The Preamble to the reformed Family Code, a progressive law, declares that the aim of the law is threefold: “doing justice to women, protecting children’s rights, and preserving men’s dignity”
→ The law, by declaring that it is preserving men’s dignity, maintains the patriarchal role of men as heads of the family because it is their honour, and consequently that of their family, which is affected by doing justice to women.
"The Family Code does not deal with gender relations but rather with marital and, more importantly, with married women’s rights rather than women’s rights per se regardless of marital status. In other words, the new Code seeks to remedy the status of married women only, whereas many single girls of legal age remain under overpowering control of their families not only because of the customs but also because of the law itself."
"The current Family Code does not represent an historical breakthrough in Moroccan women’s rights politics exactly because of the failure to define women’s rights as rights of autonomous individuals. The Moroccan Family Code is clear in designating the family, rather than the individual, as the core of society"
<aside> 🏛️ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (ratified in 1993) and the Personal Status Code.
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Reaffirming patriarchal relations and perpetuating gender inequality
Article 194 obliges the husband to provide financially for his wife and children
Article 236 designates the father as the primary legal representative of his children regardless of whether or not he has custody over them. Although many Moroccan women and men interpret Article 194 as benefitting women, it nonetheless confirms gendered division of space into the female domestic and male public spheres. In other words, because men are legally obliged to provide for their families, while women are not, it is such reasoning that some of my interviewees put forward when making a case for discrimination against female candidates on the labor market.
Article 199 stipulates that husbands are legally responsible for the financial maintenance of their wives and children, while mothers are only required to provide for the children if their father is “wholly or partly unable to pay maintenance to his children, and the mother is affluent, the latter shall become responsible for their maintenance in proportion to the amount the father is unable to pay”
[...] Article 2 is important because it spells out state obligations. It requires signatory states to institute gender equality in their legal orders, including their national constitutions, and urges countries to foster a culture of equality-as such it is recognized as defining the object and purpose of the Convention; whereas, Article 15(4) specifically regulates the individual’s right to freedom of movement and the freedom to choose her residence and domicile
Article 19 of the 2011 constitution complicates the issue of legal frameworks. While it states that women and men enjoy equal civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights in accordance with the international conventions ratified by Morocco, these rights are also subject to the “des constantes [in Arabic thawabit] of the Kingdom and its laws.” The choice of words in both Arabic and French is interesting because of the ambiguity in meaning and could refer to any established or, indeed, immutable law or customs, pillars of society. In other words, what is meant by “des constantes/thawabit” is that the state will guarantee gender equality unless when it contradicts those laws and customs emanating from Islamic law.
Ministry of Solidarity, Women, Family, and Social Development in Rabat is the main gov body in charge of promoting women’s rights (hint: reach out to someone here)