Larchmonter Going to Morocco as a Fulbright Scholar

by Judy Silberstein

(May 29, 2008) Jacqueline Powers, a Larchmont native and 2006 graduate of Georgetown University, is going to Morocco as a Fulbright scholar and as a recipient of the Critical Language Enhancement Award, a component of the National Security Language Initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. At Georgetown, Ms. Powers majored in French and minored in Spanish and English but in Morocco she will be studying a completely different language – Arabic. In addition to intensive language study, she will be researching how changes to Morocco’s family code have contributed to women’s socio-economic empowerment.

Arabic is not an entirely new subject for Ms. Powers – nor is Morocco.

“I majored in French – that’s my forte – but I’ve taking Arabic classes since January 2007,” she explained. “It’s very tough. Learning the alphabet and the sounds can be difficult when it’s not your native tongue.”

Since graduating from Georgetown, she has also been working at both Penguin Books and the American Bar Association Section of International Law, where she currently focuses on international rule of law projects.

Her interest in Morocco was sparked by the year she spent studying at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, where she encountered a lot of people whose parents had emigrated from North Africa. “I was looking at the French laws on becoming a citizenship, which are difficult, and also on mixed identity - identifying with their North African heritage and their French heritage.” That led to her completing an honors thesis in French with distinction on “The Conflict of Generations and the Future of Muslim Youth in France.”

Recently, she had an opportunity to visit Morocco. In October, she was in Marrakech and met with the woman who runs the organization where she will be working.
When she returns to Morocco, she will be conducting independent research and volunteering with the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women in Rabat and the El Amane Association for the Development of Women in Marrakech. She is particularly interested in looking at reforms enacted in 2004 to the “Moudawana,” Morocco’s family code, and hopes to gain a greater understanding of how written law has had a tangible impact on both rural and urban women. During her time in Morocco, she will record her experiences on her blog: vieaumaroc.blogspot.com/.

Her professor, Patrick Laude, praised Ms. Powers for her “unflinching ability to abide by goals, deadlines and standards of research.” He said, “Jacqueline’s seriousness of purpose and ability to achieve her goals is one of her most striking qualities.”

Undoubtedly, her “seriousness of purpose” was among the qualities that motivated the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to award her a scholarship. Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright program has sent nearly 300,000 scholars to over 155 countries, with the aim of building international cooperation.

“I was thrilled and really excited,” to learn about the Fulbright award, reported Ms. Powers. “I double-checked the envelope to make sure it was meant to go to me.”

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