June 24th, 2009 by Blake

Female candidates fared well in Morocco’s municipal elections on June 12. Doubts about whether this marks actual progress for Morocco were allayed by the overwhelming praise for women’s participation. The elections awarded 3,406 women seats in government, a considerable uptick from 127. This increase may have been bolstered by a new law expanding the number of council seats reserved for women to 12%.

On Monday, Marrakech’s first female was elected mayor by its city council. Fatima Zahra Mansouri, a 33 year-old lawyer educated in France, is the second Moroccan woman to ever hold the position of mayor. Sheikh Muhammad Biyadillah, Secretary General of the new Party for Authenticity and Modernity which performed well in the elections, praised Mansouri’s election as a reflection of a “Modern Morocco,” reports al-Arabiya.

Click here to view POMED’s recently updated Morocco country page.

Posted in Elections, Morocco, Reform, Women |