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Morocco Approves Family Reforms

Morocco’s Senate voted unanimously in favor of a new family code, which aims to enhance women’s independence, but has garnered criticism from conservative Moroccans, according to news reports.

The code, approved last week, replaces an earlier one which considered women minors, under the complete authority of men. Morocco will now demand that women exercise joint responsibility in family affairs and divorce will become a more two-sided undertaking.

Polygamy will also become severely limited, though not illegal.

More here [1].

The country’s monarch, Muhammad VI, has been a leading proponent of the code, which he claims is in line with Islamic teachings.

However, traditional Islamists say otherwise, according to news reports. For example, Al-Jazeera reported that critics estimate the new law will deter men from marriage.

Moreover, while women’s groups are said to support the reforms, nationality is still determined by a child’s father, meaning that many Moroccan women’s children do not share their nationality, according to a recent feature in the French-language daily Le Matin.

To that effect, Morocco’s socialist party proposed a law to transmit nationality maternally, according to the report.