Dr. Zvan Elliiott has studied Moroccan gender, family, and societal relationships, human rights and people’s access to them, as well as political and legal reforms since 2006. She has also published with reputable academic peer-reviewed publishers on these topics and has undertaken extensive sociological and anthropological field research in urban, provincial, and rural areas in Morocco. From 2012 until 2022, she lived, conducted research and was employed at a Moroccan university. She has a DPhil in Oriental Studies (2013) from the University of Oxford. From August 2012 to August 2018, she worked as an Assistant Professor of North African and Middle Eastern Studies at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses on North African Politics, Middle East Politics, Gender and Politics in Modern Middle East, Gender in Society and Politics, and North Africa and the Middle East in the 20th Century. In September 2018, she was promoted to the Associate Professor rank. She was a founding and an active member of the on-campus No Violence Alliance (NoVA), a committee in charge of dealing with gender-based violence cases, such as bullying, violence against LGBTQI+, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. She has also supervised undergraduate and graduate theses tackling such topics as sexuality, gender-based violence, and Moroccan legal reforms.
Climate-related issues, Coercive population control, Deportees/criminal deportees, Document Authentication, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Ex-combatant reintegration, Forced marriage, Gang-related violence/non-state actors, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, Healthcare access/health systems capacity, HIV/AIDS, Journalist persecution, LGBTQ, Likelihood of destitution or homelessness, Mental illness, Military/police service, Political persecution, Religious discrimination or persecution, Government/state actor persecution, Risk of retaliation, Safe internal relocation, Sexual abuse/assault, Specialized medical services, Sufficiency of protection, Torture, Trafficking, Tribal discrimination or persecution, Violence against children/child abuse, Likelihood of police protection, corruption, judicial system and Personal Status Code/Family Code
I have worked as an expert on Moroccan asylum case in the UK (and a few in the Netherlands) since 2011 and have since completed over 30 cases involving issues from the above list of issues.
• A peer-reviewed article: “Morocco and Its Women’s Rights Struggle: A Failure to Live Up to Its Progressive Image.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 10:2 (2014): 1-30.
• A peer-reviewed article: “(Dis)Empowering Education: The Case of Morocco.” Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development 44:1-2 (2015): 1-42.
• A peer-reviewed article: “’It’s too much!’ Victims of Gender-Based Violence Encounter the Moroccan State.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 52:1 (2020): 49-66.
• A peer-reviewed chapter in an edited volume: “The Moudawana and Rural Marital Relationships: Reformed or Resolute?” In Self-Determination and Women’s Rights in Muslim Countries. Chitra Raghavan and James Levine (eds.) 2012. Walthan: Brandeis University Press.
• A peer-reviewed chapter in an edited volume: “Women’s Political Rights in Morocco.” In Global Handbook on Women’s Political Rights. Netina Tan, Mona Lena Krook, and Susan Francheschet (eds.) 2018. Palgrave MacMillan UK.
• Authored book: Modernizing Patriarchy: The Politics of Women’s Rights in Morocco. 2015. Austin: University of Texas Press.