Experiences and strategies fighting violence against women in Morocco

• Grant number: 13/04222-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: May 01, 2013
• End date: September 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Guita Grin Debert
• Grantee: Rebecca de Faria Slenes
• Supervisor: Fatima Harrak
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Mohammed V University of Rabat,
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/18722-0 - Negotiation of meanings: violence and women's rights in the practice of NGOs in Morocco, BP.MS

Abstract

The goal of this project is to understand and problematize the discourses and strategies used by activists working in women´s rights non-profit organizations (NGOs) in Morocco to fight violence against women. With the orientation of researcher Fatima Harrak from the Institut des Etudes Africaines, an ethnographic study will be done in an NGO that works with women victims of violence in the small city of El Hajeb in Morocco, as well as visits and interviews with activists in other Moroccan NGOs. Archives in libraries and research centers in Rabat and Casablanca will also be consulted and participation in lectures and meetings with researchers in these centers will be arranged. This research intends to observe how notions of violence and rights are conceived and instrumentalized by local actors, in this case NGO activists, and how these activists relate to women in situations of violence that seek help from the NGO. This research will contribute to anthropological reflections on violence and on how global feminist networks gain specific articulations in Islamic or Mediterranean contexts. (AU)