Morocco to Overhaul Family Code, Boosting Women’s Rights and Equality

In his speech on July 30th on the occasion of the Throne Feast, Mohammed VI launched the reform of the Family Code. "The spirit of the reform does not consist in granting the woman gracious privileges, but, much more precisely, in ensuring her full enjoyment of the legitimate rights conferred on her by the law. In today’s Morocco, it is no longer possible for her to be deprived of them," said the Moroccan monarch, specifying that the code is "dedicated to the entire family" and "is specific neither to men nor to women".

It was under the leadership of Mohammed VI that a new family code (Moudawana) integrating "equality and equity between the two spouses" had been adopted in 2004. This code sets conditions to limit polygamy, as well as the age of marriage to 18 years old except with the judge’s authorization, and establishes divorce by mutual consent. A victory for the modernists, after several years of arm wrestling with the Islamists. "These reforms [...] should not be perceived as a victory of one camp over another, but rather as gains for the benefit of all Moroccans," Mohammed VI had nevertheless stressed.

The king "wants amendments to be made to the Moudawana as soon as possible," confides to Middle East Eye an expert who will be involved in the process of the new reform of the code. "Everything that is not a formal Koranic prescription can be amended," explains the specialist, referring to "inheritance by taassib", which deprives daughters who have no brothers of part of their inheritance in favor of other male family members (cousins, uncles, etc.), or the loss of child custody by the woman after a divorce or remarriage.

"The State has always tried to find a balance between religious legitimacy and openness to modernity through the ratification of all international conventions on equality between men and women," specifies the specialist, who also supports the fact that the derogation granted to the judge for the marriage of minors "must be simply abolished". The National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) has been calling for "the abolition of this exception" for several years. In the same vein, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) also called in March for an "ambitious revision" of the Family Code.