The New Media and the Empowerment of Moroccan Women

Abstract

The issue of women in relation to media can trigger a lot of questions and debates. No doubt, media forms can play different roles in different ways for both men and women and in all regions. But this time, our specific concern is mainly to see to what extent these media have been used effectively to empower women’s status in Morocco. The new media have had positive, neutral as well as negative aspects on the overall image of women not only in Morocco but also in many other communities. In the past, Moroccan women were under-represented in the media. Moroccan statistics show that the number of illiterate women in Morocco has been very wide and because of this social problem, the access to the media for women was limited and nearly nonexistent in many places. In the present paper, I argue that Arab women and more specifically Moroccan women still need relevant media education more than literacy courses if they want to be well-situated in a space dominated by men. I will suggest some ways and strategies to integrate women effectively in the world of media and how these media can in turn empower them. Moroccan media as an example have been trying to smoothly include all kinds of media forms since the appearance of radio and television in the country. They have had a great influence on Moroccan women’s status. Nowadays, from the print, the audio to the visual forms of the media, one can notice that Moroccan women are making a step forward to empower themselves by using the latest emerging technologies and social media such as the Internet, blogging and networking. Thus, women are more able to voice and express their interests and concerns without any feeling of fear from the space that is said to be male dominated. Also, I stress the idea that the Arab and Moroccan women have been successful in using media in the so-called Arab spring to bring a political, economic, and social change.

Keywords:  Media, empowerment, Moroccan women, social networking, social journalism, Arab spring, blogging