Chuma Bezzaf
View from Fez just had a very interesting post on the new way to abandon your wife/children - take them back to Morocco, steal their papers/passport, and return to your foreign home. Problem solved! This was first reported by Radio Netherlands, and the outlook for these women doesn’t look good. The Dutch Immigration and Integration Minister, Rita Verdonk, stated that she was going to enact measures to combat the despicable practice, but offered no help or solutions for those affected.
As I posted on both View from Fez and Cat In Rabat, my husband knows a man from the region of Agadir who attempted this ploy with his wife. They were living in France, and the marriage was floundering, when he convinced his wife that making a trip to Morocco would be good for them. They arrived in Morocco, and he immediately stole her papers and began proceedings at the local tribunal to divorce her. Unfortunately for him, she reported the loss to the police, and they were somehow able to issue papers, perhaps in partnership with the French embassy, to allow her re-entry into France. This took some time, of course, and the beleaguered wife was able to confront the thief in his den several months later - by showing up at their house in France and blessing him with the wicked tongue that Moroccan women are famous for! She then divorced him, remarried, and now lives happily in France, sans jerk ex-husband.
As for the poor girls formerly from the Netherlands, I don’t hold out much hope for their return - especially not with “Iron Rita” Verdonk in office. This is the same woman who enacted the infamous “immigration test.”
August 24th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Makes me want to boycott Edam & Gouda.
August 24th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
So shocking and so sad. How to people live with themselves?
Pls come vsit me on my new Marrakesh blog: http://moroccanmaryam.typepad.com/my_marrakesh/
August 25th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Wow, what a story! Bravo to the Moroccan gal who rallied quickly & confronted the jerk !
Back to your JetBlue censorship post - wow, assinine. Ridiculous. Sometimes you just have to step back & say “uh, anyone overreacting here?” Not that I’m entirely clear what “we will not be silent” means, but there’s certainly no law against ambiguity. Heck, American t-shirts say a LOT more obscure, weird stuff every day of the week!
Lili I hope you will be in Maroc in December because Sally’s going there, & I might try to come and visit too !!!!
August 26th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Maybe I am being naive, but if the ladies are dutch citizens, they can always ask for new papers. Their country of origin would have records of their existence.
August 27th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Well, Don, like the article said, the Dutch embassy stated “.. it can’t do anything with the fact that Khadija has already lived in the Netherlands and has informed her that she must first take an integration test in Morocco, at a cost of 830 euros.”
Not very helpful, eh?
September 2nd, 2006 at 5:34 pm
There are times when I really hate men. Not all men. But a lot of them.