A new family code, introduced by king Mohammed VI in October 2003 and unanimously adopted by parliament in February, puts Moroccan women on equal footing with men in regard to marriage and children.
The main changes to the Moroccan family code include the following:
Source: ArabicNews.com - New family code: protecting women, children, and families
More: Women in Morocco
The main changes to the Moroccan family code include the following:
- Minimum age of marriage raised to 18 for women
- Sharing of property between married couples
- Polygamy strictly controlled
- Divorce proceedings can be initated by women and are subject to judicial supervision
- Possibility of women to retain custody of children
- Inheritance rights improved for women
- Greatly simplified proof of paternity procedure
- Removal of debasing and degrading language toward women in the family code
Source: ArabicNews.com - New family code: protecting women, children, and families
More: Women in Morocco
Comments
wow, i just came in contact with this page , and reading about ur experience…i would like to know more recent news about this, im so glad for the marroquians.i have learn so much from this article, although , i know , your not telling us that all marroquians are like this, but im glad that they are coming to embrase traditions fro other cultures and their laws seems to be more extendible, if i can say that. thank u so much….
my interes is only cause i have a penpal in Taza.
oh! ijust want to thank you for thiswonderful artile in wich you really honnour moroccan women in and what is more is that you rise their flag highly b/w the others women of the world andd you speak on the behalf of them i am student of bac and from morocco too and iwas truly glad to read what you wrote and satisfied and proud as well.iwish you move on and make us in contact with our mother contry.
thank you very much for transfering this great deal of interesting information about the culture of morocco.especially woman’s issue .
Hi every body really i enjoy this article which provede us with some inportant informations about new family code.morrocans frankly understood el moudawana exterimely wrong.
hafsa i really appreciate your point of view
I THINK THIS ARTICLE IS VERY INPORTANT BECAUSE EVERY ONE LIKE TO KNOW SOME INFORMATION ABOUT NEW FAMILY CODE . SO I HOPE THAT YOU WRITE MORE THAN THAT ABOUT EVRY THINK BUT IT SHOUD BE INTERESTING
This is a big step forward but it’s also a big reminder of how far behind the western world morocco and the whole of Africa is. It’s really quite sad that women are finally getting rights and its 2009. Nevertheless, it still is a great victory for Moroccan women, women and just people as a whole.
I want to thank you for this info and all other info about Morocco. I have a friend from Kenitra and I’m thinking of going to visit them. But I’m trying to find out all the infotmation I can about their country and maybe their city, before I go. I want to be well educated about the government and all. before I make m y final decision. Thank You
thinks to your article,we know now how the new moroccan family code has been succeful in improving moroccan womens’s state .the new moroccan family code give us a lot of rights,with it,others specially mens look up at each women
hi.it’s very nice that you managed to write about almost every thing you saw in morocco ,one more thing just when you write try to be neutral let all your prejudices aside,and try to understand things deeply before you write and not to focus just on the minority of moroccans. thank you.
The new family code is a very important step indeed forward in order to improve and organize the relationships into the one family…one very important matter should not be neglected,it is that the new family code should be reinforced by Islamic Sharia…because it is our own identity and religion,so that’s why we should follow sew so as to save our own fragile aspects..thank you all.
Salam alikom all I just read this article and I’ve got interesting to explain something about Morccan code well it’s can be equal between men and women but since that code realised and many women started to prove their personality of men I mean no more respect no more discusion and there are a lot of divorces and sometimes violent the problem is not in the code it’s only how people they can accept and treat this code let me say we still living in ignorant country but I LOVE MY KING AND I RESPECT ALL KINGS FAMILY I just wish someday to have a chance to meet one person from King’s family or Mohamed 6 may Allah bless him with long life.
Rachid
The famliy code is a Moroccan attempt to clarify the equality between men and women.But what is important more than these things id that Islam and all religions gives women all their important rights .It is a result for a large number of political pressures in order to follow the same systems of certain western counteries…
,,,just an observation from an American woman who has been in Morocco for two months. Moroccan men treat women like dogs. No legislation will change that. Everywhere one sees groups of Moroccan men sitting in cafe doing the things they do best – smoking, driving coffee or mint tea, and talking. I am sure every single married one has a wife at home slaving away while he discusses important world problems with his friends at the cafe. Meanwhile, the woman is working hard. Very few women own washing machines or other domestic appliances we take for granted in the US. I have had a real taste of how much time household chores take without these time-savers.
No, things will not change until Moroccan women stop putting up with these freeloaders.
Oh, I forgot to mention the cafe lizards who are not married. When their married friends go home to a nice dinner, they stay on the street harassing women.
Please note this has absolutely nothing to do with Islam. The more I read, the more I read of the Holy Qu’aran, the more I appreciate its message, whether or not one believes that Mohammed is the one true messenger of God.
Meanwhile, Moroccan men behave just as they please. Their treatment of animals is shameful. Quaran 6:38.
There is no social “safety net” in Morocco, which means that there are many young mothers and babies (that’s right BABIES) sleeping on the street. Why is this so, I had better not say, as i don’t want to be thrown in prison for speaking out about it.
this new code has a trmendous impact on the morroccan women’s freedom. Unfortuetlly, it does not include the morroccan woman in the rural ereas, who first of all need to be educated
in the name of allah.the new family code it’s a very important step indeed forward in order to improved and organise the relationship into the one family and also it’s attempt to clarify the equality betwen women and men in addition it’s comes to give thier rights for women and frequently it’s very nice idea just for women with my respect.
To: Daireanne
Just a few observations:
1: I think that it’s not fair to Moroccan men who treat their wives right to be put in the same category.
All historians generalize from particulars. And often, if you look at a historian’s footnotes, the number of examples of specific cases is very, very small. Henry Louis Gates
2: Washing Machines: There are two more major facts than what you are stating, and the first is that financially not every family can affoard a washing machine, and second it’s a cultural thing. In Morocco a lot of women like the old way of washing, it’s the same as a dishwasher in western countries, some consider it a necessaty and some optional. Does every household have one? I will let you answer that one.
3: Homeless is a fact although all over the word: Over one Million U.S. Kids Are Homeless. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, which defines rape as penetration by the offender, and excludes rape by envelopment,[90] states that 91% of rape victims are female and 9% are male, and 99% of rapists are male 45 % by partner or former partner…
Just to mention that I have met with amazing people from the us, and others that i would just ignore… but i just dislike when we don’t get our facts right!
Before I leave you with these comments: Someone thaught me to always look at numbers in comparison a donation 500 $ a month would be a lot on it’s own but when the person gains 100000$…I hope you get my massage.
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Kudos for the writer on the article ( s ) I read them all and you are at 80 percent close from reality! Great job