The Moroccan Magazine Qandisha launched a call to gather some testimonies about rape in Morocco and it came back with some heart breaking stories. Those are some of them.

A.B:

Today I am a broken woman. I can’t sleep without medicines and I’m afraid to go out alone , people scare me so much that I can no longer work, I quit my job and my only comfort is my friend whom I live with and who supports me a lot. My weight is so low that you can see my bones, I often feel sad, and I need people’s company although I feel uncomfortable with them.

My mother died when I was 16 because of a disease, and she suffered for years. Three years after her death, my father was diagnosed with cancer. While he was following consultations in Casablanca, we used to live in Meknes. My grandmother died. After her funeral, people came to visit us. Among them a neighbor of ours. I had the misfortune to open the door (I didn’t even let him in), while my father was on the road to Casablanca with my unique sister to see his doctor.

HRH Princess Lalla Meryem of Morocco signed on to UNIFEM’s Say NO to Violence against Women campaign on her country’s behalf on 10 November 2008. Princess Lalla is President of the National Union of Moroccan Women and the National Monitoring Agency for Children’s Rights, and sister of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

In her letter of transmittal to the Minister of Social Development, Family and Solidarity, she expressed her support for the global movement to end violence against women, and her commitment to the empowerment of Moroccan women and to their social, economic and cultural development.