The latest attack on record has been a jail sentence pronounced on Monday from a court in Casablanca against Said Laâjal, a journalist in Al Massa'e, a widely read daily newspaper, and his publisher Rachid Nini, a popular columnist. Both journalists have been accused of “publication of false information” in connection with an article on a case of drug trafficking. Nini has declared that he won't be appealing the verdict (source: AFP). Bloggers have been reflecting on the case and the state of affairs.

eatbees, an American novelist, photographer and blogger who lives in Morocco has his suspicions about the real motivation of the prosecutors. He writes:

This is the criminalization of journalism, pure and simple. Reporters sometimes make mistakes and report things that turn out to be false. There are ways to handle that, but sending the journalists to jail is not one of them. I have the strong suspicion that Nini and Laâjal were prosecuted, not because of the facts of the case, but because they embarrassed someone important. Or maybe this was just a convenient way to go after Nini, who as publisher of Morocco’s most widely read newspaper and author of Morocco’s most widely read opinion column, is becoming a power center in his own right.

If Nini follows through on his commitment not to appeal, and goes to prison, it will be an act of courage and of civil disobedience. It will make him a martyr for press freedom in the eyes of millions of Moroccans. Good luck with that, Moroccan state.

It is worth mentioning that the journalist is already under a heavy fine for libel, threatening to bankrupt the whole publication, as blogger Ibn Kafka wrote recently [Fr], referring to a letter alleged to be written by Nini, pleading for a royal pardon:

Rachid Nini vit légitimement fort bien de cette florissante entreprise de presse (dans le contexte ravagé de la presse marocaine)…
[Il] aurait adressé une supplique au Roi […] dans laquelle il demande l’absolution des pêchés – en clair, la grâce pour son journal. Rien ne permet de garantir cette information, qui en soi n’est pas infâmante.

Rachid Nini has raised controversy recently when he publicly disavowed one of his journalists who showed support for colleagues who were being harrassed and prosecuted by the government. Larbi, who is blogging on Comme une bouteille jetée à la mer!, argues [Fr] this doesn't make Nini worthy of a jail sentence nor should the journalist be considered a hero. He writes:

[H]eureusement que tout le monde n’a pas la même conception de la liberté d’expression et liberté de la presse que celle de Monsieur Nini. La place des journalistes n’est pas la prison mais dans leurs rédactions. Cela vaut pour tous les journalistes. Cela vaut pour Monsieur Nini . Et encore plus pour le journaliste Saïd Laâjal. La place de Rachid Nini et de Saïd Laâjal n’est pas la prison mais dans leur rédaction. Je suis bien entendu solidaire avec Rachid Nini et Saïd Laâjal. Parce que la peine de prison ferme qui leur est infligée est injuste au vu de ce qui leur est reproché. Et parce que même Monsieur Nini a a droit à ce qu’il a toujours dénié aux autres : exercer son métier de journaliste et s’exprimer librement, sans intimidations et sans procès arbitraires débouchant sur des peines infamantes.

An opinion shared by Naoufel who explains [Ar] that Press freedom should apply to everyone, even to Mr Nini. He writes:

هو بالنسبة لي شخص وقح .. انتهازي و متملق، يكتب ضد أي شيء إلا الملك..يحاكم الحكومة و الشعب و زملائه في الصحافة لكنه لا يتجرأ أن يقترب من مربع القصر رغم أن اصغر طفل في المملكة التي لم تعد شريفة يعرف أن أصغر قرار لا يمر دون دراية الملك..كتب ضد من كانوا زملائه[…]
الآن..هل نتضامن معه؟
لا خيار آخر

Image by Hisham G., photo by Opus

Extramarital sex in Morocco is taboo, technically punishable by imprisonment, though the law is rarely enforced.  Unwed motherhood then, is the ultimate taboo, and women who get pregnant out of wedlock are often shunned from their communities.  That's where activist and social worker Aicha Ech Chenna comes in: In 1980, after witnessing an unmarried mother give up her child, Ech Chenna formed a social work practice with the sole purpose of helping unwed mothers.  Now, nearly 25 years after its official inception, Solidarité Féminine employs women at two restaurants, a bakery, four small shops, and a hammam (bath), and provides them with health care, child care, and job skills.  The organization also provides women with legal assistance, helping them to officialize surnames for their children (in Morocco, women lack authority to give their children a surname, and without a surname, it is nearly impossible to get an ID card).

And so, in Solidarité Féminine's 24th year, 68-year-old Aicha Ech Chenna has just been awarded the world's largest faith-based prize for entrepreneurship, the Opus Prize.  The prize will provide the organization with 1 million USD (over 750,000 MAD).  The Moroccan-American board, based in Washington DC, held an event for Ech Chenna, capturing the event on video and sharing it via YouTube:

Moroccan blogger Hisham of The Moroccan Mirror started his career as a doctor in Morocco, and has seen the plight of unwed mothers in Morocco firsthand. He writes of the experience, and lauds Ech Chenna for her efforts, saying:

We heard terrible stories about some unwed pregnant women being rejected from clinics by doctors or nurses, and about newborns being abandoned near the gates of hospitals and clinics, and we saw those same abandoned babies and infants (“ben X” they were called, or “son of X”) being brought to the maternity unit, malnurished and dehydrated.

To be fair, those women were reasonably well treated, though one could sense the coldheartedness with which their cases were addressed. It was then that I first heard of organizations like “Solidarité féminine,” “Association enfance espoir Maroc” or “Bayti,” and of wonderful people like Aicha Ech Chenna who took upon themselves the burden of helping those young mothers and abondened children, in a society that continues to put the responsibility of extra-marital relationship, mainly on women. A terrible stigma that only people like Ech Chenna might help erase.

Saudi Arabia is gearing up for the Haj season, where millions of Muslims will converge to Mecca to perform pilgrimage. At Crossroads Arabia, John Burgess writes:

With Haj due to start in just a couple of weeks, the Saudis are really bearing down on the issue of an outbreak of swine flu. Saudi Gazette reports on a conference of Saudi medical emergency experts to make sure that plans are locked down. The article notes that residents of Mecca and Medina will be among the first Saudis to be offered swine flu vaccines. This would help to establish a sort of fire-break in the case of a rapid spread of the disease.

In Turkey, the situation isn't as acute. Turkish blogger Erkan  admits that he was more afraid of previous pandemics:

I did not have a single moment of panic, I declare. I do not know why. I was more worried with crimean congo hemorrhagic fever or bird flu.
However, there is a low level panic feeling about swine flu now here in Istanbul, too. What is promising is that many ordinary people are in fact following authorities and try to take measures as much as they could. They are not fatalistic and they sure are not as indifferent as I am.

Meanwhile, at Memories Documented, Jordanian Qwaider shares a conspiracy theory:

A friend of mine, is one of those believing in every possible conspiracy that involves pharmaceutical companies. She would argue for hours on how vaccines are bad, and how the companies are deliberately taking actions to “reduce the human population” starting with the young, the weak and the ill.

He adds:

I think people are scared, and when people get scared they create demons, and feel afraid and threatened by them. When people are afraid many stick to the norms that they are comfortable with.

But diseases might require a person to go out of their regular routine to get better…

I'm not sure, but I believe in science… I really do, and I would take the words of doctors and pharmacist over the words of any conspiracy theorists no matter how hard they tried to convince me.

And The View from Fez, from Morocco, has the following update on H1N1:

Forty-two new H1N1 cases were confirmed on Thursday in the cities of Casablanca, Tanger, Marrakech, Fès, Benslimane, Oujda and Meknès, the health ministry said.

This takes the total of confirmed cases to 592, including 297 cases in schools, the ministry said in a statement.

All the patients are receiving home care, with medical check-ups, said the ministry, adding that none of the cases is complicated. The ministry made clear that no case of death was documented in the country.

Moving on to lighter observations, Jordanian Hareega writes:

I understand how terrible H1N1 can be, but if you smoke 3 packs of cigarettes and enjoy a ginormous seder of mansaf (Jordanian rice dish) everyday don't worry much about H1N1. Something else will get you faster.

In the same post, Hareega adds:

Seven Jordanians died of H1N1 so far. Ten times that number died while watching our football team lose to UAE 3-1. We need to set our priorities straight. Before vaccinating the nation send our football players to jail.

I See the Light by si David on Flickr

The plan, unveiled in the southern Moroccan city of Ouarzazate during a ceremony attended by king Mohammed VI and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will, according to the local news agency, enable the country to equally divide its renewable energies' national production between solar, wind and hydroelectric sources by the year 2020. By then, renewable energies will account for 38% of the country's overall energy production, according to the source.

Taha Balafrej, blogging on Vue du Maroc [Fr], explains that there might be a viable economic basis for the country's new policy inclination. He writes:

Dans le milieu des affaires, un intérêt grandissant est perceptible. Il faut reconnaître que l’effet Obama n’est pas étranger à cette prise de conscience animée par les opportunités économiques qu’elle engendre. Un pays comme le Maroc qui dépend presque entièrement des importations pour son énergie, et dont les ressources en eau se raréfient, a tout intérêt à rejoindre les pays qui y croient et y investissent.

The solar project, which is both publicly and privately funded, will benefit from American solar and steam technology, which seems to have won the market over traditional investors–primarily French–which is something thestrategist, blogging on Genesis Morocco, unequivocally endorses:

Seems the Europeans are out on this one. A clean shot for [American investors]. I'm all for it, the Europeans cannot match the Americans expertise in managing large scale programs…

thestrategist, publishing an open letter to the Moroccan king, further explains [Fr] his enthusiasm. He writes:

[Cette technologie pourrait] nous libérer des aléas de la pluviométrie en utilisant l'énergie abondante et renouvelable […], afin de dessaler l'eau de mer et approvisionner outre les besoins de l'industrie et des ménages, un système d'irrigation nationale en appoint, voire en remplacement, de la stratégie des barrages…

Whilst the majority seems to be supporting the scheme, not everybody is impressed. Jebli, commenting [Fr] on a post published by online news journal, Hesspress [Ar], finds the cost way too expensive. He writes:

[C]e projet solaire va produire 2000Mega Watt/h, pour un cout de 9 milliards de dollars, ce qui est TROP TROP TROP cher.
Une centrale nucléaire, sa construction de bout en bout coute 1,5 milliard de dollars et produit 1000Mega watt/heure.
Ainsi, avec 9 milliards de dollars le Maroc aurait pu créer 6 centrales nucléaires, et aurait produit 6000Mega watt/heure.
Franchement, je ne comprend pas le choix de nos dirigeants, ils choisissent des téchnologies au hasard, sans réflichir, vraiment ils gaspillent l'argent public.

Commenting on the same post, Hay Bin Yaqdan sees in the project [Ar] another stranglehold of foreign powers on local resources. He writes:

The quintessential element of Moroccan cooking…the tajine!

Ask anyone who's never been what they know about Morocco, and it's likely that one of the first words out of their mouth will be “couscous.”  The seminal Moroccan dish is famous the world over, and to many, is synonymous with the country itself.  But Moroccan cuisine goes far beyond couscous, offering delectables both sweet and savory, meaty and vegetarian.  And this week, bloggers are tempting us with all of it!

The View from Fez digs into couscous in a post about Peace Corps volunteer Cynthia Berning (a blogger herself), who is working with Association ENNAHDA to create an eco-tourism experience around food.  The blogger writes:

Now the association has an eco-tourism project where groups of visitors are welcomed to Khoukhate to learn the secrets of a good Moroccan couscous, and at the same time experience traditional rural life. Visitors roll their own couscous from scratch with the local women, and then cook it and eat it for lunch.

(A note to tourists: Fez Food has teamed up with Association ENNAHDA to offer the experience in the city of Fez.)

Typical seven-vegetable couscous (photo by ukcider*)

Moving to American blogger 760 Days in Morocco, we learn about fast food options in the city of Rabat.  The blogger shares her favorite quick-stop restaurant, writing:

Our favorite place for roasted chicken platters is Brador Pizza Restaurant because their rice is deliciously spiked with veggies, cloves and herbs.  They also serve roasted garlic and herb potatoes, plus fries and their tomato sauce is excellent.  Any leftovers from there are promptly eaten as a snack later in the evening.  One of the best parts of this meal is the price, usually 20-25 DH at any given place which is $2.60-3.25 as of today’s exchange rate- for all that food!

The blogger also shares a tempting soup recipe accompanied by photos of the finished product.

Photo from Mint Tea & Tagine

After couscous, tajine is probably the best-known dish (or group of dishes) that comes to mind.  Named for the conical pot it's cooked in, a tajine can take many forms; some are filled with meat and eggs, while others combine sweet and savory with chicken and prunes.  The aptly-named blog Mint Tea & Tagine shares a delectable-sounding recipe for Chicken and Fennel Tajine, complete with photographs (see left).

And what would any good cuisine be without dessert?  The blogger behind The Good Life in Morocco shares some photographs of delicate Moroccan pastries in this post.  And of course, what would any dessert be without an obligatory (best obligation ever!) cup of steaming hot mint tea?  Christine Benlafquih, the About.com guide to Moroccan food, recently shared the darija vocabulary for tea:

Atay is the Moroccan Arabic word for tea. In Morocco, green tea is usually steeped in a berrad (Moroccan teapot) with lots of mint (na'na') and then sweetened with generous amounts of sugar.

The resulting drink is Morocco's famous mint tea, or atay bi na'na. The Moroccan Mint Tea Recipe tells how to make it, and you can see more Moroccan tea recipes in the glossary listing for atay.

For those do-it-yourself types following along at home, Christine's page is an excellent place to find authentic Moroccan recipes.  And for an extra-special treat, you can follow Mediterranean cooking expert (and cookbook author) Paula Wolfert on Twitter.  Happy cooking!

*Creative Commons-licensed photo by ukcider.

Zineb Chtit at the trial (courtesy Oujdacity)

In September, we learned about Zineb Chtit, the young Moroccan girl who was severely beaten while working as a maid.  Last week, it was announced that Zineb's attacker Nawal Houmin, the wife of the couple who had hired her, was to be punished for the crime with a sentence of three years imprisonment and a $13,000 fine.  Many human rights groups have spoken out about the sentence, calling it too lenient. 
Says blogger Crazy Moor:

But several Moroccan rights groups say they would appeal on behalf of the country’s estimated 60 thousand to 80 thousand child labourers.

The chair of the Association, “Don’t Touch My Children”, Najia Adib, says the sentence does not regret the scale of the atrocities committed, because the little girl was locked up in a cellar.

The case occurred in the eastern Moroccan city of Oujda.  Popular website Oujdacity.net, which calls itself the “premiere portal for eastern Morocco,” remarked on the incident, saying [ar]:

Solidarité Maroc remarked somewhat sarcastically [fr]:

Malgré les dénonciations concernant les deux époux, seule l'épouse a été inculpée, alors que le juge a été innocenté. Encore une illustration de la justice, au Maroc.

Blogger Moustapha Mouden of the collective blog SidiSlimane [ar], remarking on a 2M program on child labor, says of the issue:

The blogger also remarks on the issue of awareness, something that the laws cannot change:

Special thanks to Hisham for assistance with this post.

Torn between insistent calls for modernization and a powerful conservative drive; caught in an excruciating debate over which languages to include in its programs; overburdened by an opaque and centralized administration, the Moroccan education system has long been the target of passionate critiques, not least among bloggers.

Mohamed [Ar], who's a university student, laments about a methodology based primarily on blind, unquestionable memorization that seems to prevail throughout the official curricula. He writes:

لا يهم أن نفهم ما نحفظ أو أن نحاول فهمه، فقط إحفظ، ثم أتل ما حفظت، ودع الفهم لذوي العقول الراجحة..
لم يكن يفرقنا عن الببغاوات الرمادية الكثير: تلقي مجموعة أسطر وفقرات، نحفظها عن قلب ظهر أو عن ظهر قلب فلا يهم، الأهم أن نستعرض ما حفظناه يوم الرعب: وعند الإمتحان يذل الحافظ أو يهان..
بدأت تتكشف لي معالم الجامعة، تجارب نحفظها لنتظاهر بتطبيقها في المختبرات، أو لنقل شبه مختبرات تحريا للصدق. طُلب من أستاذ نتيجة تجربة فأجاب، سُئل لماذا هذه القيمة بالضبط؟ قال إنها القيمة التي حصل عليها فوج السنة الماضية! حتى الأساتذة يحفظون النتائج كما أنزلت ولله الحمد..

Beside damning rates of illiteracy, figures suggest that high numbers of children are unable to access schools, whilst others abandon education at an early age, as Ammar al-Khalfi [Ar], writing on Nebrass E'shabab, argues. He writes:

The overall budget allocated to education on a yearly basis remains poor. This materializes more blatantly when one looks at the dilapidating infrastructure of some schools. Abderrazak E'ttabi [Ar], blogging on ‘Akrab al-Net reports on the case of a collapsing public school in Ksar al-Kabir. He writes:

الذي سيرى الصور من الوهلة الأولى قد يعتقد أنها صور التقطت من قلب مدينة تعرضت لهزت أرضية أو قصف جوي و موجة من أمواج تسونامي المدمرة ، لكن الواقع و الحقيقة أن الصور الملتقطة هي لمدرسة لم يمضي على افتتاحها سوى سنوات قليلة بمدينة القصر الكبير ، و بالضبط بالحزام الهامشي للمدينة ، تصدعات و شقوق تؤدن بانهيار وشيك قد يتسبب في كارثة كبرى يكون ضحيتها في المقام الأول أطفال أبرياء.

The author publishes those pictures taken by a teacher at the school:

The broader issue of language often appears as a major concern. French is held as the medium for higher education in a country where most people speak vernacular Arabic. Although Berber languages (or Tamazight) have recently been incorporated into the official curricula, some like Ibrahim Murabit [Ar], blogging on Nebrass E'shabab, think it is too little too late. He writes:

Each civilization is measured by the extent and influence of its language and culture. Here in Morocco, we have been witnessing a heated struggle for influence between French, Spanish and English cultural centers, to disseminate their culture and languages, offering their services for symbolic fees; or mostly for free. Why are we self-loathing our culture, history and languages, especially Tamazight, and holding them in contempt?

Mirroring the Moroccan society, conservative and progressive groups often try to fill in the cultural vacuum within universities, animating debates and arranging meetings and lectures. This doesn't always happen without clashes. From Tangiers, Vamprita [Ar] recounts the story of a meeting she succeeded in organizing with fellow undergraduates, inviting some prominent Moroccan comedians. What looked like a successful gathering, soon turned into chaos by some angry conservative students:

Despite successive and ambitious “make-believe” reforms, bloggers seem to echo a wider popular sentiment of the fiasco of a public education system that fails to deliver, leaving the way for a prosperous and lucrative private school system, spread across urban centers and inaccessible to a wide range of the population.