Challenging Patriarchy: Moroccan Women and Political Leadership

Abstract

This paper studies the involvement of Moroccan women in political leadership in the light of the new family code and constitution. It starts with analyzing Fatima Mernissi’s the Forgotten Queens of Islam to refute the belief that Muslim women were never political leaders and can never be. Then, it examines the perspective of the Party for Justice and Development toward the engagement of women as leaders since the latter is a party with an Islamic background leading the Moroccan government from 2011 to 2021. Finally, the research investigates the Moroccan school programs’ representation of women as politicians in history and civic education from the fourth to the ninth grade. This study is urgent because it attempts to understand why Moroccan women are still uncapable of reaching higher political positions though the efforts Morocco is taking to facilitate their integration into politics. The feminist political approach is used in this article since it is concerned with critiquing inequality and political subordination of women while the content analysis method is utilized in investigating the reasons why women are not engaged as political leaders. The research concludes that the Moroccan sociopolitical conditions directly contribute in hindering women from reaching higher political positions.