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| Africa: North |
| Morocco pushes ahead |
| 2003-11-14 |
| EFL & Praise Following a major overhaul of the nation’s Family Code of laws -amended for the first time since 1957 - Moroccan women are no longer required to live under the lifetime guardianship of male family members. Ah, this is good news.... They also have the right to file for divorce, while polygamy has been rendered almost impossible. They now share household property with their husbands. And the ancient practice of repudiation without a court’s consent has been outlawed. And... After 30 years of fighting, more than 60 women’s associations, hundreds of nongovernmental organizations, and hundreds of thousands of Moroccan women watched last month, as King Mohammed VI declared before the Moroccan parliament in Rabat that "women are equal to men under the law." I believe he is sincere. In my travels to Morocco and Tunisia I was struck by how relatively open and decent both countries were, at least to local women. The long term problem for both Morocco and Tunisia is the way the men treat women from Western countries. Their treatment of Western women is tragic. If you are a woman visiting from, say Only Tunisia It’s a start. "There is something new in Morocco, which is pretty strong compared to other Arab countries - human rights organizations, which greatly supported the women’s movement," explains Rabéa Naciri, president of the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women. A combination of the new king’s democratization process, foreign pressure, and disillusionment with Islamic extremism, led to the Family Code’s reform, according to Fatima Sadiqi, professor of gender studies at the University of Fez. ‘Gender studies’?...Before you know they will have sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond. It wasn’t until the king himself, "commander of the believers" and claimed descendant of the prophet Muhammad, spoke, that religious conservatives relented. ...Hmm ‘descendant of the prophet Muhammad’...One reform down many more to go.... |
| Posted by:Dragon Fly |
| #4 This is good news. Morocco is too capitalist and modern to keep their heads in their ass and their society in the 11th century. This gives the the islamofascists another place to worry about, further diluting their ability to concentrate their efforts. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-11-14 11:38:20 AM |
| #3 Stay tuned for the backlash when the Wahabbits move in to keep Morocco in line. |
| Posted by: BH 2003-11-14 10:34:49 AM |
| #2 Too bad about the polygamy thing though, Morocco sounded like a good retirement deal for Jarhead up until that point ;) |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2003-11-14 9:24:17 AM |
| #1 thanks for an interesting post. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-11-14 9:14:08 AM |