The Moroccan media, both traditional and digital, does not offer visibility or support to feminist claims in Morocco.

This is the view of the Moroccan journalist and women’s rights activist Fedwa Misk, who has given a lecture at the IEMed on the relationship between the media and the feminist movements in Morocco. The journalist argued that in Morocco women come from a long historical struggle for their rights since the middle of the last century.

The 20 February Movement in 2011, which emerged in the framework of the Arab Spring, was a new awakening by Moroccan women, who also went onto the streets to call for a democracy that provides more rights and justice for women. However, Fisk regrets that it immediately became clear that for most men the feminist battle was not a priority. The following year, the Islamist party PJD, wholly opposed to the principles of feminist movements, came to government. In this context, and lacking a media outlet that offered an area of debate on the demands and status of women, Fisk created the digital media outlet Qandisha, which was active until 2016.

Fisk has expressed pessimism about the ability of the media in Morocco to involve the public in the big debates on the status and empowerment of women, partly because of the economic crisis and lack of a model of reference affecting journalism and partly the machism prevailing in newsrooms. However, she believes there is a new awareness among new generations of women about the need to fight not only to make progress in gender equality but also not to lose those rights taken for granted.

The event was introduced by Xavier Giró, professor of Political Journalism at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and co-director of the Master on Communication, Armed conflicts, Peace and Social Movements (UAB) with which the IEMed has co-organized this lecture of its Aula Mediterrània series in 2019.

WATCH LECTURE HERE

WATCH INTERVIEW HERE