I have called this an interim report in the hope that I may be able to draft a more concise workplan in a prospective research agenda for the Moroccan team working on Women in Islam, and affiliated to the Zahira Abdin Chair. I hope to be able to do that by early 2000. In the meantime I have set up a more structured chain of responsibility there and have provided them with the means to install the elements for reliable communication with the outside world. I have also arranged for some administrative support to back up the team. The present structure includes an academic advisor for the group, a chief administrator, and a research liason. The key person through whom I hope to maintain contact is the executive, or chief administrator, who is also in a position to ensure the performance in the other two roles. This way I hope to have helped resolve some of the problems encountered in the past.

The objective of this report was to fill out the background on the origins of this initiative and to outline the context in which it is working. While most of the members of the team are graduates trained in Islamic studies, a few are from other fields, in time I hope to diversify contacts and recruits to reach out to a wider circle. For now however given the priorities of our research agenda, our present team fulfills its purpose and nicely supplements the work in Cairo. Again, most of those currently working on assigned research tracks may be considered 'temporary', an unstable pool recruited for a specific task. Hopefully after this visit, matters will be different.

I am expecting written reports on the material presented at the workshop, together with the transcripts and a general report. Following that there will be a more thorough assessment of the situation there, and a new policy will be considered so as to ensure a modicum of commitment that can secure the continuity of our efforts. For one thing, in the aftermath of these reports, I hope to identify those elements who may constitute our core group in this region. This will of course entail, among other things, a more rigorous budgeting of our available meager resources, and some 'honoraria' and periodic small grants will be considered to cover expenses and provide symbolic material incentives: in what is otherwise designed as a voluntary effort. Up to this point, the efforts expended there may be considered to have served us as a measuring rod, or a feasibility field study, that precedes the actual workplan. In this case, the approach differs from my initiative in Cairo.

Here as in Cairo however, I have made it clear that our resources are extremely thin, so expectations are realistic and so far, enthusiasm and commitment are good. I have a strategy of mobilizing some local resources to support the work we do there and this is appreciated by those involved in the project. We have gone about this in Cairo by launching an NGO that might in time bring in some funds for our activities. I hope to do something similar in Morocco, though the set up there is somewhat different. I have also launched some research strategies to try and mobilize a local constituency into supporting the research and training forums we are setting up. I do not expect such initiatives to bear fruit in the short term. For now we will have to invest the best we can in the mileage of our sparse dollars. The backbone of current efforts in both Cairo and Morocco remains largely voluntary and relies on the good will of a few dedicated enthusiasts. However, to institutionalize we will need more than that and the School is expected to do what it can to support these initiatives. 

In the meantime, the work begun must go on and, barring some exceptional impediment,  it will not be stopped or delayed for want of funds.

At least this seems to be the message that comes from the field!