The 2011 Constitution: the Moroccan Amazigh Woman’s Empowerment

Abstract

The new millennium has signaled a new phase for Moroccan women’s legal triumph. The 2004 Family Code and the 2011Constitution are until now the main achievements of Moroccan women’s feminist movement. In addition to granting women’s rights, these new Laws have brought a special aspect to women’s cause in Morocco, that of uniting women from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Deriving from a moderate Islamic tradition and recognizing Morocco’s multicultural and multilingual context, such legal resources have paved the way for a particular Moroccan feminism. The latter joins Moroccan women’s diverse cultures and opinions altogether and attempts to construct a collective female identity beyond time and space. More importantly, the institutionalization of the Amazigh language is an official recognition of the cultural specificity of nearly half of the Moroccan population. Building on such unprecedented event, the Amazigh monolingual woman has gained political recognition. Such recognition has brought Amazigh women from the margin to the center and has made their contribution to the rise of feminist consciousness in Morocco more visible than before. This event has revitalized Amazigh women’s oral heroic stories and highlighted their significant role in Moroccan history. As offshoots of this indigenous language revival, Amazigh women’s cultural identity and female political subjectivity have become reinforced and asserted. In the light of these new political and legal vicissitudes, this paper seeks to elucidate the extent to which the institutionalization of the Amazigh language has empowered Moroccan Amazigh women and granted them political and social statuses. Still, the implementation of these new legal triumphs unveils deficiency and ambivalence.