they are smaller as a result ofdead ties with ex-partners’ relatives or deliberate self-exclusion by lone mothers “as a means ofdeflecting the ‘shame’ attached to out-of-wedlock birth and/or marriage failure, not to mention, insome instances, stigmatized types of employment such as sex work” (Chant, 2007: 103). There aresocial and cultural dimensions to poverty – especially for such a heterogenous group – like themanifestation of stigma as “financial difficulties, humiliation and stress” (Ypeij, 2010: 141). I arguethat although women face social realities of stigmatization that is particularly attached to anunmarried or divorced woman, both in developed and developing contexts, researchers’ tendency togeneralize poverty levels and female-headed households is stigma in itself (Dwyer and Bruce, 1988:138). Thus, it is necessary to account for lone mothers who find survival resources in their socialnetworks. Depending on family formation, especially mother-daughter dynamics, these networkscan function supportively in both financial and life crises. The assumption that female-headedhouseholds are poorer in economic terms does not even address emotional or social advantages(Davids and Driel, 2010: 107).Particularly without trade-offs or social networks, the linkage of female-headed householdsto the feminization of poverty theory assumes a generational dimension to the process of householdinequality in the ‘inter-generational transmission of disadvantage.’ Under this falls a list ofgeneralized assumptions, including the sending of young children to work rather than school tosupport the household; however, child labor levels are not noticeably higher among female-headedhouseholds (Chant, 2007: 107). Yet, specific contextual research has shown that children in femaleheadedhouseholds have higher levels of education attainment and nutrition than their counterpartsin male-headed households (Ibid.: 22). Even in countries where female-headed households “do falldisproportionately into the category of poor or extremely poor, it is by no means clear that they areresponsible for an inter-generational transmission of disadvantage” (Ibid.: 107).The other assumption of this concept is mothers consciously or unconsciously using theirdecisive relationships with their children in an unhealthy way to “reproduce the same cycle of10

violence, alienation and marginalization from which they themselves suffered” (Dagher, 2009: 572).Feminist research often employs a connotation of powerlessness in its link of women’s poverty withgender inequality both within and outside the household (Chant, 2007: 21). I agree with Chant andchallenge that household headship could actually empower mothers to enhance their own and theirchildren’s well-being.(WB, 2012: 10)The widely popularized link between female-headed households and the feminization ofpoverty theory fails to hold a consistent relationship to truly be deployed as a thesis. The identifiedproblems of generalized assumptions relying on objective evidence are supported by the lack ofmicro-level data across varying regions. More convincing research has been done that draws moreproductive attention to a framework that includes “changing ideals of masculinity and femininityand processes of subjectification for analyzing intersections between constraints, vulnerabilities andaspirations” (Moore, 2010: 35). Perhaps such popularization of the link between these conceptscould be supported if it accounts for the introduced variabilities of life stages, marital arrangements,education, employment, social networks, and self-confidence as allowed by social stigmatization,which I aim to demonstrate in my case study of the rural Moroccan experience.11

III. METHODOLOGYThis chapter begins with a review of the concepts used in the methodology of the presentstudy. ‘Women’s empowerment’ as “the process by which those who have been denied the ability tomake strategic life choices acquire such an ability” includes Kabeer’s identified three indivisibledimensions: resource (access and future claims to material and human resources), agency (processesof decision-making and manifestations of negotiation, deception and manipulation) andachievement (well-being outcomes) (1999: 435). These outcomes of change are incorporated inRowlands’ three dimensions: personal, close relationships and collective (1996: 86). Linked withthe ‘feminization of poverty’ theory, women’s empowerment is directly related to the capacity ofwomen to manage resources of their households, particularly among the heterogenous group of‘female-headed households’ (Chant, 2007: 34).As measuring empowerment has been tried and tested in every conceivable manner, Iintroduce only the accepted macro-level poverty assessments in GAD studies to explain why thisstudy employs the capability approach. Here ‘means’ other than earnings are brought into theequation along with ‘ends,’ unlike the poverty line approach that measures only economic ‘means’by income (Kabeer, 2003: 79). While the 1997 internationally adopted Human Poverty Index (HPI)that evolved out of the Capability Poverty Measure (CPM) identifies the proportion of people wholack essential human capabilities (i.e. health and education) rather than simply ‘means,’ it lacksexplicitly gender-specific components (Chant, 2007: 45; 2006: 211). Recognizing gender disparitiesin empowerment, the UNDP appropriately adjusted the HPI with the Gender-Related DevelopmentIndex (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) to better evaluate the indicators ofboth male and female longevity, knowledge and decent standard of living (Chant, 2007: 45).However, the Moroccan context indicates a limitation in gendered data. Concerning theexample of the most objective indicator of income, “since women are disproportionatelyconcentrated in informal economic activity, this does not provide an accurate picture of malefemaleearning differentials” which include frequently unpaid farming, reproduction and caretaking(Chant, 2007: 46). Therefore, this paper’s analysis of female-headed households in rural,southern Morocco, needs to go beyond GEM’s “survival-related achievements” that are more thevalues of those doing the ‘achievement’-measuring than those values of the women’s communities(Kabeer, 1999: 440). In order to measure such hidden forms of gender discrimination, the SocialInstitutions Gender Index (SIGI) created more recently in 2009 by the Development Center of theOECD attempts to measure gender inequalities across 12 inequality outcomes based on socialinstitutions: “[It] argues that in many countries, social norms are the decisive factors restraining12

progress in women’s empowerment….as long-lasting codes of conduct, norms, traditions andinformal family laws do not change much over time” (Drechsler and Jütting, 2010: 78). Therelevant family code subcategory supports SIGI analysis to show that prevailing norms can be adriving force of gender inequality, but better measures are needed to effectively address barriers towomen’s empowerment (Ibid.: 81).With this in mind, my case study prescribes tools of a Participatory Poverty Assessment(PPA) – often described as a ‘social inclusion approach’ – to “explore the causes and outcomes ofpoverty in more context-specific ways, taking into account subjective views on poverty” at ahousehold level (Chant, 2007: 61; WB, 2000). As Chant has outlined in her GAD researchworldwide, dedicated efforts are required to engage in the popularized language of women’sempowerment and the feminization of poverty. My contextual analysis of Morocco and case studyof female-headed households in Taroudannt attempts to “triangulate quantitative data on capabilitieswith the findings of PPAs and with qualitative gender analyses which focus on gendered relationsand processes as well as outcomes” (Ibid.: 66). I employ the Participatory Learning and Action(PLA) approach to work against extractive research and practice by incorporating diagramming,interviews and observations (McIlwaine and Ferreri, 2011: 4). Conducting participatory researchrequires an anthropological understanding that the researcher is “historically situated” throughquestions and manner of understanding as well as that the information received is an interpretation“equally mediated by history and culture” (Rabinow, 1977: 119). To understand the locally acceptedvalues of ‘being and doing,’ my position with the UK-based charity Moroccan Children’s Trust(MCT) facilitated my exploration. I have volunteered with this non-profit since the launch ofMCT’s Street Children Project (SCP) in Taroudannt in October 2010 and continue to work part-timeas the UK SCP Coordinator.Engagement with Core Characteristics of Participatory Research 3policy focusbottom-up perspectiveresearch by local peoplelocal knowledgequalitativeperceptionsfocus groupsanalysis includes Moroccan state policyconducted through a grassroots organizationlocal social worker engaged with local womenused own first-hand experience & local contactsinterviews focused on gathering qualitative datarecognized and addressed perceptions/assumptionsincorporated focus groups on specific areas3Ideas from McIlwaine and Ferreri (2011: 2)13

Phase IOf the four phases of my primary research to complement my secondary research, the firstbegan in February 2012 to plan how best to use a participatory approach in a holistic manner toreveal gendered subjectivities. As a project strand of the SCP, the women’s group of mothers ofparticipating families approached the end of its pilot begun in September 2011 as a monthlyinformational meeting group. I gathered perspectives and ideas on its progress from the group’sfounder and former facilitator, the former organizer, the current facilitator, and current researchassistant. I worked in partnership with the London-based Women’s Project Coordinator 4 to organizea baseline quantitative survey of the ten remaining group members in March, focusing ondemographic information, parenting attitudes and health-seeking behavior. The founder and formerorganizer then conducted structured individual interviews, and the founder also gatheredinformation from those women who had left the group to provide a minimum demographicbaseline.Phase IIThe second phase involved a two-week working visit in Taroudannt in April-May tocollaborate with Moroccan team members and begin implementing the agreed feasible datagatheringprocess. We met formally and informally each day to understand what we currently knewfrom the women’s group members, the observed changes since September and what we hoped togain from the research. This collaborative process revealed that the social work team was highlysusceptible to making assumptions about the women’s behavior due to their incredibly closerelationships with the women and their families. We agreed to carry out biographical in-depthinterviews to create a life narrative of each woman to better understand the manifestations ofRowlands’ dimensions of ‘personal’ and ‘close relationships’ through the women’s roles as heads oftheir households, access to education, views of employment, social networks, self-confidence, andability to access public services. We also agreed that the Moroccan team would conduct theinterviews as the women speak Moroccan Arabic and we did not want to compromise relationships.We also planned the facilitation of weekly group meetings in a participatory approachmodelled after the Gender Action Learning System (GALS): “The methodology is based on andcontinually reinforces underlying principles of equity, inclusion and gender justice and women’shuman rights as stated in international agreements like the Convention for Elimination ofDiscrimination Against Women (CEDAW)” (Mayoux, 2010: 84). As we wanted to integrate a moreempowering methodology to understand the manifestation of Rowlands’ ‘collective’ dimension, we4Ph.D. in Anthropology14

planned a focus group as a “tool [that] can be used independently by people who cannot read andwrite as well as organizational staff and academic researchers to analyse issues and strategisechange….to rapidly obtain reliable quantitative information and very rich qualitative information ina more empowering manner for participants” (Ibid.).Phase IIIDuring my visit, I initiated the third stage of employing research tools. After the discoveryof assumption-making, I was wary that indicators would “not only compress a great deal ofinformation into a single statistic but make assumptions, often implicit, about what this informationmeans” (Kabeer, 1999: 452). Therefore, in pursuit of supporting evidence of any assumptions, Icreated a questionnaire to conduct structured interviews with both the former and current groupfacilitators to learn their views of Moudawana and its effect on women’s realities, particularly intheir engagement with the women’s group. I also created the individual in-depth interviewquestionnaire with general open-ended questions and prompt questions, which we then translatedinto French for common understanding between all team members. I joined the women in the focusgroup to create a ranking chart of positive things each woman values in her daily life whichcompliments the baseline survey and in-depth interviews. 5 I then traveled to Casablanca to gathermore contextual information in a semi-structured informational interview with Aicha Ech Chenna,Moroccan women’s rights activist and founder and president of Association Solidarité Féminin. 6Phase IVThe final stage in summer 2012 involved an analysis of the qualitative data combined withthe relevant quantitative baseline situated in the legal, socio-economic and cultural context ofMorocco, specifically of Taroudannt in the rural south. After a meticulous follow-up process, I usedthe twice-clarified French transcripts to document realities and identify trends, categories andlinkages. I made interpretations on this level of analysis for the present study, which not only addsto the identified GAD conversations, but also contributes to the continuing participatory researchwithin the women’s group in Taroudannt.LimitationsEfforts of clarification were made by myself and team members to protect against faultydata of a participatory research approach by using several methods of communication. Yet, I am5Chart and methodology in Appendix B.6Complete list of interviewees in Bibliography.15

acutely aware of the limitations of my modest empirical evidence as, in agreement with Chant, Idoubt the ability to fully employ a grassroots approach to the feminization of poverty theory due tothe difficulties of verifying results, comparing them across places and subjecting ‘gender-blindness’of the facilitators (2007: 64). As facilitator bias can affect who is encouraged to participate and canlead to losses in gender-relevant information, I included all the women group’s members (Kabeer,2003: 102). However, the sample originally included four more women – two divorced and twosingle mothers – before they stopped participating in the group. Due to differing perspectivesbetween myself and the social work team, we were unable to agree how best to obtain – in thecontext of the overall project – the potentially insightful reasons from the women why they stoppedparticipating.An advantage of my sample, the participants of this case study contribute a usefulrepresentation of how women’s experiences differ according to household structures of married andwidowed women. As this group would have constituted a more comprehensive sample, my presentcase study should be recognized as the foundation of a qualitative study that could either becontinued as a longitudinal study with this sample or be developed to include a more representativecross-section of the Taroudannt population of female-headed households. I do not seek toextrapolate my specific findings to other cultural contexts or even other regions of Morocco beyondthe rural south.16

IV. SITUATING THE CASE STUDY IN THE MOROCCAN EXPERIENCEThis chapter provides analysis of the current situation in the Kingdom of Morocco: legal,socio-economic and cultural. It allows for context-specific insight of the implications of Moroccanattempts to change deeply entrenched inegalitarian structures within these three realms. This willthen facilitate an examination in the following case study of the experience of challenging stigmaamong female-headed households in Taroudannt.Legal situationIn order to determine the legal prospects of Islamic liberalism in a state, it is crucial toconsider the special circumstances in the process of state formation in a state-by-state approach,such as for the Moroccan monarchy released from French colonial rule in 1956 (Delacoura, 2007:197). On an international legal level, ratified treaties that are duly incorporated by the OfficialBulletin publication then become integral to Moroccan domestic law, both public and private – theCEDAW, for example (Abiad, 2008: 103). As Islam is the official religion of Morocco per Article 6in the national constitution, Morocco’s judiciary system specifically follows Islamic jurisdiction setout by Shari’a 7 law only in family matters according to the Sunni Maliki school of Islam (Hashemi,2008: 17, 82).In an oversimplification, the Maliki conception of law sources the Qur’an 8 , the hadith 9 , theijmaa 10 , and the qiyas 11 in a combination of both tradition and reasoned opinion to varying degreesfrom the other three Sunni schools to establish a consensus (Nasir, 2002: 19). Every field of law –international, constitutional, administrative, criminal civil, personal, family – and human action canbe evaluated by the Shari’a as commanded, recommended, left legally indifferent, reprobated, ordivinely forbidden (Anderson, 1957: 488). Law has many implications for political and socialdevelopments over which Shari’a constantly compromises in modern reforms (Ibid.: 514).Evidence of the role of Islam in the Moroccan legal system is its high normative status and topposition in the hierarchy of norms per Article 19 of the national constitution, which accords theKing the right and duty to ensure the observance of both Islam and the Constitution as the‘Commander of the Faithful’ (Abiad, 2008: 50).7Shari’a is Muslim law under Islamic jurisprudence.8Qur’an is the Islamic book of faith.9Hadith is the tradition of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed.10Ijmaa is the Islamic consensus of interpretation.11Qiyas is the Islamic analogy of the holy teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.17

Despite the very recent historical reality of Islamic jurisprudence in Morocco, the classicaltheory of Shari’a underlines the historical thinking of modern Moroccans and greatly influenced theregion’s postcolonial establishment and development of political, economic and socialinfrastructures (Tshibangu, 1993: 520). As Moroccan Shari’a developed in a late and isolated stagerelative to the rest of the Islamic world, it recognized “that the actual conditions did not allow thestrict theory to be translated into practice, that it was better to try and control the practice as muchas possible than to abandon it completely….to maintain a kind of protective zone around thetheory” (Schacht, 1960: 526). The fundamental implication of this has been a jurisprudence thatfocuses on method more than positive solutions. When reformist ‘Allal al-Fasl asserted in 1949during French colonial rule that Moroccan legislation required a basis in both Islamic and Frenchlaw principles, he urged the King and religious scholars to agree on an Islamic Code of Morocco:To take it as the essential basis of our future legislation means helping tosafeguard it, and means giving to our country a code which is adapted to oursecular interests without contradicting our religion nor the needs, taken intheir widest sense, of modern progressive spirit in the most highly civilizedcountries (Ibid.: 542). 12The commission assigned the responsibility to combine the duality of Islamic and French lawprinciples then issued Moudawana by a Royal Decree to an independent Morocco in 1957 as “anevaluation of modern social life and of modern legal thought from an Islamic angle” (Ibid.: 544-5).The inclusion of a Shari’a family code into Morocco’s secular legal system explains certainvariations in application of the prescribed law. Since Moudawana was established in 1957, demandsfor reform have twice grown loud from a women’s empowerment movement that began in the early1980s (Abiad, 2008: 121). The Union de l’Action Féminine and the National CoordinationCommittee for Changes to the Moudawana and for the Defence of the Rights of Women launched acampaign together in 1992 for empowerment of married women who were denied the right todivorce and compelled to follow the decision-making under the guardianship of their husbands aswell as for empowerment from rules like the marital age being 18 years for men but 15 for girls(Ibid.). A commission of Islamic jurists appointed by King Hassan II heard these demands of theMoroccan women’s associations, but produced very few Moudawana reforms in 1993 that changedits actual substance due to the condition that Islamic norms could not be compromised (Ibid.).Moroccan NGO Collectif 95 Maghreb-Egalite produced “One Hundred Measures” as achallenge to the discriminatory Moudawana with arguments based upon four sources of authority:12Originally from Risalat al-Maghrib (7/11/1949); French translation in Échanges (Rabat), French Series, No. 8,25/12/1949; English translation from Schacht (1960) based on the French.18

Qur’anic principles, national constitutional law, international human rights law, and sociologicalstudies investigating interactions within Moroccan families (Collectif 95, 2005: 9). Unable to quellcontinued voices for reform, King Mohammed VI (son of Hassan II) created another commission,to which he added modernists and three women alongside the Islamic jurists – the first time womenwere involved in a previously male-exclusive Qur’an interpretation process: “It is necessary to bemindful of the tolerant aims of Islam, which advocates human dignity, equality and harmoniousrelations, and also to rely on the cohesiveness of the Malikite rite” (King Mohammed VI, Ibid.:122). Ultimately, the reforms approved by Parliament and signed by the King in January 2004significantly improved not only women’s rights – including resource and agency – but those ofchildren as well. Its major triumphs guaranteed male and female civic equality; abolished the forcedguardianship of adult women; granted women the right to divorce; equalized women’s marital ageto 18 years; gave women the right to a share of acquired family assets in the case of marriagedissolution (Abiad, 2008: 122). These Moudawana reforms reflect today’s Moroccan society whichhas diversified its types of families and family relations (Benradi, 2004: 86). 13However, the implications of such progressive women’s rights reforms to a Shari’a-basedcode are certainly prevalent in the presentation of the de jure versus de facto Moudawana. Theexamination of gender-based discrimination as “de jure through law texts to stereotypes, norms andcodes which de facto limit the individual’s freedom and distribute resources asymmetrically,”questions whether leading family code reform in the Islamic world may be changing the reality ofgender inequality in Morocco (Johnsson-Latham, 2010: 41). For example, the 2004 reform stilldoes not legally recognize the rights of unwed mothers. As Moudawana explicitly forbids sexoutside of marriage, single mothers cannot make claims to child support payments and must acceptnot only a lack of legal options but also their social situation: “While Moudawana purports toestablish gender equality in Morocco, this equality is still confined to women who have beenmarried or divorced, and leaves one stigmatized demographic at the bottom of the social and legaltotem pole” (Eisenberg, 2011: 723).Some Moroccan citizens view Moudawana as “allowing exploitative women to gain an evenhigher footing than the law intended,” while others predict that now “women’s new power willcause men to fear marriage and increase the divorce rate” (Ibid.: 721). Moroccan women seekingdivorce may not actually be empowered to use their new legal right again due to the social barrierof stigmatization associated with being single and not fulfilling their religious duty of marriage13All references to Benradi (2004) are translations to English by the reasearcher from French original.19

(Ibid.: 716). In sum, de jure Moudawana empowers women with freedom in marriage and divorcebut does not currently translate into de facto empowerment from societal pressures.A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its2012 composite measurement of the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) uses nationalfamily codes as one of five categories to rank and determine the causes behind gender inequalitiesas maintained by social institutions (OECD, 2012b). Overall, the SIGI ranked Morocco 17 th out of86 countries in gender inequality with an SIGI value of 0.13 compared to a family code rank of 50 thand an SIGI family code discriminatory value of 0.32 (OECD, 2012a).SIGI 2012 measurement; 12 indicators across 5 categories (OECD, 2012b)The family code measurement is still one of high discrimination despite an evident majority of lowinequality indicators [see diagram above]: equal marital age of 18 years; requirement of wife’sconsent for a husband to obtain a judge’s consent to a polygamous marriage; wives with equalrights – and responsibilities – as their husbands on household management, child-rearing, familyplanning, legal cohabitation; and ability of Moroccan wives of foreigners to pass their citizenship totheir children per a 2007 reform to the Nationality Code (OECD, 2012a). However, married womenstill face completely unequal inheritance rights as daughters can inherit only half the share that ispassed to sons (FAO, 2010). Women who have been adopted cannot claim any legal status perArticle 83 of Moudawana: “Adoption as understood customarily is void and shall produce no legaleffect. Adoption for the purpose of rewarding or bequeathing, known as according a person thestatus of one’s child, shall not establish a parentage, and shall be subject to the provisions of thewill” (Nasir, 2002: 153).20

Along with the other 56 Muslim states, Morocco ratified the United Nations Convention onRights of the Child (CRC) as entered into force in 1990 as an international framework to ensurechildren’s rights to survival and development as well as women’s empowerment:The concept of indivisibility of socio-economic and civil and politicalrights, so crucial to affording opportunity to women in all phases of the lifecycle is thus established. This in turn leads to the truly remarkableconclusion that, were (girl) children afforded equal rights from birth to thefirst 18 years of their life, their rights as women would automatically follow(Ali, 2000: 217).Morocco entered a reservation to the CRC regarding Article 14’s guarantee of freedom of religionmainly due to its incompatibility with Moudawana, which binds any child of a Muslim to be aMuslim (Detrick, 1992: 228). 14Deeper implications of Morocco’s legal situation for women’s empowerment aredemonstrated by the state party to the 1986 Working Group that officially blocked a proposal of the1984 Working Group and Informal NGO Ad Hoc Group – recognition that children born out ofwedlock should enjoy equal rights with children born in wedlock (Ibid.: 148-9). Morocco objectedto this protection under Article 4 due to the inability of paternity of an ‘unlawful’ child to beestablished under Shari’a (Hashemi, 2008: 232). The CRC recommended that the other Muslimstates with reservations use Moroccan lawmakers’ successful example of “modifying problematicreligious traditions” to find legislative means to allow the Shari’a interpretation to be waived toclose the gap between family code and the CRC (Ibid.: 253). The larger implication of Morocco’sobjection lies in the CRC’s concern about discriminatory violations of the rights of both femalesand children born out of wedlock under family codes:In those states where such a mother is subject to the threat of beingpenalized or the child is subject to discriminatory treatment, both child andmother are discriminated against twice over. They are subject topunishment, legal disability in matters of personal status and, in addition,social stigmatization (Ibid.: 237).This proposal regarding children born out of wedlock was not incorporated without the requiredconsensus; therefore, girls (and boys) and lone mothers still face stigma by lacking legal personalstatus (Detrick, 1992: 150). Ultimately, de jure reform – compensatory legislation, policydocuments, international conventions – are “not a sufficient condition for the realization of social14All reservations and points of debate considered and adopted by the drafting body Working Group on the Open-Ended Question of a Convention on the Rights of the Child from 1979 to 1988 are included in Detrick’s work (1992).21

change which requires a period of acclimatization to legislation, during which attitudinal shifts mayoccur” (Billson and Fluehr-Lobban, 1988: 379).Socio-economic situationIn the Moroccan socio-economic situation, female-headed households often face segregationfrom work in the public sphere, particularly in rural Morocco. Before 2004, Moudawana declared ita man’s duty to provide for his wife, even if she is capable of providing for herself. Thus, it isnoteworthy that between 1971 and 2002, the percentage of women in the Moroccan labor forcenearly doubled from 12.6% to 24.9% (Albert 2007: 11). Again, women legally have equal rights asmen to education and work, according to Article 13 of the national Constitution; however, areligious stigma of women in public is practiced in the socio-economic realm of the public sphere(Ibid.: 52, 59). Two Moroccan political scientists at Mohamed V University in Rabat link ruralwomen’s constraint of a lack of education and training to condemnation on the bottom rung ofsociety (Kerzazi and Agoumy 2004: 11). 15 Yet, the authors contend that Moudawana reforms marka turning point in the uncertain futures of lone mothers as their legal status are now considered aspart of the family unit and its stability, although more investment in service and industry is neededto empower rural women to diversify their livelihoods (Ibid.: 24, 91).There has been an increase in female market vendors over the past two decades, and most ofthese women “are divorced, widowed, or abandoned and are the main income-earners in theirhouseholds….Any woman that must support herself through hard work or potential public exposurebecause of an absent or inept male guardian is socially stigmatized” (Ibid.: 62). At the turn of themillennium, 71.17% of female heads of household were widows and divorcées – 12% of totalfemale population compared to 1.6% of total male population – with the proportion of unemployedwomen who are female heads at 56.9% (CERED, 1998: 8-9). Urban women can find more workopportunities afforded by the anonymity of the city, whereas rural women are still held to the normof full-time farm-work, earning little to no income” (Kerzazi and Agoumy, 2004: 63). In southernMorocco, rural women are expected to perform unpaid work outside of the home along withhousework. Women who are at least 15 years-old are considered inactive if they do not, resulting inseasonal work that is rarely a managerial position (Ibid.: 89).If their daytime hours are understood properly, rural women contribute considerably to theeconomic development of southern Morocco, as the Moroccan government publicly recognized inan announcement by Mr. Menmahi, President of the Moroccan Association for the Promotion ofRural Women, at the international forum of female solidarity in Casablanca in 2000 (Ibid.: 7).15All references to Kerzazi and Agoumy (2004) are translations to English by the researcher from French original.22

Under the theme of rural women as a partner in economic development as well as combattingpoverty, Menmahi led the forum to address the grievances of rural women due to poverty,marginalization, exclusion, and abandonment, invoking national responsibility to relieve this socioeconomicsituation (Ibid.). In order to establish aid resources, the Moroccan government openedprofessional training centers that train women in “appropriate sectors such as sewing, embroidery,hair-dressing, typewriting, book-keeping, and musical education [which vary] from rural to urbanareas, since societal standards and ideals differ between the cities and the countryside” (Albert,2007: 59).For example, in southern Morocco, the Agency of Social Development set up a women’scooperative program to manage the argan market, contributing 4.2 million euros alongside 12million euros from the European Union (Ministère de la Communication, 2006: 132). The Agencyexecuted the 2004 project pilot in six provinces (including Taroudannt): mobilizing othergovernment partners as well as beneficiaries around the program; improving the technique of arganoil extraction among the different identified cooperatives; gathering knowledge of the argan oilmarket; and engaging in research on the international market level (Ibid.: 133). Additionally, theAgency started similar programs – consolidating them in 2005 – and five months after Moudawanareform, King Mohamed VI proposed the three axes of the National Initiative of HumanDevelopment: promotion of women’s rights, protection of children, and integration of handicappedpeople into society (Ibid.: 141).Thus, 2004 marked an increase in government initiatives toward women’s legal and socioeconomicempowerment in rural Morocco, translating into collective action as civil societyovercame social barriers. The concept of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as actors in civilsociety is very recent in Morocco. They began to exist in the 1980s as regional associations createdby those with close ties to government officials, representing the ambitions of authorities rather thansocio-economic concerns of civil society (El-Glaoui, 1999: 159). As of 2000, there are more than4,000 NGOs operating in Morocco and encouraging public debate on taboo topics in a majorcontribution “to a significant evolution in Morocco values” (Ibid.). However, NGOs face their ownsocio-economic barriers as most Moroccans are not active within the sector, which is usuallysustained by volunteers from middle and upper classes who often lack necessary skills of needsevaluation and project development, and Moroccans have not been used to donating to such(stigmatized) causes (Ibid.: 160).23

Cultural situationAnalyzing Moroccan Islam and its inherent social structure in the cultural context lendsmore implications of social stigma in the Moroccan experience. Fitna – or chaos – is traditionallybelieved to result from uncontrolled sexuality when women enter the public sphere, threatening thefabric of society as believers are distracted from religious duties of prayer and community welfare(Davis and Davis, 1989: 114). The implications of this is a double-standard of serious culturaloffense and social stimatization: men are less restricted and assumed to occasionally consort withprostitutes while women who have sex outside of marriage (perhaps being enticed) are said to haveruined their reputations and kherjet ‘ala mustaqbel dyalhal – “gone out against her future” (Ibid.:121). Moroccan feminist Fatima Mernissi maintains her pessimism that gender equality can beachieved in Morocco due to this protection of patriarchy. She contends that those who have beenimmersed in the “woman-beauty-seduction discourse” are going to be in an unfamiliar territoryregarding the real need for women’s empowerment: “Life is played out around the struggle forfood, for wages, for some income, however minimal. In the Morocco of women, earning one’sliving is the essential concern and purpose in life” (Mernissi, 1989: 1). Particularly in rural society,patriarchy is still protected, leaving women with a continued lack of socio-economic and culturalinfrastructure of empowerment in an inegalitarian society (Kerzazi, and Agoumy 2004: 30).As analyzed in several anthropological studies, Moroccan society understands socialexperience through five key concepts: God’s will, reason, propriety, obligation, compulsion(Eickelman, 1976: 124). Moroccans construe these notions as Islamic, making these five ideas verycompelling (Ibid.: 125). This reasoning promotes awareness of a larger kin network, making theindividual’s desires second (Davis and Davis, 1989: 134). Most towns in rural Morocco arespatially structured into living quarters held together by personal ties and common interests betweenhouseholds in qaraba, or “closeness,” which suggests kinship due to ties of obligation to each other(Eickelman, 1976: 91). Immigrants tend to settle in areas wherever there is availableaccommodation, causing them to lack qaraba and thus the ability “to mobilize as an effectivegroup, since they lack the economic resources and leadership” (Ibid.: 98).Within this spatial structure of quarters, Moroccan social structure is based upon orderedrelationships of persons rather than groups of persons. Qaraba again carries over to each person’smanagement of the dyadic relationships in their personal networks (Ibid.: 120). This carries intohetero- and homo-relationships within the public sphere: “Sexual segregation is primarily asymbolic spatial confinement of women” (Mernissi, 1985: 157). As women are considered to beprovocative and offensive when in designated male spaces like public streets, they face public24

harassment when attending school or jobs (Ibid.: 143). This then accounts for a variety of socialpatterns, including transformations of social action in the context of modernization. Mernissi arguesthat the Shari’a-based Moudawana views men and women as antagonists and dooms the conjugalunit to conflict” (Ibid.: 163). This is a testimony that the traditional spatial structures have notchanged but reaffirmed men’s right of authority over women they can no longer control.Bearing the Islamic grounding and qaraba idea in mind, Moroccan social experience isoften interpreted from a common-sense perspective of the way things are – “the inequality of menin this world is too matter-of-fact to be a matter of speculation to most Moroccans” (Mernissi, 1985:153). This demonstrates how Moroccan society functions according to the aforementioned fiveconcepts. Many social inequalities are attributed to God’s will as an explanation of both the currentand future state of affairs (Ibid.: 126). The implications here are that Moroccan men are empoweredto take the world as it is and to use their empirical observations to act; however, only for himself, asGod’s will determines the moral and economic fate of others (Ibid.: 128). The second concept ofreason is assumed to be more fully developed in men than in women, simply because femaleactivities are confined to the private sphere of the house and quarter (Ibid.: 132). It is critical to notehere that women still hold power within their own spheres (Ibid.).Propriety as the third concept dictates regular face-to-face relations, a quality acquired as aperson matures. For example, as a boy gains maturity, only his mother will then “continuemanifestly to display affection toward him” (Mernissi, 1985: 138). These ties become so strong thatwidowed or divorced mothers may frequently live with their sons for economic and moral support,pushing the fourth concept of obligation (Ibid.). The pluralistic exchange of obligations isprescribed by Islamic law, and any serious breach in this exchange introduces the fifth concept ofcompulsion that is placed on one who fails to come to another’s aid or faces serious social dishonor(Ibid.: 149). Should this weight not be lifted, a person is condemned by social judgement, whichincludes a man’s economic as well as moral situation (Ibid.).Those who do fall in moral and social judgement are excluded from Moroccan society. Inanother study by anthropologist Rabinow, “even the poorest families were not reluctant to discussand lament their economic situation” (1977: 116). Poverty lacks a stigma in Morocco, as it onlyindicates a lack of material goods, until it is combined with a compromising moral or socialjudgement (Ibid.). Thus, poorer women pregnant outside of wedlock are banished and chastized aslone mothers who are undesirable, illegitimate and socially unrecognized (Laala Hafdane, 2003:163). 16 When they seek economic independence, this is fundamentally considered a revolt and16All references to Laala Hafdane (2003) are translations to English by the researcher from French original.25

defiance of tradition, and society encourages others to let them assume responsibilities for theirdecisions (Ibid.: 167). Lone mothers sometimes find survival options within their own families,particularly their mothers, who help with informal adoption to protect their social honor (Ibid.:170). Social ignorance perpetuates this cyclical barrier of stigmatization to women’s empowermentwith sexual education absent from schools and psychological impact contributing greatly towomen’s empowerment of female-headed households (Ibid.: 173).26

V. WOMEN’S GROUP IN TAROUDANNTThis case study highlights the link between female-headed households and the challengesinherent to the feminization of poverty theory by way of “analyzing intersections betweenconstraints, vulnerabilities and aspirations” (Moore, 2010: 35). Using Rowlands’ dimensions ofwomen’s empowerment, this participatory assessment research with a women’s group in Taroudanntexplores how attempts to change deeply entrenched inegalitarian structures within the legal, socioeconomicand Islamic cultural realms translate into change toward Kabeer’s three components ofwomen’s empowerment – resource, agency and achievement. Qualitative analysis of the stages oflife, marital arrangements, education, employment, social networks, and self-confidence of femaleheadedhouseholds demonstrates the context-specificity required to apply the feminization ofpoverty theory in GAD.TaroudanntAs previously introduced, Taroudannt’s southern and inland location has continued to“render it rather impervious to European contact,” making it an ideal choice for studying traditionalMoroccan society – to which Daisy Dwyer attests in her anthropological study from 1970-78 (1978:8). Of an estimated population of 60,000, Taroudannt’s dwellers – known as Roudaniyin –predominantly maintain “indirect involvement with European paradigms, strategies, knowledge,and affairs,” limiting the agricultural economy to tapping only a few European markets and touristeconomy to attracting a trickle of tourists and entrepreneurs (Ibid.: 8). The town’s geographicsituation on the Souss Plain between the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas Mountains maintains itsposition as a mere stopping point for trekkers and as a regional agricultural producer (Ibid.: 9). Toplace Taroudannt in the national context, Morocco’s GDP and labor market composition show thatthe majority of the rural population continues to work in agriculture – the lowest-yielding GDPsector – which the UNDP estimates includes 70% of the population living under the nationalpoverty line, according to its 2009 report on Morocco (MCT, 2010: 18; UNDP, 2009: 12).Taroudannt’s geographical location has ensured its political and military strength in theregion, which later became less prestigious as nearby Agadir grew into a more Westernized city onthe Atlantic Coast (Dwyer, 1978: 10). While Agadir gave its identity to Western tourism andcommerce, Taroudannt maintained its unique history as the locally coined “Grandmother ofMarrakesh” and regional administrative and economic center (Ibid.; MCT, 2010: 8). Dwyerobserved that Roudaniyin generally didn’t find the Agadir pathway acceptable: “Those who aredrawn to life of the Agadir sort tend to move out of Taroudannt to the larger cities; for the most part,27

there is faith in the city’s life-style among those who remain” (1978: 11). Through my more recentobservations, I can support her example that the sexes are still segregated in the local economy “tomaintain the purity of women and thereby also their families’ honor,” forcing women who need “tosupplement their families’ incomes to work at such jobs as….sewing, cooking and laundering, taskswhich are part-time and generally undertaken in the household” (Ibid.: 17). Dwyer associated thisadherence to daily life traditions to the town’s size and regional history (Ibid.: 21).Legal, socio-economic and Islamic customary segregation as previously analyzed inMorocco limits Roudaniyin women’s empowerment according to Kabeer’s dimensions of resources,agency and achievements. Traditionally, Roudaniyin women of specific street neighborhoods havebeen able to use loosely organized voluntary networks, which are dependent upon their mobility asfemale heads of households, to exhibit power (Dwyer, 1978: 179). Yet, Dwyer cited a socialorganizationalshift in Taroudannt of deteriorating “female support groups,” raising the question ofthe effect of this deterioration as either perceived losses or gains for the women in support of a newconcept of ‘selfhood:’ “The more long-standing notions are key to a specifically Moroccan attitudeabout maleness and femaleness as well as to Moroccan social and economic philosophy, andpressure upon them can affect male-female relations, this time from a more explicitly ideologicaldirection” (Ibid.: 181). This flows into the Moroccan notion of ‘personhood,’ perceived by Dwyeras embedded within Taroudannt society rather than the Western view of isolation over interaction:“It unfolds interactionally, so that personality or character varies rather flexibly from relationship torelationship. The self defines itself contextually” (Ibid.: 182).Participatory assessment research approachApplying Dwyer’s concepts of Taroudannt to Rowlands’ conceptualization of women’sempowerment focuses on access to decision-making and change in people’s perceptions of self inthree dimensions: developing one’s sense of self (i.e. confidence); increasing one’s ability tonegotiate decision-making processes within close relationships; bringing people together to givethem greater power than as individuals (Chant, 2012c: 4). The use of these multidimensionalconcepts also elucidates Chant’s challenges to the feminization of poverty theory. The survival ofsome women who experience extreme cases of responsibility and obligation in a functioninginegalitarian society demonstrates how attempts to change deeply entrenched structures – law vs.rules legitimized by religious tradition – can translate into change in the Moroccan reality ofresource, agency and achievement needed for women’s empowerment.Progress toward the ability to make choices was embraced by the UK-registered charityMoroccan Children’s Trust (MCT) in its establishment of a women’s group piloted in September28

2011 of some of the mothers of the children in its Street Children Project (SCP) at Centre Afak inTaroudannt. The project’s five aims target Rowlands’ dimensions of selfhood, relationships andcollective action; incorporate the objective of Kabeer’s process of change toward the ability to makechoices; and seek outcomes of Kabeer’s resource, agency and achievement:AIM OBJECTIVE OUTCOMETo increase women’sconfidence and selfesteemTo build mutual supportnetworks among thewomenTo support women toexercise their legalrights and access publicservicesTo improve preventativehealth care practicesincluding hygiene andnutrition and encouragew o m e n t o s e e kprofessional medicalhelp when necessaryTo promote positiveparenting practices andreduce violentdisciplinary practicesTo provide a safe space for thewomen to discuss daily problemsthey faceTo provide leisure activitieswhere women can have funTo raise the women’s awarenessof their rights under Moudawanaand services that are available tothemTo i n c r e a s e t h e w o m e n ’sknowledge of preventative healthcare practices including hygieneand nutrition and of recognizingwhen professional medical helpis neededTo i n c r e a s e t h e w o m e n ’sawareness of their influence ontheir children as parents andsupport them to change harmfulparenting practicesIncreased level ofconfidence and selfesteemMutual support networksoperating among thewomen in the projectExercise by the women oftheir legal rights underMoudawana and accessto available servicesImproved health carepractices in the home andan increase in seekingprofessional medical helpwhen necessaryIncreased positiveparenting practices andreduced violentdisciplinary practicesTo monitor women’s empowerment as a multidimensional process of change toward theability of female heads of household to make choices, this project required baseline data. This dataalso contributes to the demonstration of how survival is negotiated over gendered burdens ofpoverty, per the two core assumptions of the feminization of poverty theory: women becomingpoorer than men; poverty as a process of inequality within households. The short baselineinterviews conducted with the six women who are still active group members provide relevantinformation on demographics, literacy, parenting practices, health and hygiene, and self-esteem.While all the women have children participating in the SCP – from 3-8 children – this is oneof the only demographic commonalities. The sample represents a range of life stages, from 27 to 47years-old. One married woman and one widow are from Taroudannt whereas the others are29

originally from Agadir, Ouled Berhil (village in Souss Valley), and Taliouine and Mantaga (Berbervillages in the Atlas Mountains). None of the women are literate (four have basic math skills) andfive of the women work, either full- or part-time in addition to or in substitution of a husband. 17Marital Status of Women in the GroupMarried4Widowed2For the purpose of this in-depth study, the sixth woman is not identified as a female head ofhousehold as she relies solely on the financial support of her husband as well as his fulfilment ofchild-rearing responsibilities of their three children. Mernissi’s Islamic feminist perspective of theMoroccan “traditional image of the Muslim woman, an image that confounds virility with economicpower and femininity with the passive status of consumer,” defines an ‘atypical’ Moroccan femalehead of household as financially active or independent (1985: 148). Thus, the sixth woman’scontribution as a married, uneducated and unemployed woman originally from Taroudannt, servesas a comparison of the status of a ‘typical’ married female non-head of household to the fiveidentified female heads of household.Responsibilities of Female-Headed HouseholdsPrimary IncomeShared IncomeChildcare0 1 2 3 4 5Number of womenMarriedWidowed17Unless otherwise cited, all the following data are based on the 6 women’s interviews listed in the bibliography. Tomaintain confidentiality, all the married heads of household are identified here as M1, M2 and M3; the married nonheadas M4; the widowed heads as W1 and W2. Translations to English by the researcher from French originals.30

Stage of lifeDue to the impermanence of households, there must be differentiation between women’sstages of life in order to link female-headed households with the feminization of poverty theory’simplication of a process. The theory initially seems to hold true by evidence that neither of the twowidowed women worked while their husbands were alive and assumed financial responsibility ofthe household. For example, one of the women’s husbands even worked in Tunisia to support theirfamily, but now, at 47 years-old, she often works on a small farm along with taking care of her fourchildren so that they can study and live in a protective environment. While these circumstanceshave certainly created greater constraints for these two older women, their vulnerabilities are notnecessarily enhanced as both women have networks of other Roudaniyin – family members, friendsand neighbors – who helped support them initially and continue to lend support as needed. Thewomen’s stage of life differentiates routes into being female heads of household and thissignificantly intersects with the following aspects.Marital arrangementsAll the participants share the experience of a marriage that was arranged by their fathers,either to a cousin or to someone who had come to him asking for his daughter. Thus, while none ofthe women give evidence of empowerment from Kabeer’s theorized indicator of marital advantagefrom choosing their own husband, reported sharing of roles and decision-making support Kabeer’sother theorized indicators (Kabeer, 1999: 448). To understand roles in household decision-making,the women were asked prompt questions: whether they would like more children, how they spendtime with their children, how they came to live in their current housing conditions, and what theythink they need to improve their lives long-term. Such qualitative questions offered varied insight.For example, one married woman responded that her husband lives in the same house, buthe does not have any direct contact with their children. She is responsible for supervising them andhe waits for her to ask him to do something with them. If they upset her, she takes disciplinaryaction herself. Both widows explained their roles with their children as those of friends andcounsellors, listening about their daily activities and giving advice.The married non-head of household also used empowering words to describe living with herhusband and children in a place separate from her family – stating that she made the decision to renta different place to make it better for her family to have more room. When asked if she wants afourth child, she responded that while her husband does, she does not because it’s difficult on herstate of health. However, she often addressed her characteristic of being too timid to do certainthings and her husband being too aggressive in his behavior with her and their daughter. This ties in31

Dwyer’s observation that “a strict parental division of labor in the Moroccan family most oftenoccurs when husband-wife pairs are intact, and, indeed seems to be tied to attitudes about malefemalesociality more than to attitudes about child rearing” (1978: 111).All the women were also asked whether there are advantages to not having a husband, andall of them answered very clearly – not unsurprisingly – that there are none at all. The same marriedwoman said that there always must be a father present, because even if he does not speak with hischildren, they are always afraid of his reaction to their behavior or actions. Labelled by Chant as‘trade-offs,’ this link between the feminization of poverty theory and female-headed householdsdoes not hold strong across the heterogenous group as neither of the widows cited a trade-off,perhaps not even considering it as a possibility. One shared her perspective of her husband’s deathas a realization that they had shared all responsibilities, including their children’s education, andnow she has taken on everything.EducationAnother women’s empowerment indicator is the belief in daughters’ education (Kabeer,1999: 448). The most striking observation from the narrative accounts of all six women’s childhoodeducation is that while none of them received an education, all of them actively sought to provideeducational opportunities for their children. 18 Three of the women testified that their parents did notthink to send them to school, including one father constantly telling his daughter that her life is toodifficult for her to concentrate on her studies. During her reflection of her childhood, this participantbecame upset four times as she explained her obligation to her father as a young girl to workcleaning other women’s homes. Yet, she has encouraged all of her five children to attend school,including enrolling her daughter in pre-school at Centre Afak.When this participant lived with her parents, two brothers and four sisters, she may not havereceived an education, but it did not render her powerless in her own household. Thus, this exampledemonstrates how education can be a source of women’s empowerment and runs against thegeneralization of inter-generational transmission of disadvantage in the feminization of povertytheory. It supports my earlier assertion that assuming household headship, even financially, canactually empower mothers to enhance their own children’s well-being – another intersection ofconstraints, vulnerabilities and aspirations.18It is worth acknowledging that since all the participants are active at Centre Afak, which provides educational supportfor their children, their priority of education for their children may not be representative of mothers in Taroudannt.32

EmploymentHalf of the sample have had a lifetime exposure to employment, which Kabeer cites asanother source of empowerment (1999: 448). These three women worked before marriage as younggirls cleaning other houses. One of the widowed women returned to this work when her husbanddied and she assumed financial headship. However, one of the married women never stoppedworking, simply switched occupations to farm-work and added child-rearing responsibilities. Thischallenges the assumption of the feminization of poverty as a process of women becoming poorerthan men.When prompted for their opinions of appropriate employment for women, all theparticipants expressed respect for women who clean for other families or for organizations. Theyexpressed hardship – again unsurprisingly – for women to work on farms or in public, especially atnight. While Dwyer cited in 1978 that Roudaniyin did not allow women to take full-time jobs unlessthey had no sons, fathers or husbands, my current research [see graph below] shows that nowwomen in Taroudannt find stable jobs respectable for themselves and other women – financialautonomy as a source of empowerment (Dwyer, 1978: 111; Kabeer, 1999: 448). Every womancontributed stable work as the most pressing identified need to improving their situations due tohousehold needs being too expensive for one person to manage, without implying that employmentis solely a man’s responsibility. One married woman expressed her lack of agency to change her lifedue to neither her nor her husband having a stable job. Furthermore, the married non-head gave thesuggestion that she could get another job for the mornings as currently she only works in theafternoons. By this, she meant that she volunteers her afternoons at the Taroudannt hospital alongwith one of the widowed participants – an interesting example of agency shared by both a non-headand head of household.2Means of Support of Female-Headed HouseholdsNumber of women10Married Widowed Married Non-HeadCleaning Farm work Sewing Husband (shared) Family & friends33

Social networksSocial networks can also be a source of empowerment for female-headed households againstthe feminization of poverty theory as a process of women becoming poorer than men. As Davidsand Driel assert, the assumption that female-headed households are poorer financially excludeswhether they are poorer emotionally or socially (2010: 107). The participants shared theirexperiences moving to Taroudannt, with the widows additionally explaining how they adapted totheir new status. The graph below shows how the widowed women benefit from multiple sources ofsupport within the local community whereas the married non-head relies solely on her family.Social networks can be a means of negotiating survival as well as an agency of empowerment. Forexample, one of the widows only had an aunt in Taroudannt when she moved from a mountainvillage; however, she found a neighbor who she said considers her like a sister and helped hersurvive her husband’s death.Family Neighbors Centre Afak Friends - “Roudaniyin”2Social Network of Female-Headed HouseholdsNumber of women1Married Widowed Married Non-HeadIn a separate focus group, all of us created together a ranking chart of the top five things wevalue in our daily lives – ‘religion’ first with 29 points to ‘children’ with 21. From her experience ofworking with this women’s group, the current facilitator explained that Islam serves as a means ofcourage for the women to get through the difficult situations in their lives, explaining that “they can34

only get through hard times if they have sons and husbands as there is no information on other waysof help” (Fouady, 2012). 19 For example, the non-head who has both a husband and a son, stated thatshe has neither friends nor neighbors in Taroudannt, despite living there since she was a child. Nowthat she has moved her family into a separate home, she expressed not feeling less constrained, butmore so as she has lost the ability to speak with her two sisters at any time about any problems thatshe is afraid to discuss with her husband.As one of the aims of the women’s group is to be a social network for the participants and toprovide information about their rights, the founder explained that the women came to Centre Afaknot knowing about the changes to Moudawana: “I see this when we start any case not registered inthe family book or don’t have identity papers; most of them are afraid, they don’t know their rights.The government doesn’t give information when they change a law” (Essamer, 2012). Knowledge ofand access to public services – tribunal, hospital, police – is available to Roudaniyin, but thequestion remains whether the women feel self-confident to use these to change their situations.Self-confidenceEvidence of how the Moroccan reality of attempts to change deeply entrenched structurescan translate into change in individual resource, agency and achievement is cited by the women’sgroup facilitator who has witnessed marked change: “Primarily, they have more self-confidence.Also the women have received a lot of information on Moudawana and religion, so there has been achange in habits of the women. Now that they’ve gotten the information, they are interested inchanging their behavior with the ongoing work” (Fouady, 2012).The in-depth interviews reveal most female-headed households as confident in accessingservices, except the tribunals. Yet, the non-head directly stated that she could not access governmentservices, and someone must accompany her if she goes to the hospital. Normally if she or herchildren are sick, she goes to the pharmacy or mixes drugs at home rather than making a visit to adoctor, even a female doctor. She enrolled her family at Centre Afak because the two social workersmoved there from a different local center where she was enrolled. Only one of the other threemarried women also feels that she could not visit a male doctor when she is ill, restricting them tono access of medical help if there is no female doctor. Alternatively, the other four women do notperceive a difference in visiting a male or female doctor.The role of an individual’s low self-confidence – Rowlands’ personal dimension – inaccepting inferior conditions cannot be absorbed into that of the group – Rowlands’ collective19All quotations from Fouady (2012) transcript are translations to English by the researcher from French original.35

dimension. When asked to identify how comfortable they feel speaking in the presence of women,the participants all responded as ‘comfortable’ or ‘very comfortable’ in front of women. However,in front of men, only one widow expressed herself as ‘comfortable’ and one married womanresponded as ‘very comfortable’ – shown in the graph below.Very comfortableLevel of Self-ConfidenceLevel of comfortComfortableNot comfortableM1 M2 M3 W1 W2 M4Individual women by marital statusSpeaking in front of menSpeaking in front of womenBesides cross-referencing confidence levels with the participants’ marital statuses, it isinteresting to add each individual’s reason for not receiving an education:Level of Self-ConfidenceLevel of comfortVery comfortableComfortableNot comfortableM1 M2 M3 W1 W2 M4Worked instead of schoolParents did not send herSchool not availableReason for not receiving an educationIndividual women by marital statusEducation Speaking in front of men Speaking in front of women36

For all those who worked in other people’s homes instead of attending school, the women have‘comfortable’ or high self-confidence speaking in the presence of both women and men. Despite notlearning from peers, these women may have gained confidence from being in the working world soyoung. For the other women who stayed at home as young girls, either because their parents did notthink to send them or there was not a local school available in their village, they only identify selfconfidencewhen speaking in the presence of women. 20 Both the current marital status and theeducational background of these participants may play a role in each woman’s ability to increaseher self-confidence. The impossibility of generalizing the multidimensionality of women’sempowerment and the feminization of poverty theory reinforces my argument that the popularizedlink between them and female-headed households fails to hold a consistent relationship.20The education point of M1 lies between the two categories, because she explained that her parents did not think tosend her or her siblings to a school, except her youngest brother when there was then a local school available.37

VI. CONCLUSIONThe participatory research of this case study and the secondary contextual research provide amultidimensional analysis within a livelihood approach to gendered poverty. As demonstrated bythe contextualization of women’s empowerment and the application of the feminization of povertytheory, the link between these and female headed-households in a functioning inegalitarian societysuch as rural, southern Morocco, does not allow for generalization. This adds to the GAD discourseof how attempts to change deeply entrenched structures – law vs. rules legitimized by religioustradition – can translate into change in individual resource, agency and achievement required forwomen’s empowerment. The emphasis should be on the dimensions of life stages, maritalarrangements, education, employment, social networks, and self-confidence of female heads ofhouseholds in its multidimensional and multi-sectoral qualitative approach as a caution againstover-simplification.From its conception, this study anticipated implications for social policy within thegovernment and action within Moroccan civil society. Making gendered poverty a priority ondevelopment agendas has included unforgivable generalizations – including acceptance of‘poverty’ and ‘gender inequality’ as the same – and it requires a methodology for challengingpolitical practice to empower women (Chant, 2010: 4; Billson and Fluehr-Lobban, 2005: 400). Inthe Moroccan case, several initiatives have attempted to change the social institutional frameworkslimiting women’s opportunities and effective policies need to provide incentives for men to engagein the reform process (Drechsler and Jütting, 2010: 82).President of the Moroccan NGO, L’association Solidarité Féminin, Aicha Ech Chenna citesthe main problem of the ongoing women’s rights movement in Morocco as psychological and deeprootedsocial exclusion: “We need to get Moroccan citizens involved to improve women’s lives,including men and boys. We have an open door policy here, so that anyone – men and women – cancome in and see the work that we do. This helps to decrease misinterpretation” (Ech Chenna,2012). 21 Such a long-term community-led process ideally incorporates individual reflection withgroup peer learning to build toward collective action (Mayoux, 2010: 84). To charge the Moroccangovernment and civil society with setting a goal that values the development of human potentialover profit, Moroccan Islamic feminist Mernissi does it well: “The capacity to invest in women’sliberation is not a function of a society’s wealth, but of its goals and objectives” (1985: 165).21All quotations from Ech Chenna (2012) are translations to English by the researcher from French original.38

It is the aim that the women’s group in Taroudannt can follow this principle to complementthe participatory research approach it currently employs by giving the outcomes of the researchback to the community (McIlwaine and Ferreri, 2011: 4). This present study could serve as afoundation of a longitudinal study or of a more representative sampling of female-headedhouseholds in rural, southern Morocco, to build analysis of how attempts to change deeplyentrenched structures may translate into change toward women’s empowerment.39

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InterviewsEch Chenna, Aicha, President, Association Solidarité Féminine, Casablanca, Morocco, May 2,2012.Essamer, Badiaa, Women’s Group Founder and Social Worker, Moroccan Children’s Trust,Taroudannt, Morocco, June 7, 2012.Fouady, Iqbal, Women’s Group Facilitator and Center Administrator, Moroccan Children’s Trust,Taroudannt, Morocco, April 30, 2012.M1, Women’s Group Member, Moroccan Children’s Trust, Taroudannt, Morocco, May 17, 2012.M2, Women’s Group Member, Moroccan Children’s Trust, Taroudannt, Morocco, May 18, 2012.M3, Women’s Group Member, Moroccan Children’s Trust, Taroudannt, Morocco, May 25, 2012.M4, Women’s Group Member, Moroccan Children’s Trust, Taroudannt, Morocco, May 25, 2012.W1, Women’s Group Member, Moroccan Children’s Trust, Taroudannt, Morocco, May 18, 2012.W2, Women’s Group Member, Moroccan Children’s Trust, Taroudannt, Morocco, May 25, 2012.45

APPENDICESAppendix A – Arabic glossaryfitna! ! ! chaoshadith!! ! tradition of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed.ijmaa! ! ! Islamic consensus of interpretation based on the al-ummaMoudawana! !qaraba! ! ClosenessFamily Code of Moroccoqiyas! ! ! Islamic analogy of the holy teachings of the Prophet MohammedQur’an! ! Islamic book of faithRoudaniyin! !Taroudannt inhabitantsShari’a! ! Muslim law under Islamic jurisprudencetamkine! ! empowerment; also name of 2008 initiative of Morocco’s Ministry of! ! ! Social Development, Family and Solidarity46

Appendix B – Focus groupAimTo find out what the women rank as the main things of value in their daily lives.DescriptionIdeally, we would have asked the women to list what they see as the top things they value in theirdaily lives. Because the women were often reluctant to give answers to questions of this type atprior meetings (or gave very general answers), we hypothesized what these might be based on theknowledge we had about their lives gained through the social work carried out at Centre Afak. Theoptions we offered were:■ Views of the community■ Children■ Housing■ Money■ Work■ Food■ HealthAfter consulting with the women’s group facilitator, we also included:■ Religion■ Husband■ Men■ EducationWe asked the women if they would like to add other categories; however, they did not have anyother suggestions.We drew a simple image representing each of the categories and lined them up on a whiteboardwith the women’s names written at the side (due to the women’s illiteracy the facilitator would callout their names when it was their turn). The women were given 5 pieces of paper of differentcolours and sizes which they would blue-tack to the whiteboard in order of priority.Values in Daily Life Ranking Chart(created by participants of focus group 26/04/2012)M1M2M3M4W1W2TotalscoreViews ofcommunityReligion Children Housing Money Husband Work Men Food Education Health1 29 21 14 3 0 7 0 0 2 13Level of priority:5 4 3 2 147