Menassat for Research and Social Studies has conducted a quantitative study in summer 2021, entitled : «Individual Liberties : Representations and Practices» that has dealt with a representative sample of 1311 respondants. It has been carried out through a questionnaire containing 103 questions divided into three essential axes namely : body representations, freedom of belief and sexuality. The administration of the questionnaire has been run between June and July 2021.
The results were announced by the research team on November 15th in Mohamadia at the closure ceremony of JIL program conducted by Menassat for Research and Social Studies.
Body : Which representations ?
The study has shown that 50% of the respondents consider that women dressing style is an individual freedom. Variables of gender, age, instruction level, and housing of the interviewees didn’t have much incidence on the declared rate, which shows the prevalence of a positive attitude despite the religious and traditional conservatism that Moroccans are known for.
The study has revealed that a rate of 61.2% of the interwiewees have expressed their agreement concerning women veiling, an increased rate is rather within the feminine gender (65.3%) compared to their masculine peers (57.1%). Women veiling in public spaces is gone back to religious referents as 62.5% estimate that one must refer to what is prohibited by the islamic religion.
38% of the respondants approving veiling estimate that this latter will cease women being harrassed and scandal-mongering.
Besides, 3.8% have clearly expressed their attitude against veiling. Even though it could be a minim category, one has to scrutinise the cause of their oppositions in the sense that 67.3% have shown that the fact of wearing or not a veil remains an individual freedom. Whereas, 30.9% have clarified that women are equal to men and therefore, one mustn’t oblige them to put it.
80% of the respondants have declared that virginity is a proof of chastisty, religiosity, and good upbringing. Opposed to these, are those who minimise the importance of virginity at the time of mariage, insisting that good values cannot in any case relate the honor of a woman and the virility of a man to virginity.
Individual freedom and sexuality
76.3% of the respondants have declared that consensual sexual relations are very spread in the moroccan society. 60% among the respondants have confirmed their relation to a youngster be it a girl or a boy having consensual sexual relations.
50% of the questioned sample, taking into account diverse variables the research has been based on, have estimated that the fact of having consensual sexual relationships before marriage, regarding both girls and boys, was an individual freedom. However, those who have expressed their flat refusal of such relationships and that represent a rate of 77.6%, refer to being religiously forbidden.
Coming to their attitudes regarding relationships with homosexuals, 60% of the respondents have declared their refusal that homosexuals declare their sexual orientations in public. 30% of them has acknowledged having a direct relationship with homosexuals, which designates in our mind that the topic generates some kind of tolerance in spite of interviewees different attitudes.
A rate of 60% has been found coming to people agreeing on a sexual education within school programs, while 20% have been against. The rest didn’t express any concrete attitude regarding that issue.
69.2% of the surveyed people ignore the existence of the article 490 that penalizes sexual relations out of wedlock. Once they knew about the content of the article, 50.4% have approved its existence. However, only 27.20% have been against the article, with 48.3% defending the principle of individual freedoms, and 24.3% of whom have estimated that the law function is not to produce values and education. These attitudes mean that these people are conscious of and vulnerable to changes of values in Moroccan society.
A rate of 11.6% are opposed to the 490 article as they estimate that the law is not fairly applicable to all moroccans. And thus, for considerations related to the authorities power and individuals social prestige, which somehow significates that the category declining the article, accept it in principle, but rather reject the social circumstances of its application and practice.
Citizenship, human rights and the freedom of belief
The citizenship sense of identity comes after the religiosity one. The study has revealed that half of the interviewees identify themselves as being muslims at first, yet 23.6% identify themselves as being moroccan citizens prima facie.
72.6% of the respondents refuse that a moroccan accuse another of atheism, whereas only 4.7% have approved that, yet 22.9% didn’t express any given attitude coming to that issue.
46.8% of the sample estimate that the application of the islamic religion is the solution to resolve all muslim countries’ problems. Only 22% refuse that, and about the third of the sample didn’t show any given opposition.
More the schooling level decreases, more the surveyed people believe that the applicability of the religion could resolve the muslim societies’ troubles. The rate of those who believe in it is of 52% that are illiterate, among which 43% having been in the Msid « Moroccan coranic schools », 71.7% having only been to primary schools, whereas the rate of those having an academic level reaches only about 38%.
The rate of people believing in the freedom of cult, the tolerance towards religion and doctrins, remains interesting enough, but has a tendency to decrease when it comes to the transaction from the level of expressing principles and opinions, to the level of attitudes regarding social situations that one could daily meet.
73.66% of the sample ignore the content of the law 222 ‘s article that penalises people publicly not fasting in Ramadan. 55% approve the existence of the article, then only 28% are for its abrogation, while the rest have remained hesitant to express their thoughts.
Let it be noted that the study is within the framework of Jil’s program launched by MENASSAT for Research and Social Studies. A program aiming at rehabilitating and rounding off the training of 20 young researchers in the field of social sciences so as to ameliorate their research capacities mainly making use of theoretical and empirical research techniques. The final products are meant to be presented to the public opinion and decision-makers in a way that positively serves society’s major issues that are rationalisation, development, democracy and freedom.
