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80 crime-Page fiction Moroccan True Crime and the New Independent Press the mid- to late 1990s was a particularly charged time in Morocco as the country continued moving away from the repressive authoritarianism of the Years of lead. not only did the media open up to new audiences and forms of representation but the state also initiated political, social, and legal reforms. recognizing the need for more inclusive government, in 1993 King hassan ii launched the process of al-Tanawwub, known in french as Alternance, with the stated aim of bringing the political opposition into the government. although they refused to enter the government that year, the political opposition, under the leadership of the socialist union, eventually accepted the king’s offer after the 1997 parliamentary elections. abderrahman Youssoufi, head of the usfP and former political prisoner, was named prime minister in february 1998. after over four years of public discussion, the inclusion of the opposition and nomination of Youssoufi marked a significant transformation in the political sphere and launched a period of widespread optimism about the pace of reform. The concept of Alternance was based on the idea that the country was entering a new era of power sharing and democratic transition, including respect for the rule of law, freedom of expression , and human rights. social movements and nGos took advantage of this atmosphere of increasing change during the 1990s. Women’s groups vehemently protested the tabit affair and continued their activities throughout the 1990s by opposing the highly conservative Mudawwana, or family legal code, which curtailed women’s rights to divorce, education, and inheritance. although the family code would not be reformed until 2003, women’s groups became more organized and active throughout the decade, demanding improvements in gender equality through protests, newspaper articles, and other forms of public participation. The spread of social movements such as women’s groups during this period demonstrated that the state was willing to permit more public dissent and freedom of expression in the new era. Moroccan human rights nGos also became significantly more active and emboldened during the 1990s. The beginning of this process can be tied to the appearance of Giles Perrault’s book Notre ami le roi in 1990.1 although it was pub3 Crime-Page Fiction | 81 lished in france and confiscated in Morocco, the book, despite its inaccuracies, brought a number of human rights violations and secret prisons to the attention of the international community. Partly due to significant international pressure at the time, many political prisoners were soon released and tazmamart, the most notorious secret detention center, was shut down. nonetheless, the survivors of these ordeals were treated as pariahs and the subject of political prisoners remained a taboo in Moroccan society until the mid-1990s when human rights nGos became more prominent. When King hassan ii appointed abderrahman Youssoufi as prime minister in early 1998, the symbolism was powerful. former political prisoners seized the opportunity and began publishing narratives of their experience behind bars in a variety of literary forms. While several prison narratives had been published in the 1970s and 1980s, they were immediately confiscated and banned. starting in 1998 with the publication of al-‘Aris (The bridegroom) by salah el ouadie, dozens of works began appearing, marking not only a break with the Years of lead but also a significant expansion of public expression and freedom of speech.2 although the transformation in political participation, women’s rights, and human rights has been well documented, the birth and rise of the independent daily press has yet to receive any scholarly attention. The first of these newspapers, the arabic-language Moroccan Events, which first appeared on newsstands on october 22, 1998, the same year as the new Alternance government, marked the launch of a radical new form of media in the country. Moroccan Events not only signified a significant expansion of public discourse and freedom of speech—a tangible change in the new era of Alternance—but also shifted the country’s daily press toward commercialism and sensationalism. Within only several years, the independent press would far surpass the party press in circulation and has remained at the forefront of the country’s newspaper industry ever since. Moroccan Events built its success by appropriating and transforming strategies of the tabloids in the daily press. among other elements, the newspaper invented a new form of cultural production, one that i call Moroccan true crime. in these articles, journalists used a fictional style to narrate...

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