Resumen de Language and gender in Moroccan urban areas
A central issue in the interaction between language and gender in Morocco is urbanity. The written languages, namely Modern Standard Arabic and French, are the languages of institutions which have always been closely linked to urban areas, the typical loci of knowledge and power. Non-written languages, namely Berber and Moroccan colloquial Arabic, are represented as rural and indigenous because they are unlearned and are associated with rural areas, particularly Berber. Unlike the latter, Modern Standard Arabic and French are powerful because they are elitist, given their relation to education, government, and religion (Modern Standard Arabic). Berber and Moroccan Arabic are considered low or powerless because they lack the above-mentioned qualities and they are unimportant for social promotion. Language representations in Morocco are also important because they interact in significant ways with gender. Whereas Modern Standard Arabic and French are associated with public space, Berber and Moroccan Arabic are linked to private space, which happens to be the typical space of women; given the correlation between women, native tongues, and private space. However, with women's access to free education and to work in postcolonial Morocco, the notion of space changed, resulting in the recent mass feminization of the public sphere and women's access to “urban” languages, i.e., French and Modern Standard Arabic. As women have become more active in public life and the public sphere in general, they are considerably contributing to linguistic change and diversity and intensely instigating significant social changes.
