people-from-morocco

"My inclusion as a woman could be viewed as a result of negotiations and the pressure that the parties felt themselves to be under – although by this I mean primarily time pressure, particularly during the last round of negotiations. Some of the ministers were also assigned different portfolios. In this regard I would like to say that politics certainly requires a solid political education"

"When I travelled in the most re­mote areas in Morocco, I asked the youth about their dream and the an­swer was to leave the countryside"

"We will end up with an ageing population in rural areas because of the youth’s exodus"

"is due to the absence of a solid political structure to improve the standard of living in rural areas."

"Consequently, the cities will find themselves unable to accom­modate the increasing number of country people who are likely to live in substandard housing, which will in turn exacerbate poverty and crime and place considerable strain on their infrastructure, especially schools and hospitals"

"The rural flow is so important that it has surpassed the creation of housing despite the extraordi­nary policy of social housing"

"Right now, we have not seen any long-term strategies and policies that can adapt to these situations. It is good to project the country’s future population but the main question is: What are we going to do today to solve these problems?"

"there used to be some degree of tolerance as Moroccans would not incriminate, condemn or judge homosexuals"

"More youngsters go to the mosque and feel invested in the mission to defend Islam against disbelievers who want to destroy it and push Muslims towards fornication and deprivation"

"The ministry wants to empower women in an area where they have seen modest influence, female entrepreneurs in Morocco are self-reliant and don’t enjoy what women in other fields benefit from"

"the field of entrepreneurship is a desert where men grow without women, until we reached a level we cannot be proud of"

"We have a security fund to support women’s entrepreneurship, which has provided 236 women with loans amounted to 81 million dirhams ($8 million)"

"Society is demanding greater rights for women, while there are some men in positions of power who have a problem sharing this political power with women"

"With respect to women's affairs, the first thing we have to do is hammer out a clear vision if we are going to properly improve the situation and lives of women in Morocco and empower female elites to realise their intellectual, economic and also their political potential"

"We know very well that pensions are ridiculous and that not all the population has pension rights and medical coverage"

"What has been bothering me for the last 20 years is to see families getting more and more nuclearised because they have to adapt to the changing lifestyle"

"Before, it was the children who were taking care of their parents but now it’s the other way round because of the current economic climate that is making it difficult for children to quit their parents’ house at an early age"

"There is a lack of leisure places where the elderly can spend their time. It is heartbreaking to see old men playing checkers with a piece of cardboard and stones in the streets. This will adversely affect their dignity and make them feel marginalised in their own society, which will backfire on their fami­lies"

"We are going to reach a stage in which the government will not be able to pay pensions because there will be a minority (workforce) work­ing for a majority (pensioners)"

"You cannot denounce violence in the present and encourage it in the past by glorifying violent historical figures."

"It is an irony to see in some Muslim societies someone who curses God, in his daily slang when angry, go out and protest against the Danish cartoons about the Prophet."

"Having liberated the key to a liberatory interpretation and contextualization of the Qur'an, the issue of patriarchal and misogynic interpretations of the Qur'an becomes a societal issue rather than an issue of the religion."

"We can imagine the Palestinian identity as a person born in a village prior to the introduction of modern administration; a person whose village was divided between other villages, and whose date of birth is unknown. A person that started struggling to prove she exists in the 1960s and suffers today from a weakened structure and an uncertain future."

"Revolution without evolution is just a waste of lives."

"Rabbi Amar can hide behind the Torah as much as he wants, but we hear his darkness, not the Torah. The time has come to stop funding his salary. Rabbi Amar receives money from the . Is he claiming that we need to execute homosexuals? Does he also recommend stoning, as the Torah instructs?"

"Once again, Rabbi Amar proves that he is not worthy of his title as . His comments, which are nothing more than baseless hatred peppered with ignorance, harm Israelis and Jews who pay his state salary. Rabbi Amar has fouled his mouth ahead of the holy Sabbath. His comments distance communities further and further away from the dark Judaism that he represents."

"Our way is to honor every religion and every nation according to their paths, as it is written in the book of prophets: 'because every nation will go in the name of its lord.'"

"You represent a large nation of believers that knows what the Bible is, and it is your duty to pass on the message that the Jewish people deserve a renaissance, and a little respect - to live in this land."

"Even when there is a struggle between nations it cannot be turned into a war of religions."

"We know... that the war between the Jews and the Muslims is the work of the cursed devil. We know that Islam is named after peace."

"I am saying cult. It is a cult of abomination. It is clear that it is abomination. The Torah punishes it with death. This is in the first line of serious sins. They say 'tendency,' 'perversion' -- nonsense. There is lust, and a person can overcome it if he wants, as with any other kind of lust. This is one of the most forbidden types of lust. The most grave."

"There is no such thin as having understanding or tolerance for this. ... When I have spoken about this in the past, secular people called to thank me. People don't want it. They want their children to get married and have children."