In a bid to bolster women's political participation ahead of the 2026 and 2027 elections, Morocco's Minister of Solidarity, Social Integration and Family, Naïma Ben Yahya, has unveiled a national awareness campaign under the Moucharaka program. As political parties face mounting pressure to champion gender parity, civil society voices decry the persistent "political violence" against women, urging comprehensive reforms to transcend mere symbolic gestures. DR ‹ › This week, the Minister of Solidarity, Social Integration and Family, Naïma Ben Yahya, announced the launch of a national campaign to raise awareness about women's political participation. The initiative aims to strengthen the fight against discrimination and stereotypes in politics and is being rolled out under the Moucharaka program, ahead of the 2026 and 2027 elections. Answering oral questions in the House of Representatives, the minister said the campaign includes training programs for women members of political parties, carried out in coordination with women's sections within those parties. It also involves academic research conducted in partnership with universities, with findings to be published in order to identify avenues for improvement. As elections approach, the issue once again divides opinion. It brings to the fore the uneven political support for women's representation, exposing what civil society groups such as the Movement for Gender Parity describe as «political violence» against women. Speaking to Yabiladi, Khadija Ezzoumi, President of the Istiqlalian Women's Organization and a member of the Istiqlal parliamentary group, said the current minister is «working on a broad scale to build global synergies with international institutions, in order to support women's political representation through meetings and seminars, both for women's structures within parties and for civil society». Reminding political parties of their responsibilities According to the Istiqlal MP, the objective is to ensure that mobilization is «truly inclusive and participatory at all levels», particularly as electoral deadlines approach. This, she says, must be done through a coordinated dynamic under the leadership of the Ministry of Solidarity, Social Integration and Family. However, Khadija Ezzoumi insists that achieving genuine parity also requires political parties to fully assume their responsibilities. «This issue does not concern a minority or a single gender. Women are not a category; they represent half of society. It is therefore imperative to give serious and sustained attention to their political representation», she said. She further argues that parties must be convinced of the need to strengthen women's presence beyond regional lists. «We currently have a regional list of 90 seats, but all parties should also field women candidates in local constituencies. If each party agreed to allocate at least ten local seats to women activists, representation would improve significantly. Relying solely on the regional list is illogical, and even then, parity would not be achieved», she stressed. The issue of local candidacies and their impact on overall representation has also drawn the attention of women activists and civil society organizations. During electoral consultations between the Ministry of the Interior and political parties, Movement for Gender Parity coordinator Khadija Rebbah previously told Yabiladi that proposals to dedicate regional lists to women may appear progressive, but would have limited impact in numerical terms. In November 2025, the debate intensified during a meeting of the Interior Commission in the House of Representatives. In the presence of Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit, women MPs from the parliamentary majority accused their own parties of blocking women's access to local constituencies, effectively silencing demands to allocate one-third of seats to women, 132 seats compared to the current 90 reserved through regional lists. In this context, Khadija Ezzoumi reiterated that progress «cannot happen without internal advocacy». She called on all women's partisan organizations to push within their own parties for meaningful representation in decision-making bodies. «We must go beyond numbers and focus on effective presence, by appointing women based on competence and grassroots engagement», she said. Opposition voices and constitutional limits From the opposition, Nadia Touhami, a member of the political bureau of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) and an MP in its parliamentary group, described women's political participation as «a national priority, not a sectoral policy tied to a particular government». She stressed that it is «a constitutional and societal imperative, given the progress achieved thanks to the contribution of democratic forces». She recalled that regional lists now allocate 90 seats to women, compared to a system that previously reserved only the top three positions. She also highlighted increased public funding for parties that field women candidates in local elections, noting that financial support for parties whose female candidates win local seats has been multiplied sixfold compared to male candidates, up from fivefold previously. In addition, the state now covers up to 75% of campaign costs for candidates under 35. Despite these advances, Touhami believes they remain «below the ambitions enshrined in the 2011 Constitution». While organic laws governing Parliament and local authorities provide openings for women's participation, she argues that these legal tools have yet to translate into sufficient candidacies on the ground. «Our goal is to reach one-third representation for women in Parliament», she said, noting that this demand is central to the PPS memorandum submitted to the Ministry of the Interior on electoral reform. Moving beyond short-term politics Referring to Article 19 of the 2011 Constitution, which establishes equality and parity, Khadija Ezzoumi stressed that a comprehensive effort is still needed. She pointed out that although an organic law creating the Authority for Parity was adopted in 2016, the body remains inactive, with no leadership appointed to date. In her view, progress on parity cannot be reduced to the political orientation of the party leading the government. «Parity must be reflected in party practices, internal dialogue, and genuine engagement with women's organizations», she said, warning against reducing women's participation to symbolic gestures. Nadia Touhami, for her part, argued that parity and equality must be understood within a broader national context shaped by social, cultural, economic, and political factors. «Strengthening women's participation also depends on society's willingness and on political parties demonstrating real commitment», she said, calling for legislative institutions to fully implement constitutional provisions and institutionalize public debate on the issue. Strengthening implementation tools Political scientist and researcher Batoul Daoudi noted that the legislatures following the 2011 constitutional reform were marked by a decline in women's representation in government, alongside a slowdown in the implementation of equality-related laws. She described this period as one where quantitative gains failed to translate into structural influence over political decision-making. According to Daoudi, strengthening the legal framework remains key to moving women's participation beyond short-term political calculations and embedding it as a state policy. She advocates reforming electoral laws to move from quota systems toward explicit parity, introducing mixed candidacy requirements, and enforcing sanctions against parties that fail to comply. She also emphasized the need to combat stereotypes, address political violence within and outside parties, strengthen internal party democracy, and ensure adequate financial support for women candidates. These measures, she argues, are essential to advancing toward the constitutional goal of parity, beyond the current figures of 24.3% female representation in Parliament and 22.6% in government.
