morocco

Behind Walls

The Dar Taliba is a girls' dormitory located in southern Morocco, in El Hanchane, a small dusty town between the tourist spots of Marrakesh and Essaouira.

Because of economic limitations and cultural traditions, illiteracy for women in rural Morocco can reach as high as 90 percent.

As part of a national initiative to help girls in remote areas receive a secondary education, dormitories like these have been built across the country. As the young King Mohammed VI said, 'We have focused our interest, first, on rural women, the group most affected by the ills of illiteracy and poverty -- two issues I firmly believe are at the heart of human rights, just as they may constitute structural obstacles to democracy."