Morocco announced on Tuesday proposals to reform its Family Code, relating in particular to the marriage of minors and inheritance, without fully responding to the equality aspirations of women’s rights defenders. Among the main reform proposals presented by the Minister of Justice, Abdelatif Ouahbi, after two years of consultations, are the revision of exemptions for marrying minors, and the extension of women’s rights in matters of guardianship and custody of children. These proposals, however, are far from meeting the demands of feminist movements, which have long called for a total ban on the marriage of minors, polygamy, and equality in matters of inheritance. The legal age of marriage remains set at 18 years, but exemptions issued by judges to marry minors will remain possible, from 17 years old, compared to 15 years currently, according to Mr. Ouahbi. Furthermore, guardianship of children, until now automatically attributed to the father, would now be shared between the two spouses, even after a divorce, according to the Minister of Justice. The mother would no longer risk losing custody of her children if she remarried, the minister said. On the question of the inheritance of women – who currently only inherit half of the share of men -, an alternative was proposed, allowing unrestricted donations to heirs, even minors, indicated for his part the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Ahmed Toufiq. As for polygamy, limited by the current text but still possible, it will be obligatory to seek the opinion of the wife to integrate it into the clauses of the marriage contract. These proposals will have to go through the legislative circuit, the timetable for which has not been specified. In 2022, King Mohammed VI initiated this new reform of the Family Code, called Moudawana. A committee worked for six months on this revision and submitted its proposals in March 2024. The monarch then referred the proposals affecting religious texts to the Superior Council of Ulemas – a body with a monopoly on fatwas (religious opinions) of which he is president. In 2004, the kingdom adopted a Family Code granting more rights to women, but the text was considered insufficient by women’s rights defenders.
