Gender, law, and culture : negotiating social change in Morocco

Abstract

<p>This thesis explores the Moudawana (a personal status code based on Shari'a, Islamic family law) as a site of legal, political and cultural negotiations regarding directed cultural and social change, and international human rights discourses about gender equality. As the reform of the Moroccan Moudawana occurred only recently, this thesis will introduce Morocco as a case that will include discussion of the historical, religious, political, and cultural context of the 2004 reform. In the process of negotiating gender ideologies, Moroccans engage with a variety of discourses that shape their lives. These discourses are important for understanding the role of law in producing social and cultural change. This study is concerned with the potential for law as a deliberate instrument of development, and cultural and social change. This study also reveals how, contrary to popular stereotypes of discriminatory gender ideologies and rigid roles and statuses of women in Muslim cultures, Moroccan gender ideologies and Islamic family laws governing gender and family are not immutable, but are indeed flexible and open to negotiation with international covenants' values of equality and human rights.</p>