March 6th, 2010.

Meeting on women’s march (morning session):

The meeting was chaired by Madame Fatina, president of Women Action, and attended by women but also many men. The objective of the meeting was to disseminate information about the World March of Women 2010 (WMW) and discuss how women groups in Morocco plan to take part in this global action. According to their plan, the women march will be organized on March 8th, 2010, at 17:00. It will take place in front of the Ministry of Social Development, Family and Solidarity under a slogan: “All for the struggle against all forms of violence against women.”

Women shared experiences (afternoon session):

The main objective of this session was to provide an opportunity for women’s groups, networks and activists from different parts of Morocco and from the Maghreb/Machrek region to share problems, experiences, lessons learned, and make recommendations on good strategies and future coordination. The highlights of the discussion and recommendations were the following:

•    Women’s issues should be integrated in the social forum agenda, in particular issues on women with disabilities.
•    There is a need for women’s group to think of a good strategy, a method of working and an evaluation process.
•    There should be communication among women’s groups in order to create collective activities which would be useful for women’s group particularly in Palestine.
•    Sharing knowledge with different organizations should be widely initiated.
•    There should be a link between women’s issues and media. It is important to introduce gender issues at school and in textbooks. Activities should be organized at local and national level, and then link them to international level.
•    It is important not to talk only about women but also about men, since problems are not merely for women but for the whole. Men need to share and be part of problem solving and to promote women’s role.  
•    There should be a collective coordination which can lead to developing a program at local level since initiative and action must be actively undertaken at grassroots level. A project must have a clear objective to help change status of women.
•    It is necessary to conduct a study or research in order to understand different issues related to women, and to apply findings into practice.  
•    There needs also to be a link between women’s issue in health and law.