Changing Politics from Below? Women Parliamentarians in Morocco

The issue of political change in an authoritarian state takes different forms, and one central form that it assumes concerns the introduction of women's rights and female politics. In Morocco, one celebrated issue has been the introduction of a 10 per cent quota system in 2002 in the lower chamber, which saw for the first time a significant number of women in the hitherto male-dominated Moroccan parliament. This legal change gives rise to a number of hypotheses about the possibility of political change through increased formal participation by women in politics. This article gives a critical analysis of the way in which women seemed to have been 'empowered', by referring to recent legal changes as well as by presenting the results of a survey that the author conducted with women parliamentarians. Using as an example what is often considered a democratically more advanced Arab country, it thereby illustrates a common feature of pseudo-democratic regimes that incorporate apparently innovative political currents whilst relying on informal mechanisms to prevent real political innovation and associated contestation.