Moroccan Activists Push for Sweeping Family Code Reforms, Including Decriminalization of Abortion

Asma Lambaret, 62, feminist essayist and physician, and seven other personalities (lawyers and physicians) have written a collective text of 85 pages in which proposals are recorded that could evolve the legislative corpus in Morocco. In an interview with the pan-African magazine Jeune Afrique, Asma Lambaret explained that the idea of writing this collective text stems from "the observation of an increasingly evident gap between legal norms and deep societal transformations." To support her argument, she mentions "certain provisions of the 2004 Family Code, unequal and discriminatory towards women," which "have become obsolete in relation to the 2011 Constitution, which enshrines full equality between women and men in its Article 19." "The speech of King Mohammed VI of July 30, 2022 has reinforced this observation and has been a real catalyst for this collective reflection work," added the feminist essayist.

Asma Lambaret is convinced that the proposals of the collective have a chance of being taken into account. "The current government, composed of three major parties, has a comfortable political majority that allows it to carry out real reforms, both on the Penal Code and on the Family Code. The government must be up to this historic moment and social expectations, especially since these reforms are strongly encouraged at the highest level of the State. We believe that our proposals have a chance of being heard, or even taken into account, as they go in the direction of consolidating the democratic choice made by Morocco." The objective of the collective, she will say, is to promote fundamental freedoms - in particular the protection of the family - "as a universal principle inseparable from the democratic process and in respect of the unifying constants of the country."