In 2012 Moroccan teen Amina Filali’s suicide made international headlines. She killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist. A full 99.3% of Egyptian women have encountered sexual harassment. Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco rank 123rd, 126th, 129th, and 133rd out of 142 in the World Economic Forum’s 2014 Global Gender Gap’s consideration of state resource distribution. And Morocco and Egypt are in the bottom two-fifths of the United Nations Development Program’s Gender Inequality Index.
The United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women calls attention to the continued need for work on its 1993 declaration.
The stories and statistics paint a bleak picture, and a great deal is yet to be done. The sad reality is that the world is generally not safe for women. But some local projects in North Africa provide a glimpse of hope and suggest a way forward.