90148 April 2014 – Number 121 X1` Ten Years After Morocco’s Family Code Reforms: Are Gender Gaps Closing? Paul Prettitore1 Introduction: Introduction: In 2004, the Government of Morocco (GoM) made major amendments to its Family Code, known as the Moudawana, which covers personal status issues such as marriage, divorce, alimony, child support, child custody and inheritance. These reforms increased the rights of women within the family, and should boost women’s agency beyond family matters, for example increasing their control of economic assets. The revisions followed a process of relatively open public debate with much of the Moroccan Women Working at the Maison D’Acceuil discussion driven by women’s civil society Orphanage (World Bank Photos) organizations (CSOs). Two years after the reforms, public attitudes were The revised Moudawana closed a number of gender more positive than negative, and awareness of the gaps related to family and personal life, making it amendments was widespread. A 2006 GoM survey one of the most progressive family law frameworks found that 68% of men and 62% of women reported in the MNA region in terms of gender equality. The knowledge of the reforms, with awareness higher in ten year anniversary of the reforms has sparked urban (72%) versus rural (55%) areas. (Figure 1) Of discussions about progress on implementation and those reporting awareness, women were much more emerging impact. Ten years is a relatively short likely than men to view the reforms positively (62% time period to affect major changes in family life, of women vs. 36% of men), with little variation especially if social norms restrict gains in women’s between urban (48%) and rural (51%) areas. Most agency that should result from legislative reforms. men (37%) views were mixed, only a small Yet it is an opportune time to measure where there percentage had negative views. has been progress. The Ministry of Justice and Liberty has proposed measuring implementation of Figure 1 – Attitudes toward reform of the Moudawana2 the Moudawana as part of its Charter for the Reform 80 Judicial System, adopted in summer 2013. And the 60 Men issue of women’s agency in family life is being 40 Women assessed as part of the World Bank’s Morocco 20 Country Gender Assessment 2014. 0 Urban Positive Against Mixed Rural 1 reviews Paul Prettitore, Senior Public Sector Specialist, Public Sector and Governance Unit (MNSPS), The Middle East and North Africa Region, The World Bank (pprettitore@worldbank.org). This MENA K&L Quick Note was cleared by Guenter Heidenhof, 2 Sector Manager, MNSPS. La Femme Marocaine sous le regard de son environment social, Haut Commissariat au Plan, Royaume du Maroc - 2006 Despite the generally positive views of the reforms, The reforms also introduced a small amount of it seems likely that social norms are at least partially flexibility in applying traditional views of rights and restricting the ability of women to exercise these responsibilities of men and women within the new rights. For example, a 2009 survey found 19% family. Married couples now have the right to of urban and 15% of rural women reporting conclude contracts covering the management of domestic violence linked to their exercise of rights economic assets linked to marriage, for example under the Moudawana - higher percentages of establishing a community property regime. And violence than reported for ‘economic’ violence.3 judges can make decisions on child custody based And public sector services linked to these rights are on the best interests of the child rather than often inadequate. The same survey found that over exclusively in consideration of the rights of parents. 50% of women entitled to alimony were not One area untouched by the reforms was the receiving it regularly, with about one-quarter not obligation related to financial maintenance within receiving any payments. Non-payment of alimony the household. Men are still legally required to and child support negatively affects poor women in provide financially for the maintenance of their particular. Almost one-third of these women families – women have no such responsibility. reported no other sources of income and around 18% had no paid employment, making them Assessing implementation of the reforms is difficult financially dependent on such payments. And over due to a lack of comprehensive data applicable to one-third of the women reported having to provide the primary legislative reforms, in particular gender some financial resources to supplement unpaid child disaggregated data. The World Bank’s Morocco support from their former husbands. It is not clear Country Gender Assessment 2014, now under the situation has improved considerably since then. preparation, includes an assessment of gender The Family Solidarity Fund, established to directly equality in family law as part of a broader review of assist such vulnerable women, had only around 800 women’s agency in family and personal life. What beneficiaries as of the end of 2013, a relatively small limited data is available sheds some light on number given the scope of the problem. implementation in three areas where reforms were aimed at greater gender parity: procedures for Primary Reforms and Implementation: The entering into marriage; management of marital Moudawana reforms covered a broad array of property; and access to divorce. personal status issues important from the perspective of gender equality. Women’s rights Marriage Procedures: Women were given the right to within the household improved on two levels. The marry without the consent of a male guardian, first was that husbands and wives were provided previously necessary to conclude the marriage ‘joint responsibility’ in family matters, making both contract. Women can now sign their own contracts. de jure heads of household. Theoretically, this could This could increase a woman’s bargaining power allow wives to exert more influence in household both before and during marriage, since the contracts decision-making. The second was that women were regulate factors such as financial maintenance of the no longer required to be obedient to husbands, a key wife and dowries. However, women are not yet element of the earlier law which continues to exist in doing so in large numbers. The percentage of other MENA family codes. Obedience had been women signing their own marriage contracts in used as a justification for husbands to, among place of a male relative was only 21% in 2010, mostly others, forbid wives from working, traveling, unchanged since 2007.4 Women can also controlling their own incomes and acquiring stipulations in the marriage to protect their interests, economic assets. Failure of a wife to obey had been including forbidding polygamy and allowing a wife legal grounds for loss of access to alimony – unilateral repudiation as a form of divorce. There is financial resources to care for the family – which a no comprehensive data to assess the levels to which husband is legally required to provide. 4 Femme Marocaine en Chiffres, Tendances d’évolution des caractéristiques démographiques et socioprofessionelles, Journée 3 Enquête nationale sur la prévalence de la violence à l’égard Nationale de la Femme, Haut-Commissariat au Plan, Royaume des femmes (ENPVEF), Haut Commissariat au Plan (2009). du Maroc (2012). April 2014 · Number 121 2 women are indeed adding such stipulations and its involving parties under the age of eighteen has been impact. increasing - from 38,331 in 2007 to 44,134 in 2010. Judicial consent does not appear to be an adequate A 2009 household survey suggests women enjoy screen for the legitimacy of requests for such wide discretion in decisions about who to marry. marriages, with 89% of requests approved in 2007 The percentage of married women reporting being and 92% in 2010. And the burden of underage forced by family to accept marriage proposals is low, marriage falls almost exclusively on girls. roughly 9%, with a rural/urban gap of 3% (11% in rural vs. 8% in urban areas).5 Fathers are usually the In 2010, 99% of requests for certification of underage ones to intervene - in 67% of cases (70% in rural and marriage made to courts involved girls, a percentage 65% in urban areas) it was reported the woman’s that has not changed since 2007.7 Girls married as father forced her into the marriage. Marriage minors face certain risks. Data shows that marriages without a women’s consent has some demonstrated involving under-aged girls tend to result in divorce negative effects. Women whose first marriages took and re-marriage, with 62% of women in a second or place without consent were three times as likely to greater marriage reporting their first marriage took report domestic violence as those who had place before age eighteen.8 Domestic violence rates consented. For unmarried women who refused for married women are highest among younger marriage proposals, 62% of the time it was the women, particularly for those between the ages of woman who refused, with the woman’s family eighteen and twenty-four. Although girls under the rejecting the proposal in the 39% of cases. An age of eighteen were not included in the survey, interesting trend relates to the decreasing incidence data suggests the younger the age of a woman at of families rejecting a female family member’s marriage the more likely she is to be subjected to decision to marry, suggesting women are able to domestic violence. exert greater decision-making related to entering marriage. (Figure 2) Control of Marital Property: The default marital property regime remains separate property, with Figure 2. Rejection of request for marriage by spouses remaining legal owners of assets registered family members6 to them acquired during or before their marriage. In 80 case of divorce, each party takes any assets registered under their names. The Moudawana now 60 allows married couples to sign a contract, separate Percent 40 Before the from the marriage contract, setting the terms under 20 period of 12 which assets acquired during marriage are months prior managed. One option is for married couples to 0 to the survey establish a community property regime whereby any assets acquired during the marriage are considered jointly-owned and evenly divided upon divorce. A community property regime is beneficial Marriage of minors remains a contentious point of to a spouse that is outside the formal labor force and family law. The revised Moudawana raised the performs non-compensated tasks related to the minimum age of marriage for girls from fifteen to household. Moroccan CSOs have offered assistance eighteen, equalizing it with that for boys. However, to women in these contracts. But there is no an exception was reserved allowing both boys and comprehensive data available as to the extent to girls to be married between the ages of fifteen to which married couples are entering such eighteen with the consent of judge. If the aim of this agreements. Given the low labor force participation reform was to decrease the number of underage of women these arrangements could be beneficial in marriages, it is failing. The number of marriages 7 La Femme Marocaine en Chiffres, Tendances d’évolution des 5ENPVEF, Haut Commissariat au Plan (2009). caractéristiques démographiques et socioprofessionelles, Journée 6 Haut Commissariat au Plan (ENPVEF) (2009) , “Enquête Nationale de la Femme, Haut-Commissariat au Plan, Royaume nationale sur la prévalence de la violence à l’égard des femmes”. du Maroc (2012). 8 ENPVEF, Haut Commissariat au Plan (2009). April 2014 · Number 121 3 increasing women’s control of economic a ssets within the family and added protections to their during marriage and after divorce. economic interests involving marital assets. They should enhance women’s agency by increasing their Access to Divorce: Options for initiating divorce are ability to make decisions about their personal lives not entirely equal for men and women. The primary and their roles within the family household. For effect of the reforms to the Moudawana on divorce these reasons measuring implementation is was to provide women the ability to initiate divorce important. However, assessing implementation is without having to show some type of cause by their undermined by a lack of comprehensive data. What husbands, such as lack of financial support, failure data is available demonstrates mixed performance. to abide by the marriage contract, abandonment, It does suggest that women have made gains in harm or absence. Apart from showing cause, determining who to marry, and are more able to women could obtain divorce only by renouncing access to divorce without renouncing their financial their rights to their dowries and alimony (khul), assets. However, underage marriage for girls which for many women, especially the poor, may be remains a considerable problem. their only economic assets. On many other key issues, such as the use of Women can now seek divorce by mutual consent, stipulations in marriage contracts to increase with consent from both parties, and irreconcilable women’s decision-making within marriage and differences, which can be initiated by either husband control of economic assets, as well as the extent to or wife. Men can still unilaterally repudiate the which community property regimes have been marriage, but this now requires judicial consent. adopted by married couples, the lack of data Women are provided this option only if this prevents effective measurement of progress. Plans stipulation is in the marriage contract, which of the Ministry of Justice and Liberty to measure requires a husband’s consent. Available data implementation of the Moudawana linked with the suggests a positive trend away from women having Charter for the Reform of the Judicial System will to renounce financial interests in return for divorce, hopefully provide the GoM a useful tool in ensuring and towards divorce based on the mutual consent of further narrowing of gender equality gaps. husband and wife, allowing them to keep economic assets related to marriage. As an added protection for women, the reforms require all monies owed to a Contact MNA K&L: Gerard A. Byam, Director, Strategy and Operations. wife and children be paid before the divorce can be MENA Region, The World Bank. finalized. Preeti Ahuja, Manager, MNADE Regional Quick Notes Team: Figure 3. Types of divorce9 Omer Karasapan, and Mark Volk Tel #: (202) 473 8177 60 The MNA Quick Notes are intended to summarize Percentage 40 lessons learned from MNA and other Bank Knowledge 20 2007 and Learning activities. The Notes do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, its board or its 0 2010 member countries. Without Mutual Consent Compensation (Khul) Moving Forward: The Moudawana reforms led to one of the most progressive family codes on gender equality in MENA. They increased women’s rights 9 Femme Marocaine en Chiffres, Tendances d’évolution des caractéristiques démographiques et socioprofessionelles, Journée Nationale de la Femme, Haut-Commissariat au Plan, Royaume du Maroc (2012). April 2014 · Number 121 4