Liberal Democrats do love a challenge. Not for us the easy life of safe seats and majority governments. Oh no, marginal and year round campaigning is the life for us. So imagine that this is your task: to inspire women to stand for election to new regional councils, under an alternative list system, to be held in September, probably. The regulations for the new system have yet to be finalised, but existing laws, under which all meetings of more than ten people have to be licenced and leaflets cannot be distributed without permission, remain in force.
That is the task which Harakie Women, the women’s group within Mouvement Populaire, our sister party in Morocco, currently face.
Working with colleagues from VVD in the Netherlands and the FDP in Germany, the Liberal Democrat International Office has been supplying strategic and tactical support to the party’s potential candidates, coaching female candidates and providing them with the skills required to run an effective campaign.
So it was that Councillor Nicola Davies, who knows about tough campaigns – Hodge Hill, – and I, were privileged to spend two days with fifty women from towns and villages across Morocco. Travelling with Jose Forslund from the International Office, we went to Tetouan in the north of Morocco, in February this year, to speak to this inspiring group of political women about being a woman in politics and how to run a professional and successful campaign.
The things which they want to achieve as councillors for their communities are familiar and admirable: roads, electricity, clinics and secondary schools which are accessible. So too are their long term aspirations: employment for young people, an end to corruption and dealing with problems created by illegal drugs. The restrictions which they face, simply because they are women in a society which is more liberal than some, but still pretty conservative when it comes to gender roles, are not easily overcome. As a woman to may struggle to call your time your own. Even if men are not trying to have you thrown out of council meetings, they can simply move the decision making to a public café which no woman can enter.
Nicola and I shared stories of outstanding Liberal Democrat women campaigners, councillors and PPCs. We got down to the brass tacks of messaging and campaigning. For them, Harakie Women, Facebook campaigns are going to be an important weapon. We talked about how to approach being a new councillor or MP and how to handle difficult people. Above all, we talked about to build and maintain your confidence when up against blokes who think they are better than you without any justification. Over two days we learned that although we live in very different circumstances, some issues are universal
Harakie Women’s dynamic president Khadija el Morabit joined us at our recent Party Conference in Liverpool. In addition to taking part in the International Office’s pre-election campaigning training programme, she spoke eloquently on a panel hosted by the International Office on the subject of liberal responses to rising radical Islamism in the Middle East. Khadija serves as a shining example for strong liberal women in the Middle East and the work the Liberal Democrats are doing to support her and the Harakie Women is making a real difference to the lives of women and girls who are striving to make liberalism work in their communities.
In the coming weeks, while canvassing and delivering in London, I will be thinking occasionally of the impressive women who are battling for Liberalism miles away.