Human Rights, Religion, and Violence: Strategies of Moroccan Activists Fighting Violence against Women

The study looks at different forms of female activism to fight gender-based violence in Morocco. Based on ethnographic research in a Moroccan women's rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) and on interviews with activists in different regions of the country, I analyze the experiences and strategies of women working in NGOs to support victims of violence and to fight violence against women. The goal is to explore the strategies used by Moroccan female activists against gender-based violence and to show how notions of violence and rights are conceived and mobilized by these women. I begin discussing how a human rights-based approach is implemented in the work of a specific NGO. Secondly, I point to some differences between rights-based and faith-based women's NGOs in dealing with violence and I put forth that an opposition between “secular” and “Islamic” practices does not make sense in terms of understanding the strategies used by these activist women. Showing how the work of a particular rights-based NGO is influenced by both local and transnational factors - including religious language and human rights discourses – the paper reflects on how transnational human rights discourses are articulated in local contexts.