By Neri Livneh
Maguy Kakon lives in Casablanca, Paris, Florida and sometimes also in Israel. She has a chauffeur, a secretary and an office in the center of Casablanca, from which she manages her successful real-estate consultancy business. Her gentle-mannered husband, Aime Kakon, is one of Morocco's most successful architects.
The couple has four children, three of whom are well established in Florida and Paris; the youngest son is still at home. Although she lacks for nothing, Kakon nevertheless decided three years ago, at age 52 and already as a grandmother, to become the first female Jewish candidate in Morocco's parliamentary elections.
The book she wrote about her election campaign is a best-seller by Moroccan standards. Television networks from around the world sent reporters to interview her. Like many of Kakon's Muslim friends, even Al Jazeera's correspondent was surprised to discover that Moroccan Jews are allowed to run in elections. Kakon had the top slot among the women who ran, but ultimately did not get into parliament because the party she founded, Social Center, failed to pass the minimum electoral threshold - 6 percent. The parliament in Morocco, a constitutional monarchy, is divided into two houses: The 270 members of the Assembly of Councillors, or upper house, are elected indirectly by a board made up of the king's advisers, representatives of labor organizations and professional unions, etc. Kakon was trying for a seat in the Assembly of Representatives, or lower house, whose 325 members are chosen in direct democratic elections. She did a lot better than her party did, but still failed. However, she did not give up: In about a month, she will try again, running as a candidate in Casablanca's municipal election.
Meanwhile, she is forging ahead with the promotion of her feminist doctrine, and does not conceal her Jewish identity; both of these elements are hardly self-evident in an Muslim Arab country. Kakon herself asked to be photographed for this article next to the enormous Casablanca Mosque that the late King Hassan II erected on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and which can hold as many as 25,000 worshipers, "because it is one of the most significant places for me, emotionally." Women constitute about 8 percent of Moroccan parliament members.
A number of women hold senior positions in the kingdom, even though its judicial system - based on a combination of Islamic law (sharia) and continental Spanish and French law - is extremely discriminatory against women. Kakon's activism is focused on the advancement of women in Morocco, particularly Muslims (in any case, sharia law does not apply to the kingdom's small Christian minority and its minuscule Jewish community). Jews, she explains, "tend to stay out of politics in Morocco, which was far less democratic before the ascension of the present king, Mohammed VI." Jews who held political office on the national level were not elected, but rather appointed by the king. Such was the case, for example, with Andre Azoulay, the king's senior adviser, who is a relative of Kakon's husband. But, contrary to the usual practice, she does not boast of ties to the royal house. Kakon mentions Jews who opposed the monarchy in the past, such as Abraham Sarfati, a communist who tried to serve as an opposition to King Hassan II, spent 17 years in prison, and was exiled for another eight years. "But the current king is young and liberal, and today there is far greater freedom of the press and free speech in Morocco."
Among the motives that spurred her to run for parliament, she says, was a sense of urgency prompted by her older sister's death. Dr. Jenny Gabay-Biton, who died of cancer, made Kakon swear on her deathbed that she would be true to her dream. Kakon has many relatives in Israel, including actress Ruby Porat Shoval, her first cousin, who grew up near Kakon's own childhood home in Marrakech. Kakon's younger sister lives in Holon, and her mother divides her time between Holon and Florida. But Kakon herself never wanted to move to Israel. "The Jews who stayed in Morocco were the ones with plenty of money," she says, standing in the walled courtyard surrounding the gigantic house of Joe Levy, a wealthy interior designer who ran with her in the elections. Gathered inside at Levy's dining-room table are her closest friends - some are Jewish, but most are Muslim. Among the latter is Mohammed Arkoun, a sociology professor at the Sorbonne, who specializes in Orientalism. He encourages Kakon in her efforts, saying that one of Morocco's biggest problems derives from the fact that, similar to what befell the Arabs in Israel, the Jews have in effect been erased from the country's official historiography. Although many older Moroccans still fondly remember their Jewish neighbors, they are absent from the textbooks. Only some 3,500 Jews live in the kingdom today, half of them in Casablanca. Some are married to Muslims (under Moroccan law, a Jewish man or woman who marries a Muslim must convert to Islam). Almost all of Kakon's girlfriends are Muslim. "They are friends of 40 years who are like sisters to me. Our parents always taught us that it doesn't matter what religion our friends belong to. They never told us not to eat in somebody's home, because it did not have kosher food." Maguy Kakon, whose full name is Marie-Yvonne Kakon, is the third daughter - of six children - born to David and Dina Gabay, one of Marrakech's wealthiest couples. Her father, an industrialist whose high-school studies were interrupted during World War II when the country's prestigious French schools expelled Jewish students, employed many Muslims. The family lived in a lavish apartment in a French-style building, on Marrakech's main boulevard, "and when I walked down the street, everyone knew who my father was and who I was." It never occurred to her parents to join the droves of Moroccan Jews who immigrated to Israel in the 1950s. They moved to Paris in 1971, when her father retired. Maguy followed them and enrolled in law school, but was already engaged to Aime Kakon, whom she met in Morocco: "And then, after several months in Paris, my father became afraid that we would marry gentiles, and decided to immigrate to Israel, only for that reason." She spent one month in Israel, and then decided to marry (the wedding took place in Tel Aviv) and move to Casablanca with her husband, who is 13 years her senior. She does not regret the decision. "When we arrived at the airport in Lod," Kakon recalls, "my parents had a Pekinese dog. Someone at the airport didn't believe we were Moroccan. He told my father: 'There's no way you're Moroccan. In Israel Moroccans don't have dogs.'" To this day, when Kakon arrives on a visit and says she is "Moroccan," people don't believe her, and think she means she is American. With her blond hair and green eyes, Kakon looks like the quintessential northern-European woman, an appearance only enhanced by her brand-name clothes from expensive stores in Paris and New York.
Even on a tour of Casablanca, none of the vendors suspect she is Moroccan, until she starts haggling in Moroccan Arabic and with an authoritative tone, down to the last dirham (equivalent to about 60 agorot). "I speak Moroccan Arabic," she explains, "not the Arabic of the Jews here - a special language that some of the Muslims do not understand. Because of this I can even go to places where Jews are scared to go - very Muslim places, like this market." However, she insists that Morocco's Jews are perfectly safe, and that she has never experienced anti-Semitism personally. Nonetheless, Jews in Morocco cannot work in government, banks, or municipal posts, even though they can be elected to city councils, "and a lot of times Jews have bureaucratic difficulties heaped on them, although not on me personally, because I speak excellent Arabic." The only time she encountered anti-Semitism, Kakon recounts, was when her son David, today a banker in Paris, won the Casablanca golf club championship at age 15. The loser called him a "dirty Jew." Kakon did not take that sitting down. Among other things, she wrote the mayor and the interior minister, and the club issued a public apology. Her son nevertheless refused to return to Morocco. Kakon evinced leadership skills from a young age - along with a desire to engage in civic activity. She was always the class leader, and her father encouraged her to become involved in whatever interested her. But on returning to Morocco in 1971, she was unable to realize her ambitions. Those were the dark years of the Hassan II regime: "There was no freedom of expression and everyone was very scared," she says. Kakon began her advocacy work under the auspices of the American Women's Club, which was and remains the primary organization for promoting women's rights in Morocco. "We also took care of the blind, orphans, single-parent families," she adds. Her previous house, designed by her husband, was documented in architecture and design magazines as one of the kingdom's most beautiful homes. But they sold it and moved to what she calls "a small apartment" - enormous quarters located, like her previous home, in Casablanca's most expensive neighborhood - after their children were grown (Lora, the marketing director for L'Oreal Paris, lives in Paris, as does David; William is the proprietor of a fancy restaurant in Florida). Nathan, 17, will complete his baccalaureate soon and go to university in Paris, "because he can't study at the university here in Arabic. He has always studied in French, first at a French school - we transferred him from there because all the Muslim girls fell in love with him, and it didn't bother us, but their brothers got really nervous - and now at a Jewish school. For him, Arabic is really a second language." Beside her civic activity, Kakon is currently writing two books that she hopes will restore past glories: "La Cuisine juive du Maroc de mere en fille" ("Jewish Cuisine of Morocco from Mother to Daughter"), and "Traditions et coutumes des Juifs du Maroc" ("Traditions and Customs of Jews of Morocco"). French editions of both are scheduled to be published in about six months. In the meantime, Kakon has much to keep her busy: "I have met a great many 10-year-old girls who don't go to school anymore, or who never went in the first place, because in many places in Morocco, they believe that girls should stay home, and that education is intended only for men.
The main problem in Morocco is education. According to official data, a third of Morocco's residents are illiterate, most of them villagers and women. That creates a situation where those who educate the children - the mothers - are illiterate. Such a reality affects the state of individual rights in general, and of women's rights in particular. "The idea I preach is to grant women an education. We set up various organizations that enable women to learn how to read and write, and to acquire a basic education. I tell them: 'Don't be afraid of your husbands. You run the household; men cannot manage without women. Send your girls to school, because they are the future. Get out of the house and go study so you will have something to teach the children.' I am positive that if women in Morocco become more educated and modern, it will have an impact on the children and change the face of society as a whole." In her election campaign, in which these ideas were received very favorably, she was asked how a Jew could represent Muslims. Kakon replied: "I am a Moroccan citizen and a Moroccan patriot and my religion is something that remains between me and myself." The Jewish community in Morocco, she clarifies, "did not support me at all and did not try to help me or Joe Levy with anything." Indeed, it was Muslim friends who helped her, including numerous activists from the social-work sphere and academics. "Morocco is the only Arab country in which Jews lead normal and good lives," Kakon says. "If the current king's reforms continue, and if more people, more women with liberal social views like mine enter politics, Morocco will be the leading country in Africa. We are, after all, so close to Europe. In terms of mentality, there is not that big a difference between Casablanca and Marseilles. What is holding Morocco back is the status of women. As individuals they are indeed gaining more power: There are women doctors and engineers, lawyers and professors, and even a woman adviser to the king. But as a gender they are discriminated against very much. From that standpoint, Morocco remains an Oriental country, where a woman's status is poor, as in every Muslim country. That is why the elite and the educated young people, not just the Jews, are leaving Morocco, and the universities are in a terrible state. We must change this." Despite such criticism, Kakon notes that Morocco can also teach Israel and the entire Middle East a thing or two "about peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs. I am convinced that we, the Jews from Morocco, can help Israel make peace with the Arabs because we are part of Arab culture.
When we say that we know how to talk to the Arabs, we mean the opposite of what [Avigdor] Lieberman means. In my view it is disastrous that he got elected. We know how to give respect and accept respect. It is not a matter of left and right; it's a matter of knowing how to talk to one another. If I can manage to talk to the simplest and most ignorant people in Morocco in their own language, and to win them over with my ideas, then it's clear that the problem is that Israelis are not behaving correctly to the Arabs."
Submit your article, poem or story for publication.
