Female landowners hail Ivanka
SIDI KACEM: Visiting Morocco for the first time, Ivanka Trump received a warm welcome on Thursday from housewives, widows and other women who are benefiting from new laws that allow them to own land.
One woman expressed her gratitude by embracing President Donald Trump’s daughter and kissing her hands. Ms Trump is a senior White House adviser who works on women’s issues and has sought to encourage developing countries to help women build wealth and financial independence by owning land or other property.
Morocco is one such nation. Working in partnership with the Millennium Challenge Corp, a US aid agency, Morocco updated its land laws and earned the three-day visit from the US president’s daughter.
At an olive grove north of the capital Rabat, she met four women who had inherited or bought land — something they previously could not do. She later strutted her way into a ceremony as participants banged drums and blew horns. Inside, women ululated to show their approval.
“When you invest in women, they invest back into their families and communities and countries flourish,’’ she said.
The festive atmosphere offered a fleeting diversion from developments back home in Washington, where House impeachment investigators continue to take depositions in the case against her father for asking Ukraine to investigate his political opponents.
She is visiting Morocco to promote the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity initiative, a US government programme she spearheads with a goal of helping 50 million women in developing countries advance economically by 2025.
The women she met among rows of trees bearing black olives thanked her.
Aicha Bourkib, 59, hugged Ms Trump, clasped her hands and kissed them. The housewife and mother of four grows olive trees and vegetables on land she
recently bought. She has two cows and wants to create a dairy cooperative in her village. Owning land “helps us and all the families in the area”, Ms Bourkid told her.