Moroccan TV spurs outrage after airing domestic abuse 'cover-up' tips

Segment featured make-up artist guest offering tips to female viewers on how to "camouflage traces of violence."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: NOVEMBER 28, 2016 13:38
Moroccan T show aires domestic abuse cover-up segment (photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
Moroccan T show aires domestic abuse cover-up segment
(photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
A Moroccan early morning television program apologized on Friday after it aired a segment providing female viewers with tips on how to conceal domestic violence abuse injuries with cosmetics, according to online publication Mashable.
Broadcast on Channel 2M's daytime talk show Sabahiyat on November 23, guest Lilia Mouline offered tips to female viewers on how to "camouflage traces of violence" with make-up.
"We hope these beauty tips will help you carry on with your daily life," Mouline said during the 10-minute segment.
"Make sure to use loose powder to fix the makeup so if you have to work throughout the day, the bruises don't show," she added.
Following the piece, outrage from the social media sphere was swift and unrelenting.
"I think they missed the point...they should be stopping domestic violence and working towards creating laws programs and facilities in place to end it...not teach its victims to hide it from people," said one social media user.
"This is probably the most tone deaf thing I have witnessed on the internet — which in 2016 is saying a lot," said another on Facebook.
 
Following the outburst, Channel 2M released a statement on their own on social media, apologizing for the "inappropriate" segment aired on Sabahiyat, saying they had made an "error in judgment."
Mouline later said that her intention was not to trivialize the severity of domestic abuse, but to offer a solution to women in a difficult situation.
"We are here to provide solutions to these women ... These women have already been subjected to moral humiliation and do not need to also have others looking at them.
"Makeup allows women to continue to live normally while waiting for justice."
Nearly two-thirds of women in Morocco aged 18 to 65 (62.8%) have experienced some kind of physical, psychological, sexual, or economic violence, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch.
The NGO also noted that most domestic violence survivors who reported their cases to authorities saw "police, prosecutors and the courts" fail to record statements, investigate, or "arrest domestic abuse suspects even after prosecutors ordered them to."