Rural Poverty Drives Early Marriage Rates in Morocco, Study Finds

The National Observatory of Human Development (ONDH) in its study on "the intersectional discrimination of women in Morocco" was based on data from the 2017 household panel survey. It emerges that the rate of early marriage is 16% among the richest women, while it reaches 25% among the poorest women.

Among the poorest rural women, this early marriage rate is 28.3%, while the richest city dwellers have an early marriage rate of around 13.9%. In its study, the ONDH notes that "the dysfunctions of public policies explain the situation, especially within the poorest and most marginalized social environments". Similarly, the study revealed that illiteracy is twice as high among poor rural women. They record a deprivation rate of 55.7%, while the richest city dwellers have a deprivation rate of 25.5%.

School dropout is much more important for rural women than for urban women. But it is much more caused by inequality in terms of access to education. Thus, the poorest rural women have a deprivation rate of 73.5%, while the richest urban women are deprived to the tune of 38.1%.

In terms of health, the inequalities of access to quality care services between women in rural and urban areas are very important. In urban areas, 22.7% of women did not benefit from a medical consultation, compared to 37.3% for women in rural areas. It is also important to note that in urban areas, 4.1% of women did not benefit from prenatal consultations, while in rural areas this rate is 21.5%.