Youth Participation in Human Rights: Opportunities and Challenges
Kasbah Tal'Fin participated in a roundtable organized by Amnesty International around the topic of youth participation in human rights, opportunities, and challenges. The round table took place at Amnesty International's stand in the International Book and Publishing Fair (SIEL) in Rabat.
Kabsah Tal'Fin presence in the United Nations in Geneva
Committee on the Elimination of the Discrimination against Women: 20 June 2022
"Thank you honorable chair,
I am delivering this statement on behalf of Kasbah Tal'fin and ILGA world. My name is Mariyem Gamar, I am a young leader for freedom and equality, who happens to be a woman and a lesbian and a Moroccan. Our shadow report addressed issues of discrimination, criminalization, violence, and exclusion of LBT women in Morocco.
In Morocco, Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women live between the crushing weight of two oppressions: the legal criminalization of our existence and lack of protection from social stigma.
At the age of 16, I remember walking on an afternoon in my village, a group of boys threw a big rock on my back because they knew I am a lesbian. I remember walking regardless of the pain in my back and the rocks kept coming. I felt fear and since then, I wanted peace. I chose to be out and visible as an equal individual of society, but that came with social stigma and violence. Eight years later, there are still no clear laws that protect women from violence based on gender identity and sexual orientation. In fact, these laws actively prosecute us, regardless of age.
Your family can still force you to marry, you landlord could refuse your housing, your casual stranger in the street could beat or rape you, and your employer could fire you reject you. Not only does the current penal code doesn't protect us; it also gives power to other members of society to have power over us. These are scars we carry. We are left behind.
We believe Moroccan women deserve to live freely and equally and in their homeland. Therefore, we demand urgent legal reforms to protect women on the basis of our sexual orientations and gender identity and remove article 489. "
Delivered by Mariyem Gamar
Five Films for Freedom
On Tuesday 22nd March at ESAV in Marrakech and Thursday 24th March at Café La Scene in Rabat,The British Council celebrated the 7th Edition of Five Films for Freedom, an online short film festival, organized each year in partnership with BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival.
Mariyem Gamar was invited as a panelist to represent Kasbah Tal'Fin and discuss the current situation of the Moroccan LGBTQ+ community with other activists and speakers.
Kasbah Tal'Fin was delighted to showcase for the first time the Tal'fin Queer Comic Book in Darija which is the first in the history of Morocco.
Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow
This International Women's Day, March 8, join Kasbah Tal'Fin and the world in calling for women to take climate action under the theme "Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow".
Promoting gender equality in the context of the climate crisis and disjaster risk reduction is one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st century.
Women are more vulnerable to climate change than men because they make up the majority of the world's poor and are more dependent on the natural resources which climate change threatens the most.
Morocco must legalize abortions
A consultation around legalizing abortion was open in Morocco back in 2015 but until this day no progress has been achieved.
Morocco must legalize abortions!