Morocco

National elections last October in Morocco brought 34 women to the first chamber of Parliament, but while the female MPs have proven effective legislators, their task has not been easy. Along with their work responsibilities, they must battle stereotypes which consider women to be weak politicians.
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Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Leslie Campbell, hailed Morocco's reforms promoting women's participation in politics and electoral transparency.

King Mohammed VI announced on Wednesday the lifting of Morocco's reservations on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), describing them as obsolete. The king also announced the ratification by Morocco of the International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, which, he said, confirms the north African country's care about this segment of the population.

A French women's rights group that led major marches to denounce violence to women in France's immigrant heavy suburbs is opening its first formal chapter in the Muslim world - in Morocco. But the reception is mixed for the group, with some finding its name - as well as its existence, offensive.Five years after it was launched, the rights group, Ni Putes Ni Soumises, or Neither Whores nor Submissive, has become a household name in France.

The progress made by Morocco in the field of gender equality is an example in the Arab world, visiting MP Lale Akgün from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the German federal parliament (Bundestag) said Tuesday.
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Figures published by the Ministry of the Interior show that percentage of female candidates on supplemental lists has risen from 4.8% in 2003 to 15.7% this year. Yet, only 3.4% of candidates on the regular lists are women.
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Morocco has just been through the last phases of its local elections. The reforms that were put in place for the occasion have indeed led to “technical” progress in the management of local communes, such as the voting of young people and women. A financial fund for parties that was established for promoting female candidacies has been the greatest success of the new 2009 communal charter. The 12% minimum quota of female representation decreed was even exceeded and 3,406 women were elected (out of 20,458 candidates) against just 127 in 2003.

16 Mar 2012 - The Arab Spring continues to blow winds of change in the Middle East. There is no doubt the direction these countries are heading in will affect Arab societies and personal rights. But recently, the focus has been on women in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.