Moroccan Women Push for Equal Representation in Upcoming Elections

"We have normal ambitions that reflect the same commitments expressed in the Constitution, that is to say the duty of the State to impose parity. We are not satisfied to remain below parity," said Nouzha Skalli, the former Moroccan Minister of Solidarity, Women and Family and Social Development, in an interview with EFE.

According to Article 19 of the Moroccan Constitution (2011), "Men and women enjoy, on an equal footing, civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights and freedoms, [...] The State works to achieve parity between men and women," recalled the former minister, who acknowledges that much remains to be done on this subject.

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Morocco has adopted regulations since 2002 to establish quotas in representative bodies in order to promote equality between women and men. Currently, they are at 22.7% in the case of the House of Representatives (lower house) and one third in the regional and local chambers. Better, in the local elections of 1992 and 1997, women occupied respectively 0.24% and 0.55% of the elected local councils, but thanks to the application of the quota system, this percentage rose to 12.3% in the 2009 elections, which Skalli considers "a real revolution".

At the legislative level, the representation of women in the House of Representatives has increased from 2 women deputies in the 1993 elections to 35 in the 2002 elections, out of a total of 325 seats the Chamber held at the time. Skalli also deplores the macho mentality, the economic inequality between the two sexes and the social burdens of women, who in addition to their professions, bear the burden of household chores, unpaid work.

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In the general elections, which for the first time bring together legislative, regional and local elections, women are competing for the 90 seats of their quota in the lower house (out of a total of 395 members), while in the local elections, they will have one third of the seats. "No movement has managed to improve the political representation of women without the adoption of positive discrimination measures," insists Skalli, who demands an increase in these quotas until they reach parity.