Morocco gov’t advances family code reform despite controversy

The Moroccan government is pressing ahead with plans to draft a new Family Code, reigniting fierce debate between progressives and conservatives over the potential ramifications of the changes.  

On Thursday, government spokesperson Mustafa Baitas confirmed the decision during a press briefing following the weekly Cabinet meeting.  

“The committee overseeing the legal drafting will include officials from both the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs”, Baitas announced on 16 January.

He added that the Ministry of Family and jurisprudential experts would also lend their expertise, “with the possibility of including additional specialists.”  

The draft reform of Moudawana—Morocco‘s Family Code—was unveiled on 24 December 2024 by Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi and Religious Affairs Minister Ahmed Taoufiq.

The two officials, who represent opposing ideological poles, presented the proposals after a year of consultations with women’s rights groups and religion scholars.  

The new proposals aim to update laws governing marriage, divorce, and inheritance but have sparked disillusionment on both sides of the ideological spectrum.  

During the press briefing, Baitas acknowledged the growing controversy, lamenting attempts to “undermine the Higher Council of Ulema,” the religious body tasked with reviewing the Justice Ministry’s proposals.  

The Higher Council rejected key demands from women’s rights groups, including abolishing polygamy and taasib—a rule rooted in Islamic jurisprudence that forces female orphans without brothers to share their inheritance with distant male relatives.

Proposals for gender-equal inheritance and DNA-based paternity tests were also dismissed, deemed incompatible with Islamic principles.  

“This is not the radical reform we were expecting, even if there are some positive advances”, said Fouzia Yassine of the Democratic Association of Women of Morocco.

“The philosophy of the Family Code, based on patriarchy, has not changed.”  

Many activists accused the council of sabotaging what was supposed to be a long-overdue overhaul of archaic laws to deliver gender equality, as outlined in Morocco‘s 2011 constitution.  

Meanwhile, conservatives criticised the council for yielding to pressure, arguing that reforms limiting polygamy and other measures undermine principles of sharia and men’s rights.  

The polarised debate reportedly forced the Moroccan House of Representatives to postpone a session on 6 January intended to discuss the amendments. Parliament has yet to disclose an official reason for the delay.  

Despite the uproar, the government appears determined to move forward—a deja-vu of the early 2000s when King Mohammed VI introduced the first Family Code under his reign. Back then, thousands of protesters—conservatives clutching Qurans and progressives demanding gender equality—flooded the streets.  

Today, Moroccan political parties, including the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), seem to agree that the new code strikes a balance between women’s rights, tradition, and religion.  

For women’s rights activists, this balancing act remains the core issue. “True progress is impossible without a clear stance,” said Kif Mama Kif Baba, a local women’s rights group.