Morocco's first female prime minister caught between the king, clerics, and feminists

**Morocco's first female prime minister caught between the king, clerics, and feminists**

El Mansouri (left) was named by King Mohammed VI (right) as the country's first female prime minister

The Islamic saying "a people who entrust their affairs to a woman will never succeed" has reappeared in Morocco since King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Zahra El Mansouri as the country's first female prime minister.

Mustafa Ramid, a former justice minister in an Islamist-led government, invoked the saying earlier this month in a long Facebook post that questioned whether a woman should occupy the country's top political post.

He said Morocco, a Muslim-majority nation, had struck a balance between equality and the duties of state leadership, since the highest office - that of the king - remained reserved for men.

Morocco is a constitutional monarchy. Even so, executive authority is still held by the 63-year-old monarch.

El Mansouri's Authenticity and Modernity Party (Pam) won the largest number of seats in September's parliamentary election and has since said it will form a coalition with three other parties. Combined, they control 207 of the 395 seats in parliament.

El Mansouri, 50, described her appointment as a landmark for Moroccan women

El Mansouri's royal appointment was historic, but it also revealed continuing unease about women in positions of authority.

The day after her appointment, local broadcaster Chouf TV went out onto the streets to ask Moroccan men "what they thought" about a woman leading the government.

Several men, mostly middle-aged or older, paused before responding. Some said they accepted the decision because it was the king's choice.

One grey-haired man, who did not provide his name or age, said: "It feels strange to have a woman as head of government. I'm not sure if it sits well with me."

Criticising the monarchy carries legal danger in Morocco. The penal code makes certain forms of offence or insult against the king, the royal family and the monarchy a crime.

Online, the appointment quickly became material for political satire.

A video of two women pulling each other's hair was widely circulated, with captions implying that this is what parliamentary disputes between El Mansouri and her colleagues might resemble.

Still, many younger Moroccans, particularly women, welcomed her appointment.

Although attitudes are shifting in Morocco, conservative religious views still carry significant influence.

Some of the country's most divisive debates over gender equality focus on family law, including inheritance, marriage and divorce.

Under current inheritance rules, a daughter generally receives half the share of a son in similar circumstances.

The Higher Council of Ulemas, the country's body of religious scholars, has resisted demands for equal inheritance, citing Islamic jurisprudence.

It has also rejected proposals to abolish taasib, a rule that can require female orphans without brothers to share their inheritance with male relatives, including distant ones.

In a 2022 report, Morocco's National Human Rights Council said unequal inheritance rules helped drive poverty among women.

Polygamy is also permitted under certain conditions. Proposed changes to the family code have included allowing women to specify in their marriage contracts that their husbands may not take another wife.

But exceptions still exist, including provisions tied to a first wife's infertility or illness, which women's rights groups have criticised as violations of privacy and medical confidentiality.

These questions lie at the centre of proposals to reform the Moudawana, Morocco's family code, which regulates marriage, divorce and child custody.

A set of changes was announced in 2024, but the reforms have not yet become law.

Beyond family law, some young women hope the new prime minister will also work to improve girls' education.

Morocco's High Commission for Planning, the country's official national statistics agency, found in 2025 that only 55% of girls aged 15–17 were attending school in rural areas, where poverty, early marriage and dropping out remain major obstacles. In urban areas, the figure was 100%.

"Many girls in rural Morocco drop out of school early because schools are far away, transport is unsafe or unavailable, and families with limited means often keep their daughters at home," Chifae Laazouzi, a young Moroccan woman, tells the BBC.

She says another reason is that many girls in poor and rural areas cannot afford menstrual sanitary products.

"Menstrual health is still treated as a taboo... I would like to see free menstrual products in schools," Laazouzi says.

El Mansouri is far from new to politics. Over more than 20 years in public life, she has served as mayor of Marrakech, held government positions and sat in parliament.

For the past five years, she served as minister for national territory planning, urban planning, housing and city policy under the previous Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch.

After her appointment, El Mansouri framed the moment as a milestone for Moroccan women.

"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 said.

Since her appointment, she has not said whether she intends to push ahead with reforms to the family code.

Throughout her political career so far, she has not made any major public remarks on women's rights, even as changes to inheritance rules, polygamy and the family code were being widely discussed.

The king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, holds the title of Commander of the Faithful, a traditional Islamic title embedded in the Moroccan constitution

Dr Irene Fernandez-Molina, an expert on the Global South at the University of Exeter in the UK, views the appointment in light of the monarchy's wider political interests.

"Two headlines have dominated coverage of [September's] parliamentary election in Morocco: a two-decade low turnout and King Mohammed VI's appointment of a woman as prime minister for the first time in this country's history," she tells the BBC.

"The latter cannot be understood without the former."

Official figures show turnout at just 38% of registered voters, while the share of all eligible voters who voted was even lower.

Fernandez-Molina calls the appointment an example of "authoritarian state feminism, a top-down, selective instrumentalisation of the struggle for women's rights for regime legitimation purposes".

She says elevating a woman to the highest government post may be meant to present an image of modernisation and progress, even if the political system and the pace of social reform remain largely unchanged.

For Moroccan women's rights advocate Yasmina Benslimane, the appointment breaks a long-standing barrier, but she says El Mansouri's background also matters.

"It does challenge stereotypes, because it finally breaks a ceiling that was never broken," she says. "But it matters how she got there."

El Mansouri's late father was a pasha, a senior local official, and a diplomat. Benslimane says her privileged background and access to political networks set her apart from many Moroccan women who have fewer chances to enter public life.

For Benslimane, as for many women's rights groups in the country, reform of the Moudawana remains a crucial test for the new government.

Yet El Mansouri's room to act is limited by the country's political system.

The king keeps broad powers over major areas, including defence and foreign affairs, while the head of government works within a system in which authority is shared.

On Moudawana reform, she would have to confront the country's religious scholars, who are mostly men.

While some Moroccan women welcome her appointment, they say what matters most is what she does as prime minister.

"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," Sara Zouiten, a young Moroccan woman, tells the BBC.

"Her party presents itself as a modernising political force, so I want to see whether that translates into actual change."