Morocco women's right
By: Nathalie Pineda
Their basic rights
1) The legal age for marriage starts at 18 years old
2) Women can sign their own marriage contract without their father's approval.
3)Men can marry up to four wives, however, each wife must be provided with her own residence. Also, if a man want to take on a second wife, then the must obtain the approval from his first wife.
4) Divorce is now a choice for both man and woman. Now women can initiate a divorce yet she still needs her husband to sign the divorce yet she still needs her husband to sign the divorce paper unless it's domestic abuse.
5) A husband now has to pay child support and if there is a divorce, the inheritance must be split in half.
Discriminatory rights
Penal Code (a code of laws concerning crimes and offenses and their punishment) formerly allowed men who raped underage girls to escape prosecution by marrying their victim.
Work
Overall Morocco has a high level of unemployment, the average salary is only US $1,677 per year, but women work on textile and gardening.
Women's unfair rights
A women still cannot freely go into cafe without getting uncomfortable, negative glares by men. If a women has a child out of wedlock, she is sent into the city to have the baby and the baby is abandoned to an orphanage because premarital sex is considered a sin in Islam. Women cannot wear a swimsuit on the beach, she must wear a jelaba or the more modern one wear a shirt and pants.
Women's isolation
Women cannot leave the harem without a male's permission and their is a gate keeper who protects the women and makes sure no one gets in or out without permission. Women spend their days inside the harem splitting up the household chore and doing traditional crafts. They were only let out to go to Koranic school and go to the hamman once a week.
The Period of Ignorance
Before the arrival of Islam, women had no role in society except for men's desires or as a slave. The arrival of Islam in 622 AC. Women received three basic rights dictated by the Islam religion: (1) The Right to live (2) The Right to be honored and respected as a mother, and (3) The right to own a business and work.
Women's education
Women were only allowed to attend Koranic schools which taught them mostly about religion and not about science, math, arts, history, politics, etc.