KVINFO-konference: Fanget mellem familie og lov i Marokko

TID: Torsdag den 4. december kl. 09.00-16.00 og fredag den 5. december kl. 09.00-15.30

STED: Nationalmuseet, Prinsens Palæ, Ny Vestergade 10, 1471 København

TILMELDING: På https://survey.enalyzer.com/survey?sessionid=234ca513-bd13-4eb3-a0fd-361425f22d1d

TID: Torsdag den 4. december kl. 09.00-16.00 og fredag den 5. december kl. 09.00-15.30

STED: Nationalmuseet, Prinsens Palæ, Ny Vestergade 10, 1471 København

TILMELDING: På https://survey.enalyzer.com/survey?sessionid=234ca513-bd13-4eb3-a0fd-361425f22d1d

Deltagelse er gratis. Konferencen afholdes på engelsk og arabisk.

Caught between family and law

KVINFO has the pleasure of inviting you to a two-day public conference in light of the 10 years anniversary of the reformed Moroccan Family Law.

The conference takes its point of departure in KVINFO’s extensive experiences in Morocco with projects addressing women’s access to justice since 2006.

The two-day conference will disseminate experiences from KVINFO’s Danish-Moroccan cooperation and relate them to current issues in Denmark and Morocco regarding gender, family laws and religion.

The conference will focus on minority groups who are “caught” between traditional, national and transnational laws and practices, and how Denmark and other European countries are handling this issue.

Program:

Thursday the 4th of December

DAY 1: “Navigating between family laws across borders”
Moderators: Suzanne Moll, KVINFO, and Leila Hanafi, ARPA
 
09.00-09.20 Welcome
Nina Groes, Director, KVINFO
Mette Gjerskov, Chair of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Danish Parliament, the Social Democrats
 
09.20-09.40 Introduction to the Moroccan Family Law 10 years after the reform
Leila Hanafi, International Law expert, ARPA – the Alliance for Rule of Law Promotion & Alternative Dispute Resolution 

Leila Hanafi will introduce the reform of the Moroccan Family Law in 2004 and outline the current discourse regarding the legal rights of Moroccan women residing abroad. She will discuss women’s different experiences with access to justice due to practice and execution of the family laws. Her main focus is on discrepancies between Moroccan women’s access to justice in Morocco and abroad. 
 
09.40-10.00 Keynote: Changing legal cultures – the interplay of legislation, culture and tradition
Hanne Petersen, dr.jur., Professor of Legal Cultures, Copenhagen University

Hanne Petersen will discuss the historical relationship between legal cultures, societal changes and changes of gender orders in a Nordic, Middle Eastern and globalized context, using the Moroccan Family Law as an example.
 
10.00-10.30 Q&A
 
10.30-10.45 Coffee break
 
10.45-12.30 Panel debate: Moroccan diaspora and family laws – experiences from Spain, France and Denmark
• Houda Zekri, PhD Researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Granada
• Naima Korchi, International Lawyer & Founder of Africa Women’s Forum
• Amina M’Harrech, Lawyer, family courts in Southern Morocco
• Hakima Lakhrissi, Head of Copenhagen West Immigrant Women’s Centre

The panel will address  the expansion of the Moroccan family law’s legal protection to Moroccan women residing abroad with a special focus on marriage and divorce. The panelists will discuss European country case studies on the interplay between the Moroccan Family Law, the norms and methods of international law, Moroccan national legal system and the laws of the country of residence of these women.
 
12.30-13.30 Lunch
 
13.30-14.00 Entertainment: “Det Slører Stadig”
Two Danish satiric comedians with migrant background will interview selected members of the audience and panel about gender equality.
 
14.00-15.30 Panel debate: Reconciliation and Mediation: a comparative approach – experiences from Morocco and Denmark
• Hamid Fadli, President of the Tribunal of First Instance in Chefchaouen, Morocco
• Mohamed Ali El Hichou, Head of the Family Section at the Tribunal of First Instance in Chefchaouen, Morocco
• Leise Døllner, Development Consultant, The Danish State Administration

Reconciliation attempts and mediation are two different forms of settling marital conflicts in both Danish and Moroccan Family Law. A group of jurists will present the two conflict-resolution models and tell a unique story about their common experiences with working trans-traditionally.
 
15.30-16.00 Wrap up of day 1
 

Friday the 5th of December

DAY 2: “Balancing between family laws and religious practices”
Moderator: Mu’ayyad Mehyar, Danish Institute for Human Rights
 
09.00-09.20 Welcome and sum-up of day 1
Katarina Blomqvist, Head of KVINFO’s International Programmes
 
09.20-09.50 Keynote: Moroccan Family Law: Tradition, Modernity and Hybridity
Joshua A. Sabih, dr.theol/dr.phil, Professor in Arabic, Hebrew, Jewish & Islamic Studies, Copenhagen University

Modern Moroccan Family Law (Moudawwana) of 2004 was hailed as daring, modern, gender balanced, and consensual at the time of its promulgation. However, a closer look into its content reveals its hybrid character as a failed attempt to reconcile tradition and modernity.

As a reformist project, the Moudawwana is still trapped within Millet paradigm according to which Moroccan society is still maintaining its confessional character; two state-sponsored family laws: one for Jews and another for Muslims.
 
09.50-10.20 Keynote: Between Jewish and Islamic Law: Inter-religious Relations, Family Law, and Gender in the Moroccan Legal System

Jessica Maya Marglin, PhD, Professor of Religion, University of Southern California
Jews have lived in Morocco for nearly two thousand years.  Under Islamic rule, they were considered dhimmis, i. e. non-Muslim monotheists who accepted a second-class status and recognized the superiority of Islam.  

In exchange, Jews were granted a significant degree of autonomy – including the right to administer their own legal system.  Jewish courts in Morocco – and indeed across the Islamic world – were vibrant institutions that handled the majority of intra-Jewish legal affairs.  

Jewish courts were especially important for matters of family law, especially divorce, marriage, and inheritance.  Morocco’s legal system was highly pluralistic, accommodating the co-existence of Jewish and Islamic judicial institutions.
 
10.20-11.00 Q&A
 
11.00-11.15 Coffee break
 
11.15-11.45 Keynote: Moroccan Family Law and religious practices – a case study of early marriages
Souad Slaoui, PhD, Professor in Linguistics and Gender Studies, Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, Morocco

Does the fact that the phenomenon of early marriage is still practised in Morocco reflect the lack of awareness of the reformed Moroccan Family Law? And does the lacking application of the Moroccan Family Law imply that Moroccans adhere to religious legislations and practices?

Through a case study of early marriages in Morocco Souad Slaoui will explore the balance between the Moroccan Family Law and the religious practices among Moroccan individuals and find explanations to these behaviours.
 
11.45-12.15 Keynote: Marriages and divorces in ethnic minority families in Denmark
Anika Liversage, Senior Researcher, The Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI)

How are the marriages and divorces in ethnic minority families affected by both social and legal practices from their countries of origin? That is the issue of this presentation which draws upon a country-wide study with ethnic minority men and women carried out in 2011.

Here, especially the issue of dissolving a ‘nikah’ – i.e. a ‘Muslim marriage’ – turns out to be problematic for some ethic minority women, but also some men encounter challenges here. Furthermore, great variations exist, tied to factors such as educational levels and levels of family support.
 
12.15-12.45 Q&A
 
12.45-13.45 Lunch
 
13.45-15.00 Round table discussion: Balancing family laws and religious practices – experiences from Denmark
• Bent Lexner, former Chief Rabbi, The Synagogue in Copenhagen 
• Naveed Baig, Imam, Danish-Islamic Centre
• Farwha Nielsen, Executive Manager, The Family House & Ethnic Womens’ Consult

For the last two decades, religious sacred laws and practices in Western countries have increasingly drawn the attention of both scholars and the public at large.

This round table has invited practitioners of Islamic and Jewish laws as well as a practitioner working with migrant women in Denmark in order to discuss a number of currently debated issues such as how religious communities navigate through various sets of laws and practices in Denmark.
 

The conference is organized by KVINFO, the Danish Centre for Research and Information on Gender, Equality and Diversity, in cooperation with ARPA International and the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at Copenhagen University.