In Morocco, the announced reform of the family code raises the hopes of women's rights defenders
A Moroccan couple in Rabat, in 2005. ABDELHAK SENNA / AFP For the women’s rights movement in Morocco, there is hope. The Shereef kingdom is preparing to revise the Moudawana, its family code, twenty years after the flagship reform at the start of the reign of Mohammed VI which aimed to enshrine equal rights between […] The Moroccan kingdom is planning to revise the Moudawana, its family code, twenty years after its first major reform aimed at equal rights between men and women. The King of Shereef, Mohammed VI, has given the government six months to submit proposed amendments. The consultations, led by the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary, are expected to be complex as the family code is subject to ideological confrontations. Feminist associations are working to obtain real progress, seizing the opportunity of the royal impulse and a more liberal government after ten years of power of the Islamist party. However, the monarchy must contend with strong conservative forces.
Veröffentlicht : vor 2 Jahren durch David Sadler in
For the women’s rights movement in Morocco, there is hope. The Shereef kingdom is preparing to revise the Moudawana, its family code, twenty years after the flagship reform at the start of the reign of Mohammed VI which aimed to enshrine equal rights between men and women – hitherto condemned to a life under male supervision – but whose shortcomings feminist associations have continued to point out. The king called on the government to take up the subject. On September 26, he gave him six months to submit proposed amendments.
The project to evolve the Moudawana had already been introduced by the sovereign in July 2022 on the occasion of the Throne Day. “The family code represented a real leap forward. From now on, it is no longer enough as such,” he declared. As Commander of the Faithful, Mohammed VI had also set the scope of the reform, which cannot violate formal Koranic texts: “I cannot authorize what God has prohibited, nor forbid what the Most High has authorized. »
The equation promises to be complex in the consultations which are opening in Morocco, led by the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary, as the family code is subject to ideological confrontations. On the one hand, feminist associations are in working order to obtain real progress, seizing the opportunity of the royal impulse and a government deemed more liberal after ten years of power of the Islamist party (2011-2021). On the other, voices, political and religious, plead for status quo in the name of defending the identity foundations of Morocco.
“If the king has expressed his wish to continue the reform momentum, it is illusory to think that he can decide everything, notes political scientist Mohamed Tozy. Its choice to make actors responsible is in itself a recommendation to magistrates to have a more enlightened reading of the law, to ulemas [théologiens] to go further in the exegesis. But the monarchy must deal with very strong conservative forces. It is these balances of power, and the ingenuity of the actors in changing them, which will determine the ceiling of the reform. »
Twenty years ago, Moudawana divided the political class as much as society as a whole. A few months after the enthronement of Mohammed VI, a government plan for the “integration of women” sparked debates sometimes turning into confrontation. On March 12, 2000, two demonstrations – one in Rabat on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, the other in Casablanca, led by the Islamists – brought this divide to its climax. In the process, the king appointed an “advisory commission responsible for revising the Moudawana”, whose proposals would serve as the basis for the final draft adopted by Parliament in 2004.
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