BOX 1.1
Women’s collective action paves the way to legal reform in Morocco
In 2004, Morocco overhauled its Islamic family law, the Moudawana, as a result of longstanding mobilization by the women’s rights movement.16 Women’s rights activists first started to rally in the early 1990s, launching a grassroots campaign for Moudawana reform that collected over 1 million signatures. Minor reforms of the family law took place in 1993, but major changes were resisted. Shifts in political leadership in the late 1990s—including the victory of a socialist opposition party and the ascendance to the throne of King Mohamed VI—enhanced support for political liberalization and gender equality, enabling women’s demands to be heard. At the same time, growing public support for women’s rights triggered a backlash from conservative Islamist groups. Women’s rights advocates responded to this challenge by establishing alliances with other change-oriented forces, engaging in public awareness campaigns and framing their claims in ways that appealed to Islamic precepts as well as to universal human rights principles. The reformed 2004 law remains faithful to Islamic values and traditions while giving women significantly more rights. In particular, it introduces women’s right to autonomous decision-making by abolishing the notion of male guardianship and the wife’s duty of obedience; establishes equal rights and responsibilities in the family; and equalizes and expands women’s and men’s rights to initiate divorce. The 2004 reform of the Moudawana paved the way for further changes in the law. Most significantly, the 2011 Constitution guarantees equality between women and men, prohibits all forms of discrimination against women and requires the State to promote women’s rights in their entirety. While these momentous changes have been welcome, considerable work remains to be done in aligning all domestic laws with international human rights treaties to which Morocco is a State party and ensuring that all groups of women benefit from the equal protection of the law (see story: Counting women in).
Political agency is key to family law reform
What explains why some countries have made significant progress in legal reform but not others? Analysis of data across these 71 countries suggests that women’s political agency, especially the influence of autonomous feminist movements, is an important catalyst for family law reform.17 In both authoritarian and democratic settings, women’s rights advocates have seized political opportunities for equality-enhancing legal reforms by establishing alliances with other actors, including government officials, lawyers, politicians and development practitioners. Civic pressure alone is not enough, however; there must also be receptivity on the part of the state for change to happen.
What factors determine the disposition of the state toward family law reform? Analysis reveals that there is a powerful association between the character of the state-religion relationship and the degree of gender equality in family law. In countries where the state plays an active role in upholding religious practices, doctrines and institutions, family law tends to discriminate against women. In contexts where political and ecclesiastical institutions are more separated, family law tends to be more egalitarian. This is not to suggest that religions are inherently patriarchal; they are only historically so (as are most secular traditions). The key finding is that religious doctrine is less likely to evolve and