RELIGIOUS WOMEN MENTORS: THE MOROCCO VERSION

Abstract

Since 2005, the Moroccan authorities have decided to reform the country’s mosques’ religious policy and leadership structure. To this end, several strategies have been initiated. One of them was the creation of training programs for imams, male mentors, and female mentors of the new generation for active work among the population, in particular, to curb the radicalization of youth, especially in rural areas. These programs were short-term but quite effective for this purpose, and their specific feature was the involvement of women in the role of mentors. Most importantly, these are well-educated young women whose intellectual level allowed them to carry out creative preaching work in modern conditions. These programs were attached to the Mohammed VI Institute, and the contingent of students quickly became international, so imams and mentors were trained for several foreign, mainly African states. This practice allowed, on the one hand, to remove social-religious tension within the country and, on the other hand, to significantly increase the authority of the Kingdom of Morocco as an international religious educational center. The purpose of this article is to analyze the implementation of the religious policy of Morocco in recent years in the field of using the «female factor» to solve the social problems of modern Muslim society.