{"id":4576,"date":"2019-04-26T13:53:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T11:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highatlasfoundation.org\/?p=4576"},"modified":"2021-02-11T12:17:23","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T12:17:23","slug":"it-rains-empowerment-in-talaint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/it-rains-empowerment-in-talaint\/","title":{"rendered":"It Rains Empowerment in Talaint"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Houria CHOUHAB<\/em>
\nHAF Volunteer<\/em><\/p>\n

On the 4th of April, a team from HAF conducted a four days workshop in Talaint, in the Setti Fatma Commune. It was raining so heavily that we thought women would not attend the workshop, but they proved us wrong when half of the women were already there and the other half started to show up over the next hour. In the end, they were about 46 women attending the workshop.<\/p>\n


\nAs in any Moroccan region, we were welcomed by a nice breakfast which we shared with the women before Amina Hajami, Director of Projects at HAF, started the workshop. The purpose of this session in the first place was to get the women to understand the maximum of concepts that would widen their vision.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, women were asked about the meaning of the term \u201cself-empowerment\u201d, but none of them heard of the word before. At that moment, the facilitator knew that she had to change the strategy and to simplify the notions according to their level of understanding. Amina started from the bottom up and brainstormed their notions about self-empowerment <\/em>and training.<\/em><\/p>\n

The purpose of this four-day workshop is to get these women out of their comfort zone first and then to empower them to rely on themselves, but most importantly, to help these women create the life they want, not the one the society wants them to live. Additionally, these women can learn how to progress and take steps forward, and this can only be achieved through work, hand-in-hand. We can compare this four-day experience to a trip, and one of the best tips is to enjoy a trip is a good company, and with these women, we can make the best outcome out of this training.<\/p>\n


\nIn the past, women didn\u2019t have many rights as they have nowadays. For example, in this village, as in other villages in High Atlas, it was <\/em>believed that a woman travels only twice in her life: the first trip is from her parent\u2019s house to her husband\u2019s, and the second one is from her husband’s house to the cemetery. We can feel the amount of unfairness towards women.<\/p>\n

However, women still care less about what they want, and they give priority to what their men want. One of these women even mentioned a very dangerous belief that prevails in the area. She stated that marriage is about selling themselves to their husbands more than starting an institution where love, respect and understanding dominate.\u00a0 For that reason, it was important to remind these women that a wife is a blessing as long as she is able to educate the man and change his bad habits, as well as reminding them that they are equal to man and no one is superior to the other.<\/p>\n

The facilitator deduced then that these women need to be empowered in seven areas in their lives:<\/p>\n