Moroccan Activists Push to End Child Marriage, Raise Legal Age to 18

In the Penal Code, Article 19 sets the age of 18 years as the legal age for marriage. This is why this collective of ten associations has stressed that it is "necessary to adopt a comprehensive national policy or strategy to eliminate the marriage of minors in Morocco, which encompasses all the sectors concerned, and to make the age of 18 an irreversible achievement." A memorandum of demands has been drawn up and presented at a press conference on the occasion of the official launch of the actions of the Dounia Collective and as part of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, which take place from November 25 to December 10 each year.

The memorandum calls on the State and its institutions to get involved in educating society about the dangers to which it exposes children by forcing them to marry. For the collective, the nation and families will gain a lot by letting children thrive in sweetness, without being forced to grow up overnight. It is also a question of putting in place "a new holistic approach" that takes into account the social and economic aspects of families in various regions of Morocco, particularly in rural and isolated areas, and within poor families in urban areas.

The president of the Ennakhil association, Raji Lhoucine, indicated that according to data from the Ministry of Justice, 319,177 authorizations for the marriage of minors were granted between 2009 and 2018. "The marriage of children in general and of minors in particular has disastrous effects and consequences such as school dropout, early pregnancies, as well as domestic violence and infant mortality," it is noted.