The Feminization of Public Space: Women’s Activism, the Family Law, and Social Change in Morocco

The Moroccan feminist movement has greatly feminized and democratized the public sphere in this country. An example of such a feminization is the recent 2004 Family Law reforms, which constitute the culmination of a long trajectory during which decisionmakers, political parties, and other public actors made important contributions that led to the reforms. Admittedly, the feminist movement is not the sole actor behind the new and spectacular legal reforms, but this movement acted as the major pooling force behind it. This force is attested in triggering unprecedented public debates that preceded, accompanied, and followed the new Family Law; these debates involved practically all public actors ranging from social, to economic, religious, and political actors and, along with the Family Law, shows that women’s feminist ideas and associations were inserting themselves in the public sphere, changing the terms of participation in this sphere, and making women and gender issues a matter of national dialogue and contention for the first time in Morocco’s history.