This Research Summary explores how the Moroccan women’s movement, which had been active since the late 1950’s, successfully strengthened women’s rights by demanding the reform of the Moudawana, or Personal Status Code, a legal code governing the roles of men and women within the family.

This achievement was remarkable considering the dominant patriarchal context and the vigorous opposition from the Islamists and religious conservatives, and serves as an inspiring model for legal change in other Muslim-majority countries.