By IPS Correspondents
CASABLANCA, Apr 5 2006 (IPS)

A new family law intended to promote the rights of women seems to have pleased neither men nor women.

The new family law, which has been in effect two years now, has given women several new rights, particularly with alimony, but less than those provided for under an earlier plan.

On the other hand, many men say they do not have the means to pay alimonies being granted under the new provision.

The new family law came into effect in 2004 as a compromise solution after Islamists strongly opposed the earlier National Plan for Women’s Integration in Development (NPWID).

The NPWID was introduced in 1999. It forbade polygamy, gave women equal inheritance rights, and provided for equal division of property between husbands and wives in the event of divorce.

Under the 2004 family law, Moroccan women can get more alimony, have the right to marry without family permission, and the right to divorce on equal footing with men. But unlike the NPWID, the new family law has not forbidden polygamy, and has not given women equal inheritance rights.

“The new law has not brought anything for Moroccan women,” Nezha Daiz, journalist and civil society activist told IPS. “The new family law was a way to make a political compromise, not to provide more rights for women.”

Daiz said that “women are an interesting human force in Morocco and, therefore, they are also an interesting voting force. The new family law came within this context.”

But many are looking at the progressive part of the law. “Before the new family law, women were subject to great social injustice”, social researcher Abdelali Ouali told IPS. “The new law has brought equality for women.”

The law was drafted by a royal committee set up by King Mohamed VI after Islamists led strong opposition to the NPWID.

“It was a political success,” Ouali said. “International observers think that it is the greatest exploit during the reign of King Mohamed VI.”

But Ouali acknowledges that the law by itself will not change social ways. “The great majority of Moroccan citizens live in difficult conditions. Therefore, what is needed is not just a new family law. We should also consider personal rights such as salaries and social security cover.”

Such needs have become an issue in view of the alimonies courts are ordering under the law.

On Dec. 28, 2005 Abdellah Fallah appealed against a decision by the family court in Casablanca. The court had ordered him to pay his wife a monthly alimony the equivalent of almost 50 euros. He said he had a disposable income of only 31 euros monthly.

“This does not allow me to have anything to live on, and pushes me to the poverty line,” he wrote in his appeal.

“They should have taken my low income into consideration but they did not,” he told IPS. “I will die of starvation.”

The guaranteed minimum wage is about 155 euros monthly, but this is not always respected. Monthly rent is around an average of about 55 euros a month for a single room in a central area.

More than eight million in a population of 30 million live below the poverty line. More than six million are unemployed.

The impact of the law is not easy to gauge; statistics on marriage and divorce cases since the new law came into force are not available.

Earlier, alimonies were particularly low. They were worked out in proportion to husbands’ salaries and would usually add up to less than 10 percent of his income.

But few doubt that the new law is hard on poor men. “When the new family law is applied against a rich citizen it is not the same as when it is applied against a poor one,” said Ouali. “What we lack is the spirit of law and to economically ensure that citizens would interact fluently with new laws.”

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