Family Loyalties and Oppression in Morocco and Libya

This article examines how the repressive systems of two authoritarian political regimes, Morocco and Libya affected family relationships and how kinship, neighbourhood and other social relations intersected with state oppression. It is based on an analysis of first-hand material originating with individuals who suffered oppression and derives from two sources: witness statements recorded by the Moroccan Instance Equité et Réconciliation and the counter-hearings organised by the Association Marocaine des Droits Humains in 2004–2005, which investigated human rights violations during the reign of Hassan II, and asylum applications by Moroccan and Libyan citizens in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and USA. It shows that family loyalties could be both supportive of an individual's safety and destructive of it and that mutual responsibilities within families and kinship groups strained or conflicted with personal loyalties, particularly along lines of gender.