Mariane Pearl on unwed Moroccan mothers
Myrtus has already posted about this, but I felt compelled to spread it even further. Glamour, which I actually subscribe to back home, just published a piece in which Mariane Pearl visits Morocco for her monthly Global Diary segment.
Pearl meets with activist Aicha Ech-Chenna, founder of Solidarity Feminine in Casablanca, an organization which helps unwed mothers to keep their babies and overcome stigma and hardships.
Most of Morocco’s unwed mothers are poor, illiterate women from the countryside who started working as domestic servants, or “little maids,” as young as age seven, explains Aicha. Handed over into virtual enslavement by their families, the girls spend long hours cooking and cleaning for better-off Moroccans. Their fathers take what little money they make. After years of this, many girls will have sex with any man who promises marriage; countless others are raped. Those who get pregnant often end up on the streets—and worse. “These girls are at risk of being beaten and even killed,” Aicha says.
The full article is here.
May 10th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
This is another subject (along with prostitution in Morocco) that TelQuel covered very well about five years ago. And these unfortunate girls don’t have sex hoping to get married and escape bondage - they are used by the male members of the families they work for! If they are caught or inevitably impregnated, they are tossed onto the streets.
May 11th, 2007 at 2:19 am
Of course, as the article points out, the fate of the women is only one half of the story, the children of unwed mothers often suffer terribly.
May 11th, 2007 at 5:17 am
Great article, but will she bring up her husband’s name in EVERYTHING she writes from now on? Sheesh, I think we all know who she is.
May 15th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
to Liosliath:
Mariane’s death of her husband compeled her to write about the plea of women around the world. She should remind us all of the waste of the human life. Dan Pearl died and for what? The women she is writing about are slowly dying. Iam sure that deep down these women wish they were dead or nevre born. Mariane brought up a taboo subject that we Moroccans dont like to talk about and it takes someone with guts to do it and for that she has my support and prayers.
Rachid
May 29th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Then let her write about the “plea” of women then. Her husband took a risk, and lost. We all know the story.