Morocco clamps down on sex tourism
[url]http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FFD029B4-2E20-4DF4-AFEA-26049F18E0B0.htm[/url]
Morocco clamps down on sex tourism
by
Friday 05 August 2005 3:49 PM GMT
Some groups argue that sex tourism must be suppressed.
Morocco has jailed 60 suspected prostitutes for up to four months after a mass trial in a tourist resort.
The move was praised by Islamists but assailed by rights activists, lawyers and newspapers.
Police last month raided a hotel in the coastal city of Agadir, famed for its sandy beaches and lively nightlife, and arrested the women with 28 Saudi and nine Kuwaiti holidaymakers. Seven of the hotel's employees were also arrested.
The authorities later deported the holidaymakers without charging them, while they accused the 67 arrested Moroccans of debauchery and encouraging sex tourism.
In a verdict late on Tuesday, an Agadir court sentenced 15 girls to four months in jail and 45 to two months, including eight who received suspended terms, defence lawyers said.
Five hotel employees got jail sentences of between two and three years, a sixth got two months and another was acquitted. The court also ordered the closure of the hotel.
"If the goal of this swoop is to fight sex tourism, then authorities ought to look at all hotels in Agadir, not just one, apply the law on all, not only on Moroccans, and fight factors that help prostitution flourish"
Abd al-Rahman Yazidi,
Anaruz leader
An Islamist faction within the main opposition Justice and Development party (PJD) called the action a right step to help preserve the Muslim country's moral and religious values.
The PJD recently called on the authorities to crack down on what it says is growing sex tourism in the country, a popular destination mainly for tourists from Europe and the Arab Gulf.
Criticism
But human rights activists called the trial a scandal, criticising the authorities for letting the tourists go free.
"The women involved are victims of society," said Abdelhamid Amine, head of the country's main human rights group AMDH.
"If the goal of this swoop is to fight sex tourism, then authorities ought to look at all hotels in Agadir, not just one, apply the law on all, not only on Moroccans, and fight factors that help prostitution flourish," said Abd al-Rahman Yazidi, head of local rights group Anaruz.
Agencies
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This crackdown is nothing new!
Hi Guys,
Sorry to tell you, but this crackdown is not a new trend. For those of us with a bit of monger experience in Maroc, it has always long been obvious that we are not the ideal profile the Moroccan government imagines tourists to have. I think the problem is more that many westerners simply don't have an idea of what life in Maroc is like. Read some of my past posts, Morocco is hard core boys, and has always been. If you ever spent an evening with a girl you picked up in a disco there, the taxi ride with the girl laying on the backseat floor was certainly a memorable one.
Go to the discos, invite her to your apt. She will find her way to your door. Buy a Maroc phone card, get her number, make an appointment. But as always, if you are seen in public with her, trouble is not far. But like I said, that's the way it's always been and that certainly does not prevent me from going back. Picking up a rent-a-girl in the states is just as much of a hassle with the police and can lead to a jail term as well.
And don't forget, Maroc has many other qualities. If they lock up all the girls, we still have a lot of real good smoke.
Have fun!
Pepe
The Philippe Servaty scandel
[QUOTE=JP2U]Grey Soul, it may be a bit of a stretch to expect these girls to carry your sophisticated first world powers of logic and reasoning into their world, but you may be in for a shock to find that many girls from 3rd world countries may have little knowledge and experience of the (relatively new) age of the internet and may not ponder the implications of what ultimately may happen to their photos. For all they know, they could logically have thought their pictures were taken as personal mementos from a 'genuine' admirer.
Ciao[/QUOTE]I would call the expectation that explicit digital photo's could be spread around and seen by other's basic common sense not sophisticated logic. I'm sorry but I refuse to share your view that these women are poor third world peasants in need of our help and protection because they are incapable of leading their own lives. Although these women are at an economic and educational disadvantage they still remain sovereign individuals capable of making their own choices. With the freedom of choice comes the burden of personal responsibility. If I choose to go to Morocco to look for cheap sex and I get caught by the police or catch AIDS then I must deal with the consequences of my actions. Likewise if one of these girls' decides to have sex with a foreigner and lets him take pictures either for money or for a chance at a better life down the road then she must deal with the consequences of her actions whether those consequences are good or bad.
As for your comment that Moroccan people don’t have any experience with the internet or the digital world that is simply not true. I have stayed for quite a few months in Morocco and every town that I have been to has multiple internet cafes' filled with Moroccans using the internet. That includes the small towns. Also every souk (outdoor market) that I have been to has at least a couple of vendors selling software, divx's, and porn downloaded from the internet on cd's. Most of these girl’s may not be highly educated by they aren’t stupid either and they fully understand how fast something can be reproduced using digital media.
From my own personal experience I found out that porn and prostitution are not legal in Morocco. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, just that there is a large black market for it and it’s not talked about openly. Moroccans go to prostitutes, Moroccan’s make and sell porn, the only thing that was different about this case is that a well known foreigner from the West was going to prostitutes and taking pornographic pictures instead of a Moroccan. A good amount of Muslims already harbor anti-western sentiment and muslim culture generally promotes a double standard regarding sexuality. The media in Morocco knew the harm that would be caused to all of the people that were involved if they published this story with peoples' identity included. They could have just published a story about the growing problem of prostitution in Morocco or the growing number of people from Morocco and abroad that go to brothels, or chose one of the many other Moroccans doing the same thing. But this group of disgruntled reporters chose to humiliate Philippe Servaty, the girls he had sex with, and their families not because he was caught doing what hundreds of Moroccans do every day while the police and press turn a blind eye. But because in their eye’s he was guilty of a much greater crime, the crime of debasing women while being a westerner.
My point is that no one involved here is just an innocent victim, everyone including the girls’ had a role to play in this whole thing. Philippe Servaty CHOSE to give these girls this real information and spread the pictures around. These girls’ CHOSE to have sex with Servaty either for money or the chance at a better life and allow him to take digital pictures of them in positions most people in Morocco and the western world would consider degrading. The press CHOSE to pursue this story and disclose the identity of the people involved knowing the harm it would cause. And finally the king CHOSE to fake outrage in order maintain favor with a large group of hypocrites instead of changing the legal status of prostitution which is a victimless act that should be legal in the first place, bring charges against Servaty, imprison the women in the photo’s, and start a crackdown on prostitution in general and brothels that his government knew were operating and were giving immunity to previously in particular. Now that the damage is done everyone has to live with the outcome of their choices. Despite the fact that things didn’t turn out very well for the people involved I still support the right of individuals to live their life however they choose; as long as they don’t infringe on the life, liberty, or property of others or expect society to bail them out when they make mistakes. I’m sorry that concept is so unpopular here.