At first glance, this makeup tutorial looks like something you might find on the home shopping channel late at night, or on cheerful morning television. In fact, it is just that – a how-to makeup segment shown on Moroccan TV. But it’s not spruiking a new line of cosmetics, or showing women how to get a fresh new look for spring.
Instead, the smiling host gestures to the woman she’s about to make up. A woman who has what appears to be dark purple bruises around her eyes and cheekbones.
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“After the beating, this part is still sensitive, so don’t press,” the host tells her viewers in Arabic, as she adds foundation and concealer to the woman’s injuries.
“Make sure to use loose powder to fix the makeup so if you have to work throughout the day, the bruises don’t show,” she adds.
“Use foundation with yellow in it, if you use the white one, your red punch marks will always show.”
“We hope these beauty tips will help you carry on with your daily life,” the host concluded.
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The segment from the TV show Sabahiyat on station 2M, aired on Wednesday night, was openly designed to show women how to conceal the devastating evidence of domestic violence and go about their days as though nothing has happened. And the response, predictably, has been one of absolute outrage.
A petition was launched calling for the Moroccan High Authority of Audiovisual Communication to intervene, and to insist that the focus when covering domestic violence to be placed firmly on the perpetrator.
Since then, management at 2M has released a statement apologising for the segment, saying that it was “inappropriate” and “editorial error of judgement” and jars with their ongoing “defence of the rights of the wife.”
