 |
| El Mansouri and King Mohammed VI |
When King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as Morocco’s first female head of government on 29 September 2026, the moment carried unmistakable symbolic weight. A lawyer, twice mayor of Marrakech, and former minister of national territory planning, urban planning, housing and city policy, the 50-year-old became only the third woman to lead a government in the Arab world—after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden and Sara Zaafarani. Yet the appointment also laid bare the enduring tensions that define Moroccan politics: the overwhelming authority of the monarchy, the lingering influence of conservative religious interpretations, and the incomplete project of gender equality in a society still negotiating its post-2004 family-code reforms.
El Mansouri’s Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM)—a centrist, monarchy-aligned formation founded in 2008 by a close royal adviser—emerged from the 23 September legislative elections with 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives. That plurality fell far short of the 198 needed for a majority. She subsequently assembled a four-party coalition with the Istiqlal Party, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) and the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), securing 207 seats. The government was formally sworn in on 16 October. Turnout, however, plunged to roughly 38 percent of registered voters—the lowest in nearly two decades—reflecting widespread disengagement, youth frustration over unemployment and public services, and lingering effects of earlier protests.
The Monarchy’s Shadow and the Limits of Executive Power
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy under the 2011 constitution, yet real power remains concentrated in the hands of the 63-year-old king. He retains control over defense, foreign policy, religious affairs (as Commander of the Faithful), and strategic appointments. The head of government operates within a system of shared—and ultimately subordinated—authority.
Analysts have described El Mansouri’s elevation as an instance of “authoritarian state feminism”: a selective, top-down promotion of women’s advancement that projects modernity and regime legitimacy without fundamentally altering the distribution of power or accelerating deeper social reforms.
Dr Irene Fernandez-Molina of the University of Exeter has noted that the appointment cannot be understood separately from the historically low turnout. Promoting a woman to the highest government office can signal progress even as structural constraints and the pace of reform remain largely unchanged. El Mansouri herself framed the moment as collective: “Being the first female head of government is not just a source of pride for me, but for all the women of the kingdom.” She has not, however, made prominent public statements on women’s rights during earlier debates over inheritance, polygamy or the family code.
 |
| The King of Morocco — Mohammed VI |
Clerical Pushback and the Resurfacing of an Old Hadith
Conservative reactions surfaced quickly. Former justice minister Mustafa Ramid, who served in an Islamist-led government, invoked the well-known hadith often translated as “a people who entrust their affairs to a woman will never succeed.” In a lengthy Facebook post he questioned whether a woman should occupy the country’s highest political office, arguing that Morocco had struck a balance by reserving the ultimate authority—the throne—for men. Criticism of the monarchy itself remains legally hazardous; the penal code criminalizes certain forms of insult against the king, the royal family and the institution.
Street-level responses captured by local broadcaster Chouf TV the day after the appointment revealed ambivalence among older men. Some accepted the decision solely because it came from the king. One unnamed grey-haired man admitted it “feels strange” and that he was “not sure if it sits well with me.” Online satire circulated a video of two women pulling each other’s hair, captioned as a preview of parliamentary disagreements involving El Mansouri. Younger Moroccans, particularly women, largely welcomed the breakthrough.
Unfinished Business: The Moudawana and Everyday Gender Gaps
The most consequential tests for the new government lie in family law and social policy. Morocco’s 2004 Moudawana (Family Code) raised the marriage age, strengthened women’s divorce rights and introduced judicial oversight.
Further reform was announced after royal consultations; in December 2024 the king approved 139 proposals following input from the Higher Council of Ulemas. Key sticking points remain. Equal inheritance continues to meet resistance from the religious scholars’ body, which cites Islamic jurisprudence. Under current rules a daughter typically receives half the share of a son in comparable circumstances. The practice of taasib—which can require female orphans without brothers to share inheritance with distant male relatives—has also been defended. A 2022 National Human Rights Council report linked unequal inheritance to higher poverty rates among women.
Polygamy remains legal under conditions; proposed changes would allow women to stipulate in marriage contracts that their husbands cannot take another wife, though exceptions related to a first wife’s infertility or illness have drawn criticism from rights groups over privacy concerns. As of mid-October 2026 the reform package had still not been introduced as legislation in the new parliament. El Mansouri’s room for manoeuvre is constrained both by the king’s ultimate authority and by the predominantly male religious establishment.
Rural education disparities illustrate the gap between symbolism and lived reality. Official statistics from the High Commission for Planning showed that in 2025 only 55 percent of girls aged 15–17 in rural areas were attending school, compared with near-universal rates in urban areas. Poverty, distance to schools, unsafe transport and early marriage remain barriers.
Young activist Chifae Laazouzi has highlighted the additional obstacle of menstrual health: many girls from low-income families cannot afford sanitary products, and the topic remains taboo. She has called for free products in schools.
 |
| El Mansouri |
Background, Privilege and the Path Ahead
El Mansouri is no political outsider. Born in Marrakech on 3 January 1976, she studied private law at Mohammed V University in Rabat, pursued postgraduate work in business contract law at the University of Montpellier in France, and obtained a certificate in Anglo-Saxon law at Pace University in New York. She practiced as a property lawyer before entering politics with PAM at its founding. She became Marrakech’s first female mayor in 2009, returned to the post after the 2021 elections, served in parliament, and held the housing and urban-planning portfolio under Aziz Akhannouch. Her late father, Abderrahmane El Mansouri, was a senior local official (pasha) in Marrakech and later ambassador to the United Arab Emirates—connections that women’s rights advocate Yasmina Benslimane notes gave her access to networks unavailable to most Moroccan women.
Benslimane welcomes the broken ceiling while stressing that background matters: “It does challenge stereotypes… But it matters how she got there.” Fellow young Moroccan Sara Zouiten is more measured: “I don’t think El Mansouri should be judged by the fact that she is a woman. Being a woman in power doesn’t automatically make someone a champion of women’s rights. Her party presents itself as a modernising political force, so I want to see whether that translates into actual change.”
The new government inherits pressing files: youth unemployment hovering near 24 percent, cost-of-living pressures, final preparations for the 2030 FIFA World Cup (co-hosted with Spain and Portugal), and the stalled Moudawana package. El Mansouri’s coalition has prioritised job creation, social protection and market regulation.
Whether the first female prime minister can convert historic symbolism into concrete advances on inheritance equality, rural girl’s education and family-law reform will determine if the appointment is remembered as a genuine turning point or as another carefully managed gesture of controlled modernisation under the monarchy’s enduring shadow.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers Global, News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Politics and Technology.
Post a Comment