Family Law Reform Campaign in Morocco and Beyond

Successful law reform campaign launched in Morocco takes on international presence

Family law in Muslim-majority societies governs every aspect of a woman's life - from minimum age and conditions of marriage, to divorce, child custody, and the right to work, travel, or decide on a place of residence.

Moroccan women’s rights activists launched a campaign to reform family laws in 2000, and they achieved their goal in January 2004 when the government of Morocco adopted a new landmark Family Law supporting women’s equality and granting women new rights in marriage and divorce, among others.

The Family Law Reform Campaign continues in other Muslim-majority countries.

In order to document the strategies used to successfully reform family laws, Moroccan activists, working in cooperation with Algerian and Tunisian activists through the regional network, Collectif 95 Maghreb-Egalité, developed the Guide to Equality in the Family in the Maghreb, an advocacy tool that treats equality simultaneously as a frame of reference, an evolving social practice, and an action plan based on four strains of argument.

In each thematic module, the Guide presents the current state of the law, then proposes religious, human rights, sociological, and domestic legal arguments for reform, well-supported by relevant data.

The movement is ongoing as the Guide is continually in use in the region and has been translated by WLP into English and Persian for use outside the region. Malaysian activists have used the comprehensive, holistic, and compelling approach in the Guide as a framework for advocating reforms of Islamic family laws in their country.

WLP published the Persian edition for use by Afghan women’s rights activists and Iranian women’s rights activists in the One Million Signatures campaign for equal legal rights for women.