On September 8, 2021 elections in Morocco took place. According to Preliminary results Morocco’s moderate Islamist party (Justice and Development Party) suffered major losses. The party held power since 2011. The winners included the National Rally of Independents (with 97 seats of the 395-seat parliament, according to the Interior Ministry), followed by the Authenticity and Modernity Party with 82 seats and the conservative Istiqlal with 78 seats, whereas the Justice and Development Party had only 12 seats.[1]

Women’s issues occupied part of the electoral program of some political parties that are running for the elections.

The Istiqlal Party set within its electoral program a charter for women, which carried a number of commitments, including combating all forms of discrimination against women, and commitment to setting up a special program for the advancement of women in villages.

As for the Justice and Development Party, it pledged to raise women’s representation in the public service and in senior positions and jobs, and to provide mothers with an easy time to work, in addition to its proposal to voluntarily extend maternity leave in the public sector to 9 months.

For its part, the Party of Progress and Socialism announced its pledge to enhance women’s representation in all elected councils in order to move towards parity, and to combat all negative stereotypes about women in society, while firmly confronting all forms of discrimination during employment and in the professional environment.

The program of the Popular Movement Party included promises to enact practical measures in order to achieve financial independence for Moroccan women, preserve the rights of divorced women and children, and work to preserve the rights of women working in the diaspora, especially women working in the fields.[2]

[1] Reuters

[2] Sky News Arabia