Muslim Single Moms Demand Rights

by Abderrahim El Ouali

(IPS) CASABLANCA -- She always thought she was married. Two years into it she became pregnant. Her Islamist husband ordered her to get an abortion, and when she refused, he left her.

There was little she could do, said the woman who chose to remain unnamed. The 'husband' had convinced her that marriage with a certificate attached to it was "haram" (prohibited), she told IPS.

Abortion, unless required on medical grounds is forbidden in Islam, but that did not appear to bother the Islamist 'husband.'

"What happened to me has led me to hate all bearded men (Islamists), and to get rid of the veil, because the beard is only a mask to hide their evil side," she said.

Now she will have the Islamists against her because she is a single mother. Al Muqri Idrissi Abuzaid, a senior member of the Islamist Party (PJD) has pronounced that all children of single mothers are "bastards."

The PJD and other Islamist movements in Morocco have opposed the official 'national plan for women's integration' that seeks to help such women as an "act of atheism" and a "secularist" attempt to eradicate what remains of Sharia (Islamic law) in Morocco. The national plan seeks to provide more civil and political rights to Moroccan women. The PJD was founded in 1998, and has 42 members in a 325-seat parliament.

The Oum Al Banine became the first group in Morocco to begin to help single mothers. Its campaign began in Agadir province in the south of Morocco in the 1980s. Moroccan Islamists responded by accusing him of promoting prostitution. Islamists have since then continued to abuse the children of single mothers as "bastards."

But Islamists themselves have been responsible for quite a few of these children. Police investigations showed that many of the Islamist extremists arrested for the May 16, 2003 bombings in Casablanca had children with many women outside of marriage.

The Casablanca bombings killed 45 people. Miloudi Zakaria, leader of the extremist group Assirat Almoustaquim (The Right Way) arrested for the bombings was himself 'married' to many women, but without ever getting a marriage certificate, the police said.

The certificate system is dispute. Some scholars argue that it is not outside Islam because the Koran clearly mentions the "marriage contract" in several verses. But during the time of prophet Mohammed, writing was not common in Arabia because of the lack of paper. Therefore, no marriage certificates were executed at the time and marriage became legal by the presence of two witnesses. The Islamists are using this argument to deny the validity of a marriage certificate.

Many of the children born outside of formal marriage become homeless. Social researcher Moubarak Rabi estimates that there are more than 200,000 homeless children in Morocco (the country has a population of 30 million). Most of these are children of single mothers, he says in a study.

Pregnancy outside of marriage is illegal in Morocco. But single pregnant mothers are no longer sent into prison primarily because prisons have no room for them, activists say. Moroccan prisons are getting more crowded. A report by the Moroccan ministry of justice shows that there were only 16,335 prisoners in Morocco in 1973. By 2003, the number of prisoners was 54,542. The report adds that in nine prisons the average space per prisoner is less than one square metre.

Several civil society groups have campaigned also that imprisonment of such women is too harsh a measure. Sexual activity among unmarried people is considered "hchouma" (shameful). But civil society groups led by the Oum Al Banine association argue that ignorance due to lack of sexual education in schools is largely to blame for unwanted pregnancies.

The independent Insaf group estimates that 36 percent of single mothers in Casablanca, the economic center of Morocco, are maids, 32 percent are working women and girls, especially those in the textile industry, 13 percent are unemployed, and 2 percent are prostitutes. The remaining are from a range of other professions and backgrounds.

The group said following a study that in Casablanca 42 percent of single mothers are illiterate, 35 percent have no more than primary education, and 14 percent secondary school education. Only seven percent had completed school education, and only two percent were university graduates.

With such clear indications that education helps prevent pregnancy outside of marriage, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) is demanding that education be made free and compulsory. It is also demanding legislation to protect women working as maids.

It says new legislation should provide for taking care of single mothers and for them to take preventive measures that would reduce unwanted pregnancies.

Their campaign is running into opposition from Islamists who want single pregnant women to be stoned to death in public to "set an example" to other women. The country is caught at present in an ideological and political battle between the two sides.