"I wanted at least someone to hear me, the road in front of me was dark, I walked without a destination, I did not know where to put my legs to the right or left. I needed someone to understand my situation without judging me, and without saying my patience, I was too patient and my endurance passed."

This is some of what she told Al-Jazeera Net, Salma Nour (a pseudonym for a Moroccan in the thirties and mother of two girls under the age of six), where she was subjected to all forms of abuse by her husband for a long time: beatings, insults, insults, prevention of family visits, and imprisonment at home.

The need for support and restoration of balance

Faisal Al-Tahari, a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, says that violence that can be exposed to women in all its forms is one of the psychological traumas that women receive in their lives, and leaving them requires psychological strength and will and restoring balance.

And he indicates, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the psychological harm resulting from violence can continue in the medium and long term, and it may appear in the form of depression or anxiety, and it may lead to thinking about suicide or embarking on it.

The psychological harm of violence may manifest itself in the form of depression or anxiety and may lead to suicidal thoughts (Getty Images)

According to a study by the Economic and Social Council (a public consultative institution), violence against girls and women in Morocco is a widespread phenomenon.

In 2019, 7.6 million women out of a total of 13.4 million between the ages of 15 and 74 were subjected to at least one form of violence, accounting for 57% of women.

The home is generally considered the largest space experiencing violence, with a prevalence rate of 52%, which represents 6.1 million women.

According to Al-Tahari, the victim needs legal redress (meaning that the aggressor takes his penalty), an end to violence, especially in the case of marital or family violence, and psychological support from the family environment and friends.

Al-Tahari stresses the need for the intervention of psychologists, and sometimes the need for a psychotherapist to be able to restore balance and reintegrate back into a normal life.

It is considered that restoring the psychological stability of the battered will enable her to take the remaining steps, such as economic empowerment, integration and advocacy.

For her part, Rajaa Ahmen (33 years), a social worker, and the coordinator of the listening centers for women victims of violence, confirms that battered women need psychological support in the first place.

She explains, to Al-Jazeera Net, how the battered women reach the listening center, and how some of them become infected with crying hysteria, and she told us about the unstable situation that women reach as a result of losing self-confidence and the environment.

The need for specialization

Salma (witness to our story) decided one day to leave the house with her daughters, and to ask for support from an association specialized in supporting, listening and accompanying.

She says sarcastically who has undergone an ordeal and her bitterness remains, “The association’s bounty is on me, with the help of a psychologist today. I am very different from what I used to be. I appreciated myself again.

Civil society plays an essential role in accompanying women victims of violence, and sometimes specialization is absent, and volunteers come to listen to women, in order to fill out forms and collect data.

At-Tahari records that recounting events sometimes may not be required, and if they are not preceded by a psychological predisposition, they may become harmful.

And he stresses that listening is not a cure, if it is not completed with the guidance stage for specialists.

Al-Tahari said that working in this field requires training (training) and specialization, and not only gathering data to present it for pleading.

Training track

The social worker, Rajaa Ahmen, confirms that the need for training (training) always exists, and says that violence develops, education in laws and promotion of best practices for the support cells is a necessity.

This December, the Ministry of Solidarity, Social Development, Equality and Family launched a program under the name of "Kafeel" to train workers responsible for battered women.

The program extends over a period of 3 years for the benefit of multifunctional spaces, societies and listening centers.

The Minister of Solidarity, Equality and Family, Jamila Al-Musli, confirmed, according to the ministry's statement, that the training program is comprehensive and ambitious, and calls for working with all the human depth, credibility and seriousness necessary to ensure its success.

The "Takaful" program is supervised by a team of experts, working to provide the participants and participants with a set of knowledge and applied tools necessary to better own the new approaches and laws regulating their work, to provide quality service and impact on the status of women.

According to the statement, the minister said, "We need competencies to cope with the emerging difficulties in the field of caring for women in a difficult situation, to find appropriate solutions within the framework of social mediation."

Moroccan Family Minister Mussali: We need competencies to keep pace with the emerging difficulties in the field of sponsoring women (Al-Jazeera)

It's still acceptable behavior

The authorities had adopted several strategies, programs, and successive plans to combat violence against women since 2002, and approved a special legal framework, which is Law No. 103.13 related to combating violence against women, and it came into effect since 2018, but the Economic and Social Council (an official consultative institution) believes that all of these are The measures did not have a tangible impact on the efforts to reduce and eliminate this phenomenon.

According to the High Commission for Planning (a public institution in charge of statistics), it appears that violence is still an acceptable behavior, and it is even justified, as about 38% of women and 40% of men consider that a woman's bearing of marital violence is acceptable to maintain family stability, and 21% of women and 25 believe % Of men believe that the husband has the right to hit his wife and abuse her, if she leaves the house without his permission.

Working on socialization and raising awareness through the media remains one of the entrances to besieging the phenomenon, so does the training of workers contribute to mitigating the effects of gender-based violence and limiting its spread?

As for Salma Nour, she incites all women not to remain silent on violence, disclosure and reporting, saying, "Do not be afraid. Provision is in God’s hand. Do not accept violence whatever it is."