"Thank you so much your Royal Highness [Princess Lalla Fatima-Zohra] for your very warm welcome and for your comments about women and progress and empowerment in Morocco today.

"I want to express to everyone the gratitude that I and all who are travelling with me feel toward the government and the people of Morocco: for the extraordinary hospitality that we have been extended during our too-short stay. And, I look forward -- as I told Her Royal Highness as we were walking in -- to returning, in the not-so-distant future sometime, to visit more of the country and have more of an opportunity to meet people. But I am very grateful for this opportunity. As Her Royal Highness said, I have been privileged to attend a number of conferences that deal with women's issues; and I have, as I have traveled around the world, sought out occasions like this where a smaller group of women could discuss with me the common challenges that all women face in the world today and the particular challenges that women in various societies face as well.

"In all of those meetings and conversations I have been struck by a couple of points that I would just briefly make here.

"First, that there are many, many areas of common interest among women -- no matter where we live. The kinds of challenges that we face as women may look different from the vantage point of history, or culture, or religion, or economic advancement; but, very often, underneath that there are some very common experiences that women share that permit women, in open and candid dialogue, to understand one another and the choices that we all face.

"Secondly, there are significant differences, however, in the legal, and social, and political, and economic structures in which women and men live, in the world today and trying to sort out those issues -- that can be dealt with directly, as Her Royal Highness said, through constitution and law, and those issues which must be addressed because they are of tradition, or family, or custom -- is one of the challenges that I see women addressing around the world today.

"Whenever I have an occasion like this to meet with women, I often find, no matter what country I'm in -- even my own country -- that women from different political backgrounds, different experiences don't talk enough to one another, don't have enough dialogue, don't try to see each other's perspective because, if they do, they can then work better together.

"In a couple of cases, just within the last several months, I have been impressed and pleased to see women who have very different political perspectives working in common on many goals; and I think that goes to this commonality of a woman's experience, regardless of where she comes from or what her position in society might be.

"I just want to listen and learn. I do not pretend to know very much about the experience of women in Morocco, but I am very eager to learn from our panelists about their own experiences and about the challenges that they believe are the ones that should be addressed.

"I would just conclude with two very short stories about my stay in Morocco so far. The very first visit that I made was to a school where I listened to a father, and a little girl, a teacher, and a member of the Ministry of Education. And the little girl, who was a beautiful child, was -- as I sometimes am -- overwhelmed by the cameras, and the attention, and very shy; but she told us that she wanted to be a doctor. Her father then said that he had nine children; he himself was illiterate; and none of his children could finish school; but he was trying very hard to see that this little girl could finish school, and have a chance to fulfill her own dream.

"Yesterday, in the village that I visited, I met with many women who were being able to take advantage of some of the changes that certain projects were bringing to them so that they were able, because of a new cookstove, and they were able to cut the time that they used to spend looking for fire wood; and then they could use that time to engage in income-generating activities. And they could also use that time to attend literacy classes which were being conducted for the first time in the village. And, when I walked in, and I saw those beautiful young women and these two young teachers, and they stood, and they greeted me in English, and then answered questions that were posed to them by their teachers, I saw on their faces the same look of expectancy, of hope, of joy that is on the look of any young woman anywhere in the world who is finding out more about herself and her capacity, and is learning and is understanding what more can be made of her life and her future.

"And so, ultimately, my hope is that we work toward creating circumstances in which all girls and women have the opportunity to make the choices that are right for them, and their choice may not be the choice I would make, or not be the choice someone else would make, but that they're equipped to make the right choices, and they are not circumscribed by law or custom, but they chose what kind of life they wish to lead.

"So with that, I would love, Your Royal Highness, to listen to our panelists and to hear from them. Who would like to start?

End Mrs. Clinton's Introductory remarks.

First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Your Royal Highness, Ladies, Distinguished guests, on behalf of the business community I would like to bid you welcome, and also express our pride in being able to attend this meeting and also our appreciation and consideration for your efforts that you've put forth in terms of defending general causes, and particularly defending women's issues. This historical meeting is taking place at a time when many political changes are occurring in Morocco in terms of Democratic alternation, and Moroccan women know that their participation to the development process is paramount as there shall be no democracy with no advancement with no development and no development is possible without the participation, the true participation of women, so therefore, against a business background, women are very active in various areas, and certainly this meeting that serves as a forum for various forces as represented here will enable us to address a number of issues that will undoubtedly contribute to designing and conceiving a contribution to a general perspective of women of Morocco, their achievements, and also in terms of the impediments that they are facing, and these impediments are definitely due to inequalities. So let us open the floor for debate and I should now give the floor to Miss Amina Lemrini, who leads and chairs the Democratic Women's Federation and she also represents the community of academia.

Thank you Madame Chair. I certainly will not dwell on further welcomes extended to the First Lady as this will take up of our very limited time. Now ... Madame Chair, let me focus on an item that you emphasized in your introduction with regard to the impediments facing Morocco and I would speak particularly about education. Certainly this subject matter has witnessed or this area has witnessed great advancement in Morocco since independence. It simply suffices to say that our generation as represented through this round table is not the generation of our mothers. Education is one of our achievements, the achievement of our generation and when we talk about the impact of education there is certainly a general impact in terms of improving and bettering the lives of women, but considering that this is an Arab and Islamic country this impact is of particular effect. On the one hand it contributes to lift a number of traditions and also in terms of increasing the age of marriage and fertility rate and also in terms of the relations between women within families and it contributes tremendously to make that headway that is necessary for women to go from their homes out on the streets. So this simply illustrates clearly that there has been great progress achieved during the past decades; however there is a great want in our country and definitely we need to recognize this deficit. There is great disparity. The gap is too wide between the cities and the rural areas and between women and men. If a women is living in the hinterland it would mean that this woman is doubly eliminated from the benefits of education and there are great challenges that we need to face. The first challenge being to raise the level of schooling rate of young girls in terms of enrollment and also in terms of staying in school until they can acquire a certain level of education. There is also another challenge in terms of fighting illiteracy of mature women and this is unfortunately very strongly present in our country. There is also the other challenge whereby we need to improve the education environment because we cannot generalize education without consistently improving the education general environment and curricula and on the other hand education requires a great support in terms of establishing a spirit of equality through schools and also through the various skills that are acquired at schools. There is great debate taking place in our country at this time and maybe one of the positive indicators is that the Ministry of National Education has fixed the short term objectives and this objective we are certain that once they are reached they would certainly depend on the schooling of young girls because actually the particular feature of the lack of education needs or the want or the deficit in terms of education needs to be tremendously addressed in the hinterlands. I should also say that in the past we relied heavily on the state. We used to rely on the providence state, but now there is a change of mind, an indicator of a greater social awareness with regard to education and certainly considering this close relationship with the issue of development, you have a greater participation of NGO's, women NGO's, development NGO's, and there's also a greater sensitivity on the part of the private sector -- tomorrow we'll be organizing an event in this sense -- and there is also the role played by International cooperation -- a number of states and a number of organizations in terms of multilateral and bilateral cooperation. These organizations and institutions are playing a tremendous role in terms of schooling young girls and we hope that these institutions will play a greater role in terms of this broader partnership so as to enable young Moroccan school girls to achieve this very crucial and important objective. Thank you very much.

Thank you Miss Amina Lemrini. The floor goes now to Miss Hakima Himmich, who teaches Medicine and she also chairs the Moroccan Association Against AIDS. Your Royal Highness, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, as a physician and the President of an NGO against AIDS I will address general health issues and I would also address the issue of women and AIDS. Now with regard to Health I know Madame that I am speaking here to a great specialist. During the fourth conference, Women's Conference in Bejing where I've had the pleasure and delight to listen to your address you have said ....all of these issues are present in a number of countries and in our country too, so besides the number of positive achievements made ever since independence we still have a number of drawbacks. I should also affirm that in terms of positive developments that circumcision in Africa as practiced in Africa is totally a practice that is not adopted at all in our country so what USAID Morocco has engaged in is to a family planning program that is quite performing and that has contributed to the birthrate that is at about 3.7 today. Women and men are getting married at an older age which actually matters tremendously in terms of the health of young women. Now in terms of drawbacks, let me say that about 60% of pregnant women would enter into labor and deliver their babies at home with no medical supervision. Maternal mortality is very high and Miss Belafraj has just said that in the West it's only at about 12 or 17 percent. Abortion being prohibited by the law, it is often practiced in conditions that would jeopardize the health and the lives of these women. Apart, the issue of health, mothers, and children there is no program that would specifically address the health issues of women. With regard to AIDS, Morocco and Maghreb countries the prevalence is very low. The policy of the Ministry of Public Health is fully compliant with the recommendations of WHO, and we are proud to affirm that in Morocco there is no discriminatory measure taken against AIDS patients in any area and that access to Health Care is possible, of course provided that we have the right financial resources. The Ministry of Public Health and the NGO movement that is quite developed in Morocco we have undertaken a number of preventative activities and our association would distribute condoms that are provided free of charge by USAID in every city, but unfortunately this supply will stop very soon, and this is an appeal I would like to make. Our association is working with women, our association also works on prevention with sexual workers and with low income women. The prevalence rate for AIDS was 8% in 1988 and 30% in 1998 taking social, cultural, and economic vulnerability factors and as in every developing country, contaminated women were contaminated at 50% of occurrences by their husbands. So in closing, the health of women depends tremendously on the legal status of women and also on the perception of religion as an instrument for justice and not as a dogma that would impede the emancipation and development of women. Thank you very much.

Thank you Miss Hakima Himmich. Miss Hinde Taarji, a reporter, you have the floor. Thank you. Your Royal Highness, First Lady, good morning, I'll try and talk about my area of activity, the media. Whenever we talk about media, we have to essentially address expression and visibility and this is actually totally in opposition to the condition of women in Moroccan society. By entering the media, women have actually separated themselves from the stance that used to be that of women for centuries, and also by making fundamental claims, because at a time when the speeding up of developments imposes upon Morocco deep changes. Women in the media, as in other areas of public life, are taking part in the double emergence of the individual and the citizen. There contribution and action fit or go beyond women's issues or go within a framework of democracy and human rights. In Morocco, the print and visual media are relatively young, although the freedom of expression is a very very fragile achievement, so during the past ten years women are of course far less numerous than women in the area of media and considering that quality is better than quantity, women are the voices that prompt the expression of the silence and also it leads society to think of its future in a very clear way so we have various individual experiences, but with the same constant, the will to exist, to lead a full fledged existence. Let me here make mention of some achievements. The voice of women in the media is heard differently. Women who are very active with the feminist review, tell about the condition of women, denounce and condemn oppression, claim the equality of rights, and this had actually helped women tremendously in Morocco. We also have the experience of Kalima in Morocco. We've had a cooperation between men and women in order to address the issue of social condition, and in terms of the relationship men and women, and the subversion of this effort resides in the fact that the veil was left over a big taboo that of young domestic workers, and the oppression of women by men in general. So Kalima actually really put it's finger on the issue, but however the gavel was carried forward, first of all by 2M, the private television network and particularly within this structure, also, the gavel was carried forward by women. We have had here for example a talk show called "Eklikake" that had actually increased viewership tremendously by addressing taboos and political issues. So in this male, macho backyard, those who will cause ripples will be women. In TV, this had actually caused many of them to be embargoed. So after Kalima, today we have more feminist magazines, but even in here the subversion exists, so as to really shake up censors, so actually the conquest of expression is a global conquest. In the media, as elsewhere, women have a hard time expressing their concerns, but we need to be louder and louder than men. I apologize for taking up a few minutes of your time.

Thank you, and Miss Ouafa Hajji, a Municipal Counselor and also the President of a Moroccan women's NGO association. Thank you Madame Chair. Your Royal Highness, First Lady, as chairwoman of an association that defends the right of women and that endeavors to improve social and economic conditions, and as an economist I will address the issue of women in active life. Following Morocco's Independence a number of factors such as schooling, the developing of industry, migration phenomena, urbanization has actually contributed to easing the participation of women in active life and this had actually led to the increase of the number of working women during the past decades and to also put a feminine face on a number of areas of activity that we here make mention of services provided to the community, such as health, hygiene, education, manufacturing industries in general, and also in banking, insurance, and services provided to corporations; therefore, Moroccan women have progessively engaged in a number of activities, and today they represent an active force in economic life and take actively to generate the national wealth. So this integration has turned women into a much needed partner, therefore easing the claiming of our rights, and contributing to therefore to the autonomy, emancipation, and development of women. A number of constraints still hinder this integration. Let me make mention of four constraints here. First of all the level of qualification of women. That remains pretty low. Over two thirds of women who are active hold no degrees and therefore, we can see that there actually a predominance of women working in the field, in the hinterland, and working also as domestic workers in the cities. The second finding is that there is a great number of people working in the formal sector are for the most part women, and I should also say that in terms of equality, women are still subject to discrimination because of the culture prevailing within the administration of the private sector. Finally as a forth constraint I shall say that Morocco's effort in terms of structural logistics translated into tension on the job market during the past few years. A job market where women, because of their lack of qualifications, skills, and competence, and also because of the prevailing cultural mentality women are far more exposed and therefore they are exposed to a greater popularization and social marginalization. So how do we face these challenges, and how do we lift these constraints? During the past few years, a number of initiatives were taken and implemented. Some initiatives were official and others were implemented by NGO's and Civil Society. Here I'm talking about revenue generation, activities such as micro-credit cooperatives, and self assistance for self employment, and also in terms of putting in place social protection mechanisms. I think that this is a very important subject matter, and also how within in terms of globalization and the challenges stemming from globalization, how do we think about integrating women by putting in place new mechanisms for acquiring new know how, because competitiveness, international competitiveness compels us today to acquire new mechanisms for acquiring new know how and I think integration with the right processes and approaches to face these challenges would ease work of women within one country, and the work of women internationally. I thank you very much for your attention. Thank you. With that Miss Malika Baradi is a professor of law. Thank you Madame Chair. I am addressing here the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, an eminent legal expert and very sensitive to women's issues rather well. Any legal expert in Morocco is actually struck by the ambivalence of the legal system in Morocco. We have a modern, Western-inspired set of laws whereas the family relations are still covered by an Islamic set of laws and therefore this is a clear illustration of the ambivalence of the legal environment in Morocco. On the street, women are considered as citizens, they are judges, lawyers, members of parliaments, professors, and so on. But at home notwithstanding their social condition, notwithstanding their position within the family they are still subject to the family relations act that was developed in 1957 and the royal initiative and review of the family relations act in 1992 in parallel with efforts made so as to sensitize society by NGO's has actually the merit of (desacrilizing) the code, the family relations act. However, it is still based on a patriarchal ideology that translates into a matrimonial relationship that is actually marked by the predominance of the husband over the wife and the propriety of the links of marriage. So this code or this act actually makes women inferior beings and puts them in a (garble) position and this actually could undermine greatly the ambitions of Morocco because the impact of the Family Relations Act has in other areas is in fact undeniable. So that is why all women and civil society and particularly women's associations are claiming and are actually calling for the review and amendment of provisions that constitute a flagrant and blatant discrimination and that would seem to represent the crystallized view of Islamic Sharia and that would simply reflect the attitude of imams and religious scholars whom at a certain time has developed and accepted a number of precepts that do not at all reflect the real values of Islam being human dignity notwithstanding their gender. Also considering social changes and considering also the role of women and their place in society and also considering the requirements of human sustainable development and the priorities to be addressed in terms of democracy and international conventions as ratified and subscribed to by the Kingdom of Morocco we need to review a number of these provisions particularly that of matrimonial tutelage, age of marriage, the suppression of repudiation whereby discretion is given to the husband and also the suppression and elimination of bigamy and polygamy and also the right of women to have legal representation over their children, the right of custody that should not be denied to women whenever that woman is to remarry and also a fair distribution of assets as acquired within wedlock.