Abdallah Masdad , general director

After the seminar organized by the Moroccan Observatory for prisons in Casablanca , demanding more rights and guarantees for women in prisons , Abdallah Masdad , general director of the observatory sat down for an exclusive interview with “Arab Today” to talk about this seminar.

During the interview, he confirmed that this meeting approaches different strategies aiming to improve healthcare services or drug-related cases , adding that a lot of effort is required to fully understand the relation between woman and prison on different scales .

He added that the observatory strongly insists on the need to intervene to reduce violations against women prisoners ,according to globally known international agreements and human rights.

He said that the number of women in prisons reached 1870 out of 7948 inmates, representing 2.37% , and despite this low number , the retention rate among them is high, which make them suffer from poor service and inequality .

He added that all women prisoners are protected from any kind of cruelty, specially isolation , they also have visitation rights whether for family or social help .

He concluded that the draft prison law didn’t give the women prisoners all their rights or stated any techniques to improve their status as inmates , adding that their suffering begins from the moment they got arrested to the moment the leave the prison and the life after that .