Two Moroccan women who walked through a market wearing
dresses are facing charges of “gross indecency”, a rights group and media
reported Thursday, sparking an outcry in the kingdom. The women were arrested
on June 16 as they strolled through the open-air market in Inezgane, a suburb
of the southern city of Agadir, on their way to work, said Fouzia Assouli, head
of women’s rights organisation LDDF.
The women — hairdressers aged 23 and 29 — were surrounded by
merchants who accused them of wearing flimsy and “immoral” clothes, the Media
24 news website reported.
Security forces intervened, wresting the women away from the
angry crowd and placing them inside a police car before driving them to a
police station where they were charged with gross indecency, it added.
Assouli told newsmen that a trial date has been set for July
6. Rights organisations have denounced the upcoming trial and protests are to
be held later this week in Agadir and in Morocco’s commercial capital Casablanca
in support of the two women. “They were dressed in a very respectable fashion,”
said Bouchra Chetouani, a member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights
(AMDH).
In the police report, the women were said to have been
wearing clothes that were “too tight”. Article 483 of Morocco’s penal code
states that anyone found guilty of committing an act of “public obscenity” such
as “gross indecency” can be jailed for between a month and two years.
Supporters of the two women have launched a petition online
dubbed “Wearing a dress is not a crime”. It had been signed by more than 8,000
supporters as of Thursday afternoon. “This is an unprecedented case for our
region,” said Aziz Sellami, the AMDH representative in Agadir, one of Morocco’s
top tourist destination which is famous for its white sandy beaches.
Assouli said the arrests of the women comes amid growing
calls for “morality” to be respected in conservative Morocco, which has been
frequently criticised by international groups for rights abuses.
