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Citizenship in Morocco

Posted by on June 25, 2014

Throughout my time in Morocco, I’ve had many conversations with Moroccans about what it means to be a good, active Moroccan citizen.  Surprisingly, almost all of the Moroccans I interviewed viewed the concepts of political participation and active citizenship as separate entities. They believed that one could be a good Moroccan citizen without being at all politically active. This might coincide with the fact that so many of the Moroccans I talked to were not politically active at all. Most of them thought that being a good, active citizen had more to do with how involved in the community one was rather than how involved one is in politics. Many the Moroccans who said that political engagement is a component of active citizenship still considered themselves active citizens even though they themselves were not politically active at all.

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Desert Kitty (taken by Lien Hoang)

 

In fact, many of the Moroccans I talked to actively avoid politics. Many of them view being politically involved as a social stigma. They have a very high level of mistrust in their government and refuse to involve themselves in politics as a sort of protest against the government. Some of them do not vote because they believe their vote is worthless. They believe that because of corruption and the current political climate in Morocco that their one vote will change nothing, and that even if they vote that their problems with the government will not be solved. Thus, they do not vote. The “it’s only one vote, what can it do” excuse is prevalent in the US as well.

However, most of the Moroccans I met were involved in their communities in some way, even if they were not politically active. Four out of the five Moroccan women Steven and I interviewed for our final paper were part of community organizations and participated in activities such as visiting retirement homes, visiting children with cancer, and collecting food to give to the poor during Ramadan. Through the group’s weekly volunteer work, I met many Moroccans who are very invested in bettering their community through civic engagement.

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Atlas Mountains

The problem with citizenship in Morocco or in any democratic country, however, is that it does include a political aspect as well, and I met very few Moroccans who were active in both spheres. In 2011 only 28% of eligible Moroccans actually turned out to vote in the parliamentary elections (http://www.idea.int/vt/countryview.cfm?id=138). Having seen protestors get beat up by police in Rabat and hearing about the death of an Islamic Party leader at a political meeting, I can understand why many Moroccans are reluctant to join demonstrations or a political party as a means of expressing their frustration. However, the point of a democratic system of government is to allow citizens to participate in their own governance and to have a say in the direction of their country, and the formal way of expressing those views is to vote. Many of the Moroccans I talked to were very disgruntled with their government, yet they refuse to exercise the right, granted to them by their status as Moroccan citizens, to try to change their elected government.

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On the way to the Sahara

Thus the greatest way most Moroccans can be better, more active local citizens is to be more engaged in their own governance, to exercise their democratic rights as Moroccan citizens. Of course there is room for more civic engagement and a larger civil society in Morocco, but in my interactions with Moroccans over a six-week period, I noticed a far greater level of civic engagement than political engagement.  The simple act of voting in local and parliamentary elections is a good first step for most Moroccans. Most of the Moroccans I met were knowledgeable on political issues and somewhat interested in politics, but for all their knowledge and interest they do not vote.

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Atlas Mountains

As for the global citizenship of Moroccans, most of the Moroccans I met knew a lot about what was happening within North Africa and in Spain or France, but knew little about the rest of the world. (Some of their notions about America actually made me laugh because of how idyllic they made America sound.) Thus I believe that most Moroccans can become better global citizens simply by becoming more informed about more global issues, rather than just issues within North Africa or other Arab countries.

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