Women issues should not be used to serve political, electioneering purposes, king
Morocco, Politics, 3/22/2002

Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Thursday voiced rejection of any exploitation of women issues for narrow political and electoral purposes.

"The question of equity towards women is so noble that it transcends any exploitation of the issue for narrow political and electoral purposes," said King Mohammed VI in an interview run this Thursday by four Lebanese papers, namely Al-Hawadith, La Revue du Liban, Monday Morning, and Al-Bairak.

The Sovereign noted "in addition to the steps taken to ensure that women reach top-ranking positions in the political, economic and cultural fields, I took upon myself, in my capacity as Amir Al Muminine, to respond to a request submitted to me by all Moroccan women's organizations, with their different political and cultural obedience and NGOs.

He recalled, in this connection, his decision to set up a cross-section advisory committee to consider and draft a project for substantive and comprehensive reform of the Family law.

"We were presented with two alternatives: the first option was to prepare a partial reform of the current Family law. This would not take much time, but it would imply that another reform would have to be introduced subsequently, after a few months or a few years. The other alternative was to draft a Family law which is new in its wording as well as in its substance. This will require some time, but not exceeding the end of this year, at the latest. I chose the second alternative because I believe in work done thoroughly and I dismiss any superficial and hasty effort, especially when it comes to matters, which are a basic element in the project for a modern, democratic society that I am keen to build step by step," he said.

"As commander of the faithful, I am certain that the tolerant Islamic Law and the Prophetic Tradition both honor woman. They leave the door open for "Ijtihad" and reject introversion and narrow mindedness. Therefore they enable us to do justice to woman, in compliance with the provisions of the Shari'a Law and in light of its noble purposes and designs," he added.

"However, the Sovereign conceded, this will not prevent us, in the meantime, from streamlining the judiciary to enable it to adjust to the new reforms, mainly through the setting up of specialized jurisdictions for the family." "These courts will be established gradually," he said.

Previous Stories:
  Two new political parties born in Morocco   (3/18/2002)
  Democracy, best means to eradicate terrorism, extremism, King mohammed says   (3/18/2002)
  Majority parties adopt 20% quota system for women in elections   (3/7/2002)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search