Morocco Boosts Women's Rights

Polygamy should all but disappear from Morocco after the country's King Mohammed VI announced a reform of strict laws regulating women's and family rights.

The king, using his official position as the country's main religious authority, said over the weekend that changes to the "mudawana" code on family life would be introduced which, while not banning polygamy altogether, would make it tougher for men who wanted to take a second wife. The king said wives would be free to prevent their husbands taking a second spouse and legal mechanisms would make polygamy "almost impossible".

King Mohammed, whose titles include "commander of the faithful", thus ended a four-year tussle over women's rights which had seen huge demonstrations by traditionalists and reformers in the north African state.

The reforms he has announced also include raising the legal age for marriage for women from 15 to 18, a simplification of the divorce procedures for women, and greater protection should their husbands decide to leave them.

The king said the new law was designed to "lift the iniquity weighing on women, protect children's rights and preserve the dignity of mankind".

Women's groups had feared that reforms, first promised when King Mohammed succeeded his father, Hassan II, in 1999, would never happen after protests from Islamic conservatives.

These brought some 300,000 demonstrators onto the streets of Casablanca three years ago to protest against any change to the mudawana. Modernisers seeking change could only muster 100,000 marchers the same day in Rabat.

However, the conservatives in Morocco have been placed on the defensive after suicide bomb attacks by radical Islamists which claimed 45 lives in Casablanca in May.