With regard to my “desert trials,” I first have to say that I totally jinxed myself with my last posting, whining about being stuck with friends for a couple of hours one morning on a washed out road. The very day I posted that, on my way home I dealt with an exponentially worse version of the same thing – one much bigger river, one flash flood, and a longer and far less comfortable wait with no English speaking friends anywhere nearby! I came very close to having to spend the night in a transit on a road in the middle of nowhere (which did end up happening to a couple of Berber women I got to chatting with during the long wait), but thankfully made a last minute escape and got home, only a little muddier, more tired, and generally worse for the wear than when I usually get home from my travels! I’ll spare you any further details here, but if you want the full adventure.
Anyway, I was returning from a trip that has actually proven to be one of the more interesting projects I’ve been involved with here so far. A couple of months ago, I got an e-mail from my colleague Moshay, who is a youth development volunteer posted in a small (but not nearly as small as Assoul!), deathly hot desert town a few hours south of me. Even though I generally don’t feel inspired to do excessive amounts of work with children, in this instance, Moshay rightfully anticipated that I was happy for any excuse to officially tap into my interests in comparative law and women’s empowerment. So during the last month, I made two trips down to Moshay’s town to help him put together a mock trial event, which the students would perform in both Arabic and English. I have to say that Moshay did most of the serious legwork, including arranging for some of the girls in his class to meet with a local judge!
During my previous visit, the class warmed up by asking me questions in English (and making me sing for them!) Then, I spoke to some of the students about their assigned roles as lawyers and witnesses – teaching them new vocabulary and giving them tips about how to be clever in their presentation of evidence.
And of course I was thrilled when a few of the girls came up to me after class to ask how they could become lawyers too! The first trial, in English, was a criminal case, where two men working in a bank had been accused of stealing money. In the second, Arabic trial, we tried to introduce concepts of the Moudawana – Morocco’s recently revised family laws – with the story of a young wife filing for divorce from a husband who had failed to support her financially. The students were allowed a lot of creativity to flesh out their stories, produce evidence, and ultimately decide the fates of the parties, and I thought they did an excellent job! In both cases, the panel of judges (because Morocco is a civil law system, rather than holding jury trials, the judges play a larger role in investigation and deciding the case) decided for the defendant, letting the accused thieves off the hook (the boys playing the defendants brought a lot of emotion to this moment!), and ordering the estranged couple to make further
attempts at reconciliation (which is still encouraged here, in spite of the recent changes that at last allow the wife even to file for divorce!). After the event, the students played soccer in the rain, drank tea, and asked us to take lots of photos… For me, this was a wonderful opportunity to feel productive in my Gender and Development work, as well as a nice justification for studying up on some local laws and the Moroccan legal system (which, in truth, I’d already begun to do just for my own intellectual enrichment…)! I certainly never lose sight of the fact that, as much as I hope to contribute while I am here, that has its limits, so I had better learn as much as I can as well!
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