An ambitious new Morocco campaign launched by a women’s rights organization has argued that the veiling of young girls in the country is a form of 'child abuse'. The Center for Women’s Equality announced the new campaign, with the slogan 'So that girls won’t live in eternal darkness' with the goal of battling against the forcing of young girls between three- and 10-years-old to veil. In a statement published by local media, the center called upon all human rights organizations as well as legislative bodies to join this campaign against what they termed 'a flagrant violation of innocence and childhood'.

The Moroccan government’s announcement that it would issue new public media guidelines at the end of May has reignited a stormy debate around independent media in the kingdom. The debate began nearly two months ago when the Islamist government, led by Abdelilah Benkirane, forced public television channels and radio stations to broadcast the five daily calls to prayer, which put many citizens on the defensive against what they saw as a deliberate attempt to Islamise an otherwise moderate sector of society.