Men and gender equality: presentation of the results of the IMAGES research in the region of Rabat -Salé- Kénitra:
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Following similar events in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine, the results of the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) was presented in Rabat on February 27 2018. Conducted in the region of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra with 1200 men and 1200 women, aged 18 to 59, this study, implemented for the first time in the MENA region, is a key component of the regional programme “Men and Women for Gender Equality”, implemented by UN Women in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine with the financial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
Originally published in French on ONU Femmes Maghreb’s website.
In his opening speech, Mohammad Naciri, Regional Director of UN Women, Regional Office for the Arab States, reminded his audience that the IMAGES survey offered a comparative overview of men’s lives – as sons, husbands and fathers – at home and at work, in both public and private life, in order to better understand their perception of their status as men and their attitudes and actions in favor of gender equality. He called on all participants to undergo a process of self-reflection and to defy gender-based stereotypes. Mr. Naciri also congratulated the Government of Morocco for its recent adoption of legislation targeting violence against women. Her Excellency, Ms. Erika Ferrer, Swedish Ambassador to Morocco, underlined that the recommendations based on the IMAGES findings can be useful to inform programmes by the government, and for non-governmental organizations and for international organizations, and that they would help to create an environment favorable to initiatives including men and boys to promote gender equality. “The negatives norms of masculinity have to give place to the positive norms”, she declared.
IMAGES considered several themes, starting with the roles of men and women in Moroccan society. Its results highlight the pressure that the patriarchal system is under and confirms the existence of ambivalent attitudes in both private and the public sphere. The findings reveal, for example, that 70% of the men who participated in the survey considered that the most important role of women is to take care of the house and of children, while only 48% of women held this view. This disparity narrowed when the survey participants answered a question concerning what should constitute the priority for women. Indeed, 54% of men and 53% of women considered that a women’s priority should be marriage, rather than her career. Men largely supported the initiation of laws in favour of women’s political, economic and social rights. On the question of violence, several numbers were startling: 62% of men and 46% of women believed that women should tolerate violence in order to preserve the unity of the family. In his presentation about the results, Mr. Driss El Yazami, President of the National Council of Human Rights, declared that the evolution of the Moroccan society has led to the questioning of patriarchy.
The recommendations of the survey highlight among other issues the need to promote an egalitarian and non-violent education within the family and the school system, as well as the need to include the media. In the framework of the Men and Women for Gender Equality programme, in November 2017 UN Women Maghreb launched a campaign called #Ana Rajel (because I am a man), which focuses on promoting the positive roles of men. This campaign was screened on channel 2M TV as well as on social media, with the participation of several celebrities. Several clips of the campaign were screened for the audience during the presentation of the results of the survey, while caricatures by the artist Saad Jalal on the theme of fighting violence were exhibited. Through a virtual reality installation, participants could live an immersive experience with videos on paternity and the cycle of violence.
Discover the caricatures by the artist Saad Jalal displayed during the event: