Rabat (AFP)
A Moroccan TV show has been sanctioned with temporary suspension for letting a singer boast on the air to "beat up his wife," said Wednesday a statement from the High Authority of Audiovisual Communication (HACA).
"He who does not beat up his wife is not a man," said the very popular singer Adil El Miloudi, raising laughter complicity of the actor Sami Naceri and the host of the show Kotbi Tonight on Chada TV , in June.
"In Morocco, this is normal, everyone can do what he wants with his wife, hit her, kill her," he insisted when the host jokingly reminded him that "it is forbidden to strike his wife all over the world ".
These words "constitute an apology of violence against women, an express incitement to this violence, positively presented as an attribute of virility (...) or even a recommendable behavior for the consolidation of conjugal ties. ", is indignant the release of the HACA.
Faced with this "explicitly violent speech", the facilitator adopted "a playful tone" and "left all the latitude to the guest to repeat his assertions calling for violence against women", continues the text. No mention is made of the attitude of Samy Naceri, also very much in tune with the singer.
The show Kotbi Tonigh will be suspended for three weeks, according to the HACA. At this stage, no legal action has been taken against Adil El Miloudi despite waves of outraged reactions on Moroccan social networks. Misogynistic and sexist attitudes are commonplace in Morocco and rarely condemned by the authorities.
In this context, the HACA considered it particularly important to transmit its decision to "the women's press, the women's NGOs and human rights, the international organizations: UN Women, UNESCO, etc", indicates the email accompanying its communiqué.
Last year, HACA sanctioned a Chada FM radio show because a columnist portrayed as a "healer" said on-air that "the women most exposed to uterine cancer are the ones who resort to prostitution or adultery ".
© 2019 AFP