Publication: Ten Years After Morocco's Family Code Reforms : Are Gender Gaps Closing?
Date
2014-04
ISSN
Published
2014-04
Author(s)
Prettitore, Paul
Abstract
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 control of economic
assets. The revisions followed a process of relatively open
public debate with much of the discussion driven by women s
civil society organizations (CSOs). It does suggest that
women have made gains in determining who to marry, and are
more able to access to divorce without renouncing their
financial assets. On many other key issues, such as the use
of stipulations in marriage contracts to increase
women's decision-making within marriage and control of
economic assets, as well as the extent to which community
property regimes have been adopted by married couples, the
lack of data prevents effective measurement of progress.
Plans of the Ministry of Justice and Liberty to measure
implementation of the Moudawana linked with the charter for
the reform of the judicial system will hopefully provide the
GoM a useful tool in ensuring further narrowing of gender
equality gaps.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Prettitore, Paul. 2014. Ten Years After Morocco's Family Code Reforms : Are Gender Gaps Closing?. MENA knowledge and learning quick notes
series;no. 121. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20550 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”