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MOROCCO-WOMEN-MEDIA-SOCIAL
Morocco TV show censured for guest’s boast of ‘beating wife’
RABAT, Sept 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Moroccan television show has been
suspended for allowing a celebrity guest to boast on air of “beating his
wife”, the country media authority said Wednesday.
“Whoever doesn’t beat his wife is not a man,” popular singer Adil El
Miloudi said in June on a Chada TV show, Kotbi Tonight, drawing laughter from
a fellow guest, actor Samy Naceri, and host Imad Kotbi.
“In Morocco, this is normal, anyone can do what he wants with his wife,
hit her, kill her,” he insisted after Kotbi jokingly said: “It’s forbidden to
hit one’s wife all over the world.”
Miloudi’s remarks amounted to “justification for violence against women,
an express incitement to violence, presented in a positive way as a sign of
virility… or even recommended behaviour”, the High Authority for
Audiovisual Communication (HACA) said in a statement.
In response to this “explicitly violent speech”, the host adopted a
“playful tone” and allowed his guest to repeat his call for violence against
women”, it added.
The media authority said Kotbi Tonight was to be suspended for three
weeks.
So far no legal action has been taken against Miloudi, despite waves of
outrage on social media in reaction to his comments.
Misogynistic and sexist attitudes are commonplace in Morocco and rarely
condemned by authorities.
Last year, HACA penalised a Chada FM radio show after a commentator said
on air that “women who are the most exposed to uterine cancer are those who
resort to prostitution or adultery”.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2047HRS