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There have been calls from extremists to kill those
who seek equality rights.
The trial is over, but the debate on equal sharing of inheritance
between women and men is only beginning.
The penal court of Casablanca sentenced Islamist
Sheikh Abou Naim to a month of deferred imprisonment and a 500-dirham fine (50
euros) in February for issuing a fatwa to kill Driss Lachgar, general secretary
of the Socialist Union of the Popular Forces (USFP), and other leftist
activists.
Lachgar had chaired a meeting of party women on Dec.
20 where he called for a revision of inheritance laws so as to establish
equality between men and women.
Sheikh Abou Naim accused Lachgar in a video posted on
YouTube of “godlessness” and “apostasy”, and made a public call to kill him.
The Sheikh called women from the USFP “whores”.
Activists say the sentence passed by the court was
overly lenient. Salah El Wadie, leader of the movement Damir (Consciousness),
said Abou Naim was sentenced for defamation and not for incitement to murder.
Modernist writer Ahmed Assid, described as a “pig” in
Abou Naim’s video, told media the trial had been “a farce”.
The trial is over, but the debate on equal sharing of
inheritance between women and men is only beginning.
Fatima Ait Ouassi, member of the ‘February 20th’
movement to campaign for equal rights, tells IPS that “equal sharing of
inheritance between men and women is now a necessity.”
The February 20th movement arose in 2011
within the Arab Spring. It campaigned successfully to bring in a new
constitution approved by referendum in July of the same year. This new constitution
stipulates equal sharing between men and women.
However, the Islamist cabinet that was formed after
the general election in November 2011 included only two women. A reshuffle in
October 2013 included six women among 39 ministers.
“We do not live any more in the old Arabic society
where Islam appeared and where women lived under the supervision of men,” she
tells IPS. “Now, women work and contribute fully to family assets just like
men, and it is inconceivable to apply inequitable laws when it comes to sharing
family inheritance.”
Lachgar says 19.3 percent of Moroccan women in cities
and 12.3 percent in villages have prime responsibility in taking care of their
families.
Strict application of Muslim law grants to a woman
only half of what a man inherits in case of the death of one of the parents. In
a case of death of the husband, the wife has only one-eighth of the inheritance
“while women work even more than the men,” Samir El Harrouf, a member of the
United Socialist Party (PSU), tells IPS.
The religious conservatives see this as a literal
application of “divine law”.
“Nobody can modify the sacred texts in relation to
inheritance and polygamy,” well-known advocate of Muslim jurisprudence Redouane
Benchekroune told journalists.
But there are other interpretations of the religious
text. “According to the studies that I have made in Muslim jurisprudence, this
is simply a false interpretation of texts,” El Harrouf tells IPS.
He says that what the Quran grants to women in
inheritance is only the minimum that must be respected – nothing forbids that
women be granted more. New studies in jurisprudence show that it is necessary
“to distinguish in religious texts between what is constant and what is
varying,” El Harrouf says.
“What is
constant is matters of faith and worship. On the other hand, other requirements
vary according to the social and historical context, and depend on the specific
conditions of every society and on a particular phase of its historical
development.”
Ait Ouassi agrees. “As we were able to amend the
family code, we have to revise the laws on inheritance which are contradictory
to international agreements on human rights. We must stop immediately all forms
of discrimination against women.”
According to the new family code, polygamy is
forbidden except on authorisation by a court of competence.
Under this family code, polygamy requires the consent
of the first wife and authorisation by a judge. But people manage to bypass the
law by getting married without official papers. Once the new woman is pregnant,
the court is forced to ratify the marriage because the civil rights of the
child come into play.
Modernists are therefore asking for outright outlawing
of polygamy.
The Islamists who now lead the government, and who
were then in the opposition, had opposed the new law and called it “an
incitement to prostitution.”
In the current debate, Islamists too are divided. The Justice and Development Party (PJD) which leads the government, calls the push to equality foreign pressure to alter “the identity of the nation”. On the other hand, Mostafa El Moutassim, leader of the Islamist party Civilisational Alternative, published an article on his Facebook page saying he is willing to open up the question of revision of laws governing the distribution of inheritance.
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