CAES Morocco: Advanced Leadership Theories, Ethics, and Culture

       I consider myself a women's and girls' education advocate, and today's visit was one memorable event on our Morocco trip. The women's cooperative Ennajah was genuinely inspiring to see an entire women-run farmland and meet the women who started the program in 2008.        According to Dr. Rashid from the Ecole National Agriculture (ENA), with the strategic Green Morocco Plan (GMP), From 2008, the Government's goal was to advance Morocco's agricultural sector by creating opportunities to export to the international Market and providing Investments to local farmers including women to address poverty and employment issues in rural areas. Ennajah cooperative is tangible proof and one of the multiples women's cooperatives in the country that shows the impact of the (GMP)and how much Morocco has progressed in supporting women and small businesses.             Twenty women work in th...

       One of the most notable features of Morocco has been its beautiful doors. Often elaborate and deceptively hidden, these doors reveal more about Moroccan society than simply an entrance to a house. In Fes, we were first told of the doors specific features. According to our tour guide, each door consists of a larger and smaller door, one for the homeowners and one to be opened wider for guests. This was noted to have come from a long history of conflict but more importantly, from a need for women to differentiate between the knocks of men and of family. This is due to societal practices that dictate should it be only men, they cannot receive female visitors and so that women are not seen without proper dress by unrelated persons (Stratmann). Further mention of these doors in our tour of Meknes reveals a strong component of religious humility as anyone who enters is bowing before the owner and Allah.      Seeing how tied women's role in society is ...

 Morocco is a constitutional monarchy currently led by King Muhammed VI, who presides over the Council of Ministries. The king shares executive power with the Prime Minister of Morocco, the head of government, who he appoints based on the political party with the most votes. The Prime Minister nominates potential government representatives, and then the king makes the final approval of those candidates. Therefore, the king and the Prime Minister share a great responsibility in determining government representation. The current king is known to be more progressive than previous leaders, giving hope to the new generation of aspiring politicians, especially women.  Notable measures of women's participation in politics have been made in the past few years, largely due to the quota system. Introduced in 2002 at the national level, the system's goal was to guarantee female political involvement, and it expanded to regional levels in 2009. Since then, women's sections and committe...

Stereotypes of Muslim countries often portray misogyny and oppression of women.  While I would not say women find equity with men in Morocco, this country makes tremendous efforts to empower women and place them in traditionally male occupations in other countries, even the US.  We have found many women that are scientists, engineers, politicians, and in leadership managerial roles.   At L'Ecole Nationale Agriculture, Professor Dr. Ouszzani explained that most of their students were female.   We asked why this was.  He further explained that most Morrocan families send their sons to college abroad first and then allow the daughters to finish college in Morroco at a less expensive university.  This shows a hierarchy in families when it comes to education.  Secondly, in Chefchouen, we visited a mosque where the only woman to ever become a ruler of a city in Morocco ruled.  There has never been a female monarch.  The monarchy in Morocc...

 Upon coming to Morocco, I knew that they were not accepting of LBGTQ+ individuals. Still it shocked me to not see anyone that expressed themselves in any other ways than distinctively masculine and distinctively feminine in the way they dress. This led me to wonder about the reality of living in Morocco for transgender individuals. An article by Morocco World News highlights the experience from several individuals. The article states that transgender individuals are not allowed to change their names nor their gender identities, on top of being a member of the LGBTQ+ community being illegal and punishable by imprisonment. Seeking medical and emotional support is also almost impossible. One member of the community, Haniy, states it is most likely because "doctors fear for their jobs and ... won't give you documents... to go abroad and seek treatment". Haniy goes on to explain how trans individuals often seek over the counter hormones and self treatment so that their appear...

     Throughout our trip, we have been able to learn more about the culture and way of life in Morocco. The societal roles that each gender plays here have been very different from what I originally expected going into this trip. Given that Morocco is a majority Muslim country, I had a lot of preconceived conations about the role that women would play for their families. In more conservatism Muslim countries, women’s rights are limited by the laws of the countries more than men's. In countries like Saudi Arabia women could not even drive until recently. This is almost night and day compared to Morocco where women can be found in almost every industry and in positions of power. In Rabat, we learned that women make up around 25% of the country’s parliament. Universities in Morocco tend to be evenly split between men and women but leaned towards more women enrolled. We learned during the presentation at AIU that this is mainly due to Moroccan families choosing to send their ...

           Gender roles in Moroccan agriculture are much different than what I am used to in the United States. As stated by researcher Lisa Bossenbroek and Hind Ftouhi of the Hassan II Veterinary and Agronomic Institurte, “ Many of them work without a contract or social security and are forced to cope with different forms of social stigma.” Women are still very important to the agricultural development of the country. The perform smaller yet crucial tasks such as helping package fruits as we saw at iberry, “transplanting onions, thinning the fruits, weeding, and harvesting”. Some women are also part of Women Cooperatives that have helped Morocco bounce back from the negative impacts of COVID-19 through agriculture, handicrafts, and tourism. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, “In recent years, women-led cooperatives in particular have thrived, building a reputation for providing good-quality services at affordable prices and reachin...

     In Morocco, we have visited several different farms where they produce a wide variety of crops. The Moroccans are still on the more traditional side of agriculture pertaining to gender. They have the males in fields growing and harvesting their crops while the women are involved with postharvest processing and packing. On our visit to Iberry, we saw the whole production line of blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. On their farm, they have a couple of men who harvest their products. I was expecting there to be more workers who were the ones doing the picking based on what I have seen in the United States. After the farm, we toured the Iberry processing and packing plant where there were mostly women working in there. The cultural norms for agriculture in Morocco are very traditional meaning that the males are doing the laborious jobs in the fields while women are working the processing side of the operation. Around 52% of women in Morocco are employed in the ag...