DUBAI (Al Arabiya)
Moroccan King Mohammed VI enjoys high popular support among Moroccans since he took reign ten years ago but was criticized for the job he did fighting poverty and iboosting women’s rights, a joint French-Moroccan opinion poll banned in the North African country found Monday.
The French daily Le Monde joined with Moroccan magazines TelQuel and its Arabic version Nichan to survey 1,108 people on the country’s 10-year anniversary under the reign of Mohammed VI.
The poll showed 91 percent of the Moroccan population surveyed by LMS-CSA, a local subsidiary of the French CSA polling institute, said they had positive feelings about the king. They said during Mohammed VI’s reign they felt at least some change in their immediate environment citing improvements in education, health and transportation services.
But when it came to fighting poverty only a third of respondents said the situation has improved over the last ten years since Mohammed VI took reign. Another third did not notice any improvement and a quarter said poverty situation had worsened.
On security issues, 49 percent said they felt threatened by terrorism and the rise in crime. |
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Too liberal Besides being a political figure, King Mohammed VI enjoys his role as Commander of the Faithful But the harshest criticism recorded for the King was on a new family code, know as Moudawana, instituted in 2004, which granted more rights to women. Almost one in two Moroccans believed that the king has gone too far in his efforts to liberate women.
That women no longer need a guardian to marry and that they can now initiate divorce (a privilege reserved to men) are rights many Moroccans found too liberating. Polygamy has also been rendered impossible given various laws that curb its practice.
Forty-nine percent of those surveyed said they thought the family code gave too many rights to women, while 30 percent said they gave them just about enough rights, and 16 percent said they thought the law should be reformed to give them more. |
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Banned " The monarchy cannot be put into equations, even through a survey " Moroccan Minister of Communications Khalid Naciri Despite the overall support for the king, the French daily was banned from distribution in the Kingdom Monday and the Moroccan magazines were ordered Saturday be taken off the stands because "the monarchy cannot be put into equations, even through a survey," Khalid Naciri, the government spokesman and Minister of Communications, stated.
The poll was the first one ever that sought the opinion of Moroccan citizens on their sovereign.
(Translated from French by Mustapha Ajbaili) |
